Ford has yet to confirm or deny any of its future sports-car racing plans, yet some recent indicators could point to an intriguing direction from the manufacturer.

As we chronicled in July, a GTE-spec Mustang project was considered but then nixed, and a return to Le Mans with P2 engines was also on the table. Ford Racing boss Jamie Allison expressed a favorable opinion regarding a global and domestic P2 engine supply on Monday, and behind the scenes, a number of interesting developments have been progressing.

The other program that was being considered appears to now be in play, as multiple sources have reported Ford’s factory GT program for Le Mans is indeed accelerating towards a debut in 2016—the 50th anniversary of the brand’s victory at Le Mans with the Ford GT40 Mk II.

Recent meetings between GTE constructors on 2016 rules, as witnessed at Circuit of The Americas, have included a representative affiliated with Ford, and based on additional feedback, a launch of the Ford GT 24 Hours of Le Mans project would coincide with the introduction of the successor to the Ford GT, which ceased production in 2007.

You read that correctly: It seems Ford may have far bigger Le Mans plans than anyone realized, and those plans include a new Ford GT.

Allison was asked if a Ford GT LM24 project was indeed in the pipeline, and he offered the following response:

“Our focus right now is, obviously, finishing the season on a high note at Petit Le Mans,” he said. “Our focus is also working with our partners. I do look forward into a future of some of the classes in the sport, including the P2 we just talked about. We really have our near-term lenses on our participating in the sport and that’s really the scope that we are focused on.

“Anything beyond that would be strictly endeavoring into… just propagating something that is not within the scope of what we focus on. In our realm and in the world of sports-car racing, [we’re] really focused on our EcoBoost-powered DP and focusing on the season here as it comes to an exciting end at Petit Le Mans.”

Translation: "No way I'm providing anything remotely resembling a straight answer on that at this time."

Here's the thing, Allison could have just said, "No." But he didn't.

The last major question involves manufacturing and who'll run the program. Canada’s Multimatic is reportedly queued up to produce the GTE cars, and with strong ties between Ford, Chip Ganassi Racing, and Michael Shank Racing, the Blue Oval has excellent in-house options to spearhead the project.

As for the Earth-shaking probability that a new Ford GT production car is tied to all this, a likely time and place for the announcement of the grand plan would be the 2015 Detroit Auto Show. That's three months away. Things seem ready to get a LOT more interesting, folks.

Ford won the 24 Hours of Le Mans four consecutive years from 1966 to 1969, easily the greatest accomplishment the automaker achieved in sports-car racing. Now it looks like the Blue Oval may be headed back to the fabled endurance race.

Ford has yet to make a formal confirmation—its racing PR director can "neither confirm nor deny" the rumor, which is essentially flack-speak for, "Stay tuned for the official announcement, because I would have flatly denied this if it was BS."

Ford wouldn't compete in the top-tier P1 class against Porsche, Audi, and Toyota. That requires space-program money and development of bleeding-edge hybrid tech in order to be competitive. Instead, look for a more likely P2 effort powered by an EcoBoost V6 like the one already used in the TUDOR United SportsCar Championship Daytona Prototype class. According to RACER, the teams most likely to spearhead the effort are Ganassi Racing (below), Michael Shank Racing (top), or both. They already run Ford-powered DPs, so the prospective P2 program is a natural next step. It's not outlandish when you consider the changes coming to the TUDOR series over the next few years.

Marshall says that a North American-built chassis would likely be sourced, and he mentions Canada's Multimatic by name. Multimatic builds Mazda's TUDOR P2 Coupe (shown below). Whatever happens, don't expect an immediate turnaround—you won't see Ford-powered prototypes dicing with the Hondas and Nissans next June. 2017 is realistic expectation, because that's when TUDOR USCC teams will move to a new FIA WEC-compliant enclosed prototype chassis that replaces the existing DP and P2 cars. It's also worth noting that 2016 would hold some significance, too—that's the 50th anniversary of Ford's first overall win with the GT40.

