Saturday 1st February 2025

Ford confirms shock new LMDh Hypercar for 2027

Blue Oval returning to top-tier sportscars with a full factory effort - bring on Ferrari and Le Mans...

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Ford has today confirmed that it will enter the World Endurance Championship from 2027 with a new prototype racer. The new LMDh car - so using a spec chassis from Dallara, Ligier, Multimatic or Oreca - will of course follow in the footsteps of the legendary GT40, plus more recent Mustang GT3 and GT class triumphs. 

Details are pretty thin on the ground for the moment, Ford betting - probably quite rightly - that its return to the upper echelons of sports prototype racing, taking on the best from Ferrari, Aston Martin, Cadillac, Toyota, Porsche and so on, is newsworthy enough for now. We don’t know anything about powerplant, chassis provider or drive lineup - but their ambition, as expected, is clear: ‘Ford Performance will lead the charge with a full factory team entering FIA WEC with the aim of once more taking on the sport’s most demanding race – the 24 Hours of Le Mans.’

It might even be said that ‘taking on’ is a little modest, given Ferrari’s recent victories with the 499P - presumably nothing would be sweeter than beating Maranello at Le Mans again. Bill Ford, the company’s Exec Chair, even mentioned the Prancing Horse in his press comments. So we’re not getting entirely ahead of ourselves - Ford wants to beat Ferrari at La Sarthe all over again.

Certainly it’s great news for the World Endurance Championship, and further validation of the new ruleset, another prominent manufacturer bolstering a busy grid in a couple of seasons’ time. The Championship’s CEO Frédéric Lequien said: “Ford has been synonymous with success both on and off-track for decades, and we are delighted that the company has chosen the FIA World Endurance Championship for its latest challenge. To have at least ten major automotive brands committed to the series’ top-tier in 2027 is testament to the championship’s stellar momentum and growth."

It’s heartening for a good news announcement to be heard from Ford, too, which has had its struggle of late on the road car side, but is doubling down on its motorsport commitment (there was an update too on its return to F1 - see the vid above). Today’s press release suggested that ‘additional details’ will be ‘shared later’; you can bet they won’t hang around, keen to really make the most of the momentum that will build up. 

Bill Ford added: “We are entering a new era for performance and racing at Ford. You can see it from what we’re doing on-road and off-road. When we race, we race to win… I am thrilled that we’re going back to Le Mans and competing at the highest level of endurance racing. We are ready to once again challenge the world, and ‘go like hell!’” Exciting news indeed - more when we have it.

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• Ford unleashes epic, track-only 800hp GT MkIV
• Brand new ‘ultimate’ Mk1 Ford Escort inbound

[HorneyMX5]

We really are living in a golden era of sportscar racing.

[VladD]

We certainly are. I'm still gutted about Lamborghini, but there are going to be so many manufactures taking part. I wonder if they'll have to drop LMP2 from Le Mans in a few years.

[rwindmill]

It will be interesting to see how much engine tech, the new hypercar borrows, from the Red Bull/Ford collaboration that's scheduled to start with the 2026 F1 rule changes.

It also begs the question, will Ford be able to give 100% to both endeavors, especially if they start seeing success in the WEC?

[Pereldh]

Errr well its at least better than its been

[FaustF]

Go on Ford!

Great line up for 2027.

[spikyone]

It's hard to see what Ford will get from this, considering that their road car range is amongst the least interesting on the planet. A lineup of bland SUVs and bland electric SUVs with zero sporting credentials, absurdly named after far more interesting models from their past with which they share zero lineage. Surely nobody is going to associate that garbage with any on-track success?

They'd be better off investing in the thing they actually sell.

[fantheman80]

Its great and all.....but I thought they were skint..!

[MountainsofSussex]

HorneyMX5 said:

We really are living in a golden era of sportscar racing.

Is it really? I struggle to get excited when most of the manufacturers are using pig-ugly spec chassis from Oreca etc then basically fiddling to maximise BoP. If there was a strong incentive for road car based like the Valk I could be more interested. But given that Ferrari, McLaren and Lamborghini all have vaguely suitable road cars yet have chosen to take the spec chassis I'm less bothered.

[Peterpetrole]

MountainsofSussex said:

HorneyMX5 said:

We really are living in a golden era of sportscar racing.

Is it really? I struggle to get excited when most of the manufacturers are using pig-ugly spec chassis from Oreca etc then basically fiddling to maximise BoP. If there was a strong incentive for road car based like the Valk I could be more interested. But given that Ferrari, McLaren and Lamborghini all have vaguely suitable road cars yet have chosen to take the spec chassis I'm less bothered.

That's my view, but I'm not sure much could have been done about it simply due to the march of technology. In the golden era there was a huge amount of innovation and aero done without computers. It's been clear for many years (probably since the early 2000s) what the ideal sports car shape is so we're never going to see modern equivalents of P4s, GT40s, 917s, even 911 GT1s, (etc.) ever being competitive in a manufacturer series.

