Ford vs. Ferrari vs. Corvette: Mustang GT3 racer takes on the world

Posted by Talbot Payne on January 29, 2022

Detroit’s sportscar icons are going to war at Daytona.

Ford announced it will enter a fire-breathing, V-8-powered Mustang GT3 race car to go head-to-head against Corvette in the Rolex 24 Hours of Daytona. The pair will join a who’s who of the supercar universe — Porsche, Lamborghini, Ferrari, Aston Martin — in the 2024 IMSA (International Motor Sports Association) series, the most exciting sportscar championship in decades.

The Ford Mustang GT3 will compete in the 2024 IMSA championship - beginning with the 24 Hours of Daytona.

It is a rare meeting of these V-8-powered legends head-to-head on track with factory backing — and continues the Ford vs. Corvette rivalry kindled last decade when Ford entered its GT supercar in IMSA’s now-defunct GTLM class.

“We’ll be campaigning the Mustang GT3 in the IMSA GT Pro series as a factory effort with two cars for the 2024 season,” said Ford Performance boss Mark Rushbrook in an interview from Daytona Motor Speedway ahead of the company’s announcement. “It’s going to be a Mustang built to the limits of what we can do in terms of engine, aerodynamics, chassis. We’re just so excited about it; you know what Mustang means to our company.”

The Mustang also races against the Chevy Camaro in the NASCAR Cup at the Daytona 500 — but the badges are essentially decals on a spec chassis that has little to do with the production pony cars. By contrast, the IMSA series has attracted such a diversity of manufacturers because it encourages them to show off their signature production technologies.

The GT3 ‘Stang, for example, will be stuffed with a steroid-fed version of the 5.0-liter Coyote V-8 found in the production, $37,000 Mustang GT coupe. The Corvette C8.R racer features the same screaming, dual-overhead-cam engine bound for the 2023 Chevy Corvette Z06.

“I couldn’t be more thrilled than to have Ford join us in the GTD class,” said Corvette Racing brand ambassador Doug Fehan, who pioneered Corvette’s assault on international endurance racing in the late 1990s. “GT is the cornerstone of racing across the globe, and we are entering the richest period of GT racing ever.”

Ford and racing have been intertwined since the early 1900s, when Henry Ford raced to get investor attention for his early car companies.

“We are in racing for the halo that it gives Mustang and Ford, but also — just like we’ve learned so much in the Ford GT program that was transferred to other Ford road cars — we will continue learning on the racetrack to make (our) products better on the street,” Rushbrook said.

He is excited about the ‘Stang and ‘Vette rivalry — but also the chance to run against the world’s best. Rushbrook expects race organizations from North America’s IMSA to Europe’s World Endurance Challenge to soon formally announce that GT classes will run under the same rules worldwide — just as they have done with a hybrid-powered prototype LMDh class that has already attracted performance giants like Cadillac, Porsche, BMW and Audi.

“There are so many different global series,” Rushbrook said. “When they adopt the GT3 rules, then manufacturers and our private customers can race our car in IMSA and SRO in America. It can go race the 12 hours of Bathurst in Australia. It can race the 24 Hours of Nürburgring. It can race all around the world.”

That dovetails with Ford’s strategy to make the sixth-generation Mustang its first truly global offering — sold in 146 countries. Fans will see it run side-by-side against its global peers on track — including France’s 24 Hours of Le Mans, the summit of international endurance racing.

“This is an important part of Mustang and Corvette’s global strategy,” said veteran race watcher Steven Cole Smith, currently contributing editor to Autoweek and Grassroots Motorsports. “It’s one thing for manufacturers to race their cars, but when they can build race cars like the Mustang and Corvette GT3s and sell them to customers, they can also make money at it.”

Multimatic Motorsports, the Canadian specialty manufacturer that built the 2016, Le Mans-winning Ford GT, will engineer the Mustang GT3. Multimatic engineered a lesser, Mustang GT4 class car that will be competing in Daytona this weekend in IMSA’s Michelin Pilot Challenge.

Rushbrook said the Mustang GT3 will use a similar chassis and engine to the GT4 car, but will turn up the wick with 100-plus more horsepower, more advanced aerodynamics, more track width.

“We really liked the way the global racing bodies have created a ladder of classes to give us two different Mustangs to offer for sale to customer racers,” Rushbrook said.

Interestingly, Ford Performance chose not to use the supercharged, 5.2-liter, 760-horsepower V-8 in its current showroom halo, the Mustang GT500.

“The rules allow you to use any engine from a Ford vehicle. In this case, we believe a naturally-aspirated V-8 engine is the best engine,” the Ford Performance chief said. “You don’t want the complexity or weight of a turbocharger or supercharger.”

A mid-engine Corvette — or Ferrari, for that matter — is inherently superior to a front-engine Mustang. So GT3 rules allow for so called BOP (Balance of Performance) that levels the playing field by regulating power and weight.

While the Ford brand has ditched its sedan lineup for SUVs, it has elevated its “icons” — the Mustang coupe, F-150 pickup, Bronco SUV. All three models compete in racing: the F-150 Raptor in the Baja 1000, the Bronco Raptor in King of the Hammers, and Mustang in NASCAR, GT4 and GT3 racing.

Like the company’s founder, Ford’s current CEO is a talented driver. When he’s not signing checks for Ford to go racing, Jim Farley is on track in his own Lola T298 vintage racer.

Might the 59-year-old CEO get a crack at the Daytona 24 Hour in the Mustang GT3?

“He would love to and would probably do a pretty good job,” laughed Rushbrook. “He’s a racer for sure.”

But for now, Ford is sticking with Le Mans-winning hot shoe Joey Hand as the Mustang GT3’s development driver.

Henry Payne is auto critic for The Detroit News. Find him at hpayne@detroitnews.com or Twitter @HenryEPayne.

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