That means teams like Shank and Ganassi will presumably have Le Mans-ready cars in their stables already, and could utilize that TUDOR USCC season to dial them in ahead of the spectacle in France.

While Ford's apparently imminent return to Le Mans is exciting to ponder, Marshall also reports that a proposal to field GTE-class Ford Mustangs, campaigned by Dan Gurney's All American Racers in honor of the pony car's 50th anniversary, was ultimately vetoed by Ford. The Mustang racing against Corvette, Porsche, Ferrari and Aston Martin in the top GT class would have been fantastic, and it makes abundant sense given that it's now a global-market vehicle, but it's apparently not gonna happen.

Ford dominated the 24 Hours of Le Mans from 1966 to 1969, scoring four consecutive wins. Wouldn't it be great if the Blue Oval could go back to France for the 50th anniversary of that performance and show it can still compete in international endurance racing? Actually, the latest rumors indicate that could be exactly the case, and the car taking that checkered flag could be another revival of the Ford GT.

As the rumblings go, Ford wants to use a new supercar to take another crack at Le Mans, after considering some other possible alternatives. Substantiating these musings are reports that a Blue Oval rep was reportedly on hand for a recent meeting about 2016 GTE-Class rules, according to Road and Track. That would put the new GT in the same racing class as the Corvette, Ferrari 458 Italia, Porsche 911 and others.

It's not all about racing, though. If you win on Sunday, you want something to be able to sell on Monday. The revived GT is reportedly still a mid-engine supercar, but the exact engine is unclear. It's possible that it could even be shown or announced at the Detroit auto show in January, according to Motor Trend.

Unfortunately, everything about the project is just a rumor for now, and obviously Ford isn't saying anything official. But it's still a lot to be excited about. After all, the previous Ford GT is one of the most exciting vehicles of the 2000s, and the original GT40 is a racing icon.

Bob Lutz is not the only one who is “often wrong, never in doubt”. When I penned my Ford GT editorial, I had a pretty sound case for believing that the latest reports of a successor to Ford’s supercar were little more than clickbait. By usually reliable sources inside the Blue Oval seemed to concur. And then I got a phone call from someone who is placed highly enough to know.


It turns out that our sources didn’t initially see any indication of a new GT program because it’s not being done through the usual channels. It will be a *very* limited product car, of around 300 units, and built by a third-party like Multimatic. Power will come from a 3.5L Ecoboost, to maintain a connection with Ford’s sports car racing program. The car will be priced as you’d expect a limited-production 300-unit halo car to be priced.

Source: http://www.thetruthaboutcars.com/201...g-new-ford-gt/

Anticipation for all of the exciting reveals at the 2015 Detroit Auto Show just a few weeks away is building to a fever pitch, and rumors are mounting that Ford has a big surprise in store in the shape of a future performance halo model.

Insider sources speaking to Autoweek claim the next Ford supercar is definitely going to be revealed at the Detroit show in early January. However, the model is not necessarily the next-generation Ford GT in terms of its name or design aesthetic. Instead, one of these people indicates that the new halo model might drop retro styling altogether.

If the latest reports are to be believed, Ford's high-performance project goes beyond something to just grab headlines and rocket down the street. According to Autoweek, the automaker is also reportedly employing Chip Ganassi Racing to run a two-car racing effort in the Tudor United SportsCar Championship in 2016. That would allegedly include a trip to the 24 Hours of Le Mans to race on the 50th anniversary of the Ford GT40's win in 1966. The speculation goes that at least the racing version might use a twin-turbo EcoBoost V6 for power. However, the motorsports part of the program may not be announced during the auto show reveal.

Rumors about the new halo car from the Blue Oval and its racing intentions have been percolating for months. The company might have considered an LMP2 entry, but speculation popped up later about the production supercar. A more recent report suggested that Ford might show a new Shelby GT350R Mustang, a successor to the F-150 Raptor and next Ford GT in Detroit.