[virgilio]

MountainsofSussex said:

Is it really? I struggle to get excited when most of the manufacturers are using pig-ugly spec chassis from Oreca etc then basically fiddling to maximise BoP. If there was a strong incentive for road car based like the Valk I could be more interested. But given that Ferrari, McLaren and Lamborghini all have vaguely suitable road cars yet have chosen to take the spec chassis I'm less bothered.

I agree: BoP just ruins it. It looks like a golden era, but underneath the skin it is a non-oval version of nascar.

However, Ferrari is NOT using a spec chassis (it’s not a LMD, but a prototype class car, like the Toyota).

[Don Roque]

Great news! It almost sounds like someone at Ford wants to rescue them from this dead end that they've driven down these last few years.

[-Lummox-]

spikyone said:

It's hard to see what Ford will get from this, considering that their road car range is amongst the least interesting on the planet. A lineup of bland SUVs and bland electric SUVs with zero sporting credentials, absurdly named after far more interesting models from their past with which they share zero lineage. Surely nobody is going to associate that garbage with any on-track success?

They'd be better off investing in the thing they actually sell.

Inclined to agree with this... Ford seem to be steering very sharply away from the working class hero-type cars they used to make (RS and ST models) to which they could infer sporting credentials from something like this project, and leaning heavily into average-performance soft roaders... not sure people who are in the market for a tepid-at-best shopping / school run blob will give two hoots how well Ford's racing cars perform...

[ManyMotors]

Good luck, Ford. Try to build share price too.

[Robvx]

I wonder will it have sand bags already fitted 😀

[The Pistonsdead]

HorneyMX5 said:

We really are living in a golden era of sportscar racing.

We are indeed..

[toobusy]

spikyone said:

It's hard to see what Ford will get from this, considering that their road car range is amongst the least interesting on the planet. A lineup of bland SUVs and bland electric SUVs with zero sporting credentials, absurdly named after far more interesting models from their past with which they share zero lineage. Surely nobody is going to associate that garbage with any on-track success?

They'd be better off investing in the thing they actually sell.

Perhaps they just looked at their range, groaned and wondered what to do to add some “excitement”. Then someone suggested WEC?

[CedricN]

virgilio said:

I agree: BoP just ruins it. It looks like a golden era, but underneath the skin it is a non-oval version of nascar.

However, Ferrari is NOT using a spec chassis (it’s not a LMD, but a prototype class car, like the Toyota).

Agree, i tried to get engaged, but the BOP thats also constantly changing makes the results almost meaningless, and also its really difficult to keep track on how it changes from track to track and why.

[StoutBench]

HorneyMX5 said:

We really are living in a golden era of sportscar racing.

that's definitely been and gone.

[entropy]

Peterpetrole said:

MountainsofSussex said:

HorneyMX5 said:

We really are living in a golden era of sportscar racing.

Is it really? I struggle to get excited when most of the manufacturers are using pig-ugly spec chassis from Oreca etc then basically fiddling to maximise BoP. If there was a strong incentive for road car based like the Valk I could be more interested. But given that Ferrari, McLaren and Lamborghini all have vaguely suitable road cars yet have chosen to take the spec chassis I'm less bothered.

That's my view, but I'm not sure much could have been done about it simply due to the march of technology. In the golden era there was a huge amount of innovation and aero done without computers. It's been clear for many years (probably since the early 2000s) what the ideal sports car shape is so we're never going to see modern equivalents of P4s, GT40s, 917s, even 911 GT1s, (etc.) ever being competitive in a manufacturer series.

All too often we've seen many cycles of boom and bust, manufacturers getting their jollies when the going is good then buggering off when they cite cost.

I think we have a decent compromise of doing something a bit more bespoke but cost more or take a customer chassis and do some aero mods and corporate tweaks.

VladD said:

I wonder if they'll have to drop LMP2 from Le Mans in a few years.

I'd seriously doubt it and there will be hell to pay. If you were an am driver helping to fund a team would you be happy with not having the opportunity to race at LM24? That is

I think the likelihood is the Test Day will revert back to being pre-qualifying for the top class.

[entropy]

spikyone said:

It's hard to see what Ford will get from this, considering that their road car range is amongst the least interesting on the planet. A lineup of bland SUVs and bland electric SUVs with zero sporting credentials, absurdly named after far more interesting models from their past with which they share zero lineage. Surely nobody is going to associate that garbage with any on-track success?

They'd be better off investing in the thing they actually sell.

Brand exposure, PR; Ford vs. Ferrari, Le Mans '66, why not milk it?

Toyota are in NASCAR despite not selling V8 coupes. Brand exposure, PR; made in 'merica, jobs for murricans, stars and stripes and all that good stuff.