Ford Not Ruling Out Early Race Debut for New Mustang GT4

Photo: Wes Duenkel/Ford

Ford has not ruled out an end-of-year race debut for its new Mustang GT4 according to Ford Performance global motorsports director Mark Rushbrook, who indicated that a test race could be in the cards ahead of a full customer rollout by early 2024.

The Detroit manufacturer, which presented the Mustang Dark Horse-based car at last month’s CrowdStrike 24 Hours of Spa, is expecting to have a large number of cars available next year.

While not drawn on an exact number during the car’s launch, Rushbrook indicated to Sportscar365 in January that Multimatic plans to produce between 30-50 units across the initial production cycle.

“It will be homologated before the end of the year and we’ll get a lot of these [cars] out there,” Rushbrook told Sportscar365.

“These are a lot easier and faster to build than the GT3. So we’ll have a lot of these racing in 2024. But we don’t have a firm target.”

When asked about the prospects of an early race debut for the car, Rushbrook wouldn’t be drawn on specific details.

“The plan is Daytona but I would not rule out earlier,” he said. “If there’s an opportunity, why not? But our plan is Daytona.”

It’s unclear if Multimatic would look to enter the car in an end-of-season race in North America or Europe, which could hinge on the car’s homologation from SRO Motorsports Group.

“There’s a lot of opportunities,” Rushbrook said.

The GT4 car, powered by a 5.0-liter Coyote V8 that’s developed and assembled in-house by Ford in Dearborn, Mich., will be made available to a larger number of customers than the initial Mustang GT3 rollout.

While Ford will be hand-picking GT3 customers for the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship, FIA World Endurance Championship and Fanatec GT World Challenges in Europe and America for 2024, Rushbrook said the GT4 model will have a wider global reach.

“It’s strictly up to the customers,” Rushbrook said on where the Mustang GT4 will race in 2024.

“We’re a family company so partners and teams that have been racing our current Mustang GT4, we’re certainly going to try to get them some of the early ones so they can continue or make that transition.”

Rushbrook said there are a number of common parts between the two Mustang race cars that will lead to synergies for both Ford Performance and Multimatic.

“The safety cage,” he said as an example. “You’ve got to meet the same requirements and the ability to do that at the same time. That’s exactly the same [as the GT3],

“The Motec dash, the Bosch systems. The ability to work with them and use the same system, the same controllers.

“Obviously the calibration is different between the two cars but it’s efficient for us to have our engineers working on both cars to use the same systems, and also for support.

“Once these products are out there, it makes it easier for us to support them as well.”

John Dagys

John Dagys is the founder and Editor-in-Chief of Sportscar365. Dagys spent eight years as a motorsports correspondent for FOXSports.com and SPEED Channel and has contributed to numerous other motorsports publications worldwide. Contact John