Autocar render shows what a road-going Ford hypercar could look like
American firm returns to top-flight endurance racing with LMDh hypercar for World Endurance Championship
Ford will return to the top echelon of endurance racing in 2027 with a view to winning the fabled 24 Hours of Le Mans for the first time since 1969.
Confirming Autocar’s previous report, Ford said it would develop a hypercar to enter the World Endurance Championship (WEC) in two years’ time.
This marks a change of tack for the American firm: it currently builds a Mustang for the lesser GT3 class and previously ran a GT supercar in the GTE class. The new effort will be Ford’s first shot at an overall win in decades.
Of the two rulesets permitted in the WEC’s top class, Ford will follow LMDh (Le Mans Daytona Hypercar), which comprises a higher proportion of off-the-shelf components than the LMH (Le Mans Hypercar) alternative.
These include prescribed chassis from Dallara, Ligier, Oreca and Multimatic and a rear-axle hybrid system using parts from Bosch, WAE and Xtrac.
Ferrari, Peugeot and Toyota run LMH hypercars and Aston Martin will soon join their ranks with the Valkyrie. Meanwhile, Alpine, BMW, Cadillac and Porsche run LMDh hypercars and will be joined by Genesis next year.
Ford executie chairman Bill Ford said: “When we race, we race to win. And there is no track or race that means more to our history than Le Mans. It is where we took on Ferrari and won in the 1960s. It is where we returned 50 years later and shocked the world and beat Ferrari again. I am thrilled that we’re going back to Le Mans and competing at the highest level of endurance racing.”
Notably, Ford’s return comes at a time when Ferrari has something of a stranglehold over the 24 Hours of Le Mans, having won it with the 499P in 2023 and 2024.
Although it didn’t win the WEC’s manufacturer’s title (that went to Toyota), it’s surely among the favourites to take victory in France again this year.