Inside Multimatic’s Ford Mustang GT3 Production Facility

Photo: Ford

While it takes a global effort to create any modern-day race car, the all-new Ford Mustang GT3 rings true to its roots in being built and assembled in America, with longtime partner Multimatic spearheading the production phase in Mooresville, N.C.

The 20,000-square-foot facility, which formerly housed the Roush Yates engine development for sports car racing projects such as the 24 Hours of Le Mans-winning Ford GT, has become a hive of activity in recent months as Multimatic ramps up the build of customer Mustang GT3s for global competition.

However as Larry Holt, Multimatic’s Special Vehicle Operations Executive Vice President, explained, the company’s new dedicated Mustang GT3 facility, which also houses the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship factory GTD Pro race team, holds a storied past