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Le Mans preview: Motown brands descend on France for endurance race shootout
Posted by Talbot Payne on June 12, 2025
Le Mans, France — June 6 was D-Day. June 14 will be V-8 Day.
Some of Motown’s most renowned performance brands will descend on central France this weekend, June 14-15, with an army of V8-powered machines in an attempt to win the world’s most prestigious endurance race, the 24 Hours of Le Mans.
Leading the pack will be Cadillac with a quartet of V-Series.R Hypercars competing in the globe’s fastest sportscar class. Team Penske will bring a triple threat of turbocharged V-8 Porsche 963 Hypercars as its Bloomfield Hills-based company’s chairman, Roger Penske, seeks to win his first Le Mans — and add to Porsche’s record 19 wins at the Circuit de la Sarthe.
Following up its eye-opening 3rd and 4th place finish in its Le Mans LMGT3 class debut last year, Ford’s Mustang will be back with a trio of LMGT3 racers with an eye on taking the top step of the podium. And Corvette thunder will be heard around the 8.5-mile course for the 25th consecutive year as Chevy attempts to add to its nine Le Mans GT3 class wins.
Michele Scudiero, Cadillac
But wait, there’s more.
Ford is bringing its Mustang Challenge series to Le Mans from Thursday to Saturday as a support race to the main 24-hour event. The stampede of 40, race-prepared Mustang Dark Horse Rs will be piloted by pro drivers (Tanner Foust), celebrities (ex-“Malcolm in the Middle” actor-turned-pro racer Frankie Muniz) and even Ford CEO Jim Farley, an accomplished racer. Ford also has ambitions to join the Le Mans front-running prototype class in 2027 and will have news about its racing partner on Friday. Ford last competed in the top Le Mans class in the 1960s, when it won four straight Le Mans from 1966-1969 — inspiring the Oscar-winning movie “Ford v Ferrari.”
There will be plenty of eye candy off track as well. Cadillac’s bid for Le Mans glory dovetails with its entry into the European market as an all-electric brand with showrooms popping up across the continent. Caddy will have a display of its Lyriq and Optiq EVs for fans to peruse at The Village area just outside the pits.
Cadillac, Cadillac
Like the Indy 500 stateside, the 24 Hours of Le Mans is more than a race. It is a weeklong celebration of motorsports with over 325,000 fans descending on this small city (population 145,000) along with representatives from major international automakers. From June 7-13, activities include a public scrutineering of entries, track test days, and a sort of exotic car Dream Cruise through central city streets.
Come Saturday at 4 p.m. local time (10 a.m. in Detroit), another 100 million-plus viewers in 196 countries around the world will tune in to watch 62 entries across three classes — Hypercar, LMP2 prototypes and LMGT3 — slug it out for victory.
The field includes 21 Hypercars, hybrid-powered cyborgs with nearly 700 horsepower that top 200 mph for extended periods each lap.
The entry list is a who’s who of global performance icons. The Motor City contingent will take on competitors including Ferrari, Aston Martin, BMW, Peugeot, Porsche, Toyota, Lexus, Mercedes-AMG and McLaren.
Porsche
Ferrari has dominated the Hypercar class the last two years with Toyota close behind, but Cadillac put on a formidable effort in 2024. The #3 Cadillac Hypercar (one of three entries) qualified on the front row and led 61 of 311 laps in often appalling, wet-weather conditions. IndyCar ace Alex Palou, driving for Cadillac’s Chip Ganassi Racing team, did yeoman’s work before pit strategy shuffled the car back to 7th at the end.
Ganassi Racing signed a contract with Acura this year to race in North America, so Cadillac has new partners for Le Mans with U.S.-based Wayne Taylor Racing and Whelan Racing crossing the pond with entries from the IMSA Weathertech SportsCar Series. Europe-based Team JOTA brings two more Caddies.
“Really cool to have our first session here at Le Mans behind us,” said American fan favorite Ricky Taylor, who will race the #101 Cadillac in a family affair — co-driving with his brother, Jordan, on a team owned by their father, Wayne. “We are just focused on getting laps and trying to get some experience here and then we will build as we get closer to the race.”
Penske’s Porsche team also showed impressive form in ‘24, qualifying a car on pole next to Cadillac. The highest team finisher was 4th. Porsche Penske 963s have dominated the IMSA Hypercar class so far this year, winning four of the first six races. The IMSA series-leading team of Felipe Nasr/Nick Tandy will pilot the #4 car alongside two Europe-based Penske Porsches.
Chevrolet, Chevrolet
“For the first time, we’ve prepped all three Porsche 963s at our facility in Mannheim (Porsche Penske European headquarters) — a big milestone,” said Jonathan Diuguid, managing director for Porsche Penske Motorsport. “We’re better prepared than ever before. The 963 is extremely reliable, the team is in perfect sync and our driver lineup is world-class.”
On Sunday’s test day, Toyota paced the field, but expectations are for a tight race.
Ford and Chevrolet have invested heavily in the GT3 class, offering production vehicles in racing trim that customers around the world can enter in international racing series. Mustang and Corvette teams will go head-to-head with GT3 racers from manufacturers including Aston Martin, BMW, Ferrari, Lexus, Mercedes-AMG, McLaren and Porsche.
Porsche and BMW beat Ford to the checkered flag in 2024, but Ford has continued to improve in only its second season in class. Two weekends ago in Detroit, it won IMSA’s comparable GT3 class with a strong run, its V-8 power proving formidable on Detroit’s long 3/4-mile straightaway — an advantage that should translate to Le Mans’ famed 3.7-mile Mulsanne straight (interrupted by two chicanes) where cars really stretch their legs.
Drew Gibson Photography, Cadillac
Chevrolet has sold 17 Corvette C8.R race cars to private customers and three of them will be in the fray, entered by AWA Racing (two) and TF Sport (one). AWA won the GTD class at the 24 Hours of Daytona in January.
“Our program goal in 2025 was to continue the development and fine-tuning of the Corvette in order to provide our teams with a fast and reliable car that would enable them to compete for race wins and championships,” said Mark Stielow, GM Motorsports competition programs director.
Detroit automakers have been coming to Le Mans for decades, including efforts by Cadillac in the 1950s and Ford’s historic streak in the late 1960s. But the French event has never seen such a sustained period of Detroit involvement as the last three years, with automakers jockeying for engineering prestige, market penetration and brand identity.
Cadillac, for example, uses the V badge that adorns its V8-powered Hypercars to distinguish the performance V-Series versions of, for example, the 519-horsepower electric 2026 Optiq-V crossover that was just introduced this week. Should Cadillac claim Sunday’s prize, expect to see the Optiq-V waving the American flag in the Paris showroom.
Henry Payne is auto critic for The Detroit News. Find him at hpayne@detroitnews.com or @HenryEPayne.