Ford GT Race Car Reportedly Testing For Le Mans Debut
By Paulo Acoba
The year was 1969 and it was the last year that the legendary GT40 raced at Le Mans, beating the Porsche prototypes by mere seconds. Nearly 46 years later, it looks like there are rumblings in the rumor mill based on fact that Ford’s all new Ford GT will rise again and compete at the infamous Le Mans Race.
The new Ford GT revs onto the stage of Auto China 2015 in Shanghai.
According to Motorsport.com, an initial test already took place earlier last Saturday (May 16,2015) at Calabogie Motorsports Park in Ontario, Canada. The car was driven by Scott Maxwell, a Canadian Racecar driver for Multimatic Motorsport, the tuning arm behind the whole Ford GT Project.
The LeMans 24 hours will be contested next month and it looks like the all new Ford GT will indeed make an appearance.
Under it’s flying buttresses will of course be Ford’s EcoBoost 3.5 Liter V6 (twin turbocharged) and tuned by Roush Yates.
If there’s one man to thank for this American revival, it would be MultiMatic’s team principal Larry Holt seen in the video below (fast forward to 6:20.) Supposedly Holt has spent years wheeling and dealing behind the scenes using his charm over at Ford to lobby with management to get the car and the Le Mans racecar ready for showtime.
Playing second fiddle to Holt would be his design team based out in Cambridgeshire, England with the majority of the mechanical design happening across the pond.
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What most Ford fanatics and Americans will want to know is if the Ford GT will race a full campaign for the remainder of the year and will they look for any significant victories right off the bat? If anyone remembers the original history of the first Ford GT’s foray into racing, it took a good two year of analog testing and hardcore driving to earn Ford’s first victory in Le Mans.
Will we see an appearence of the Ford GT come June 13? Very likely given all this evidence of testing and spy shots. But wether or not Ford plans to race the whole 24 hours or simply run an exhibition type race remains to be seen.
Nevertheless, Ford will be returning to that hallowed French racing ground of the Circuit de la Sarthe once again. It would be extra sweet if their plans are to podium.
Check out the official promo below!
H/T – Motorsport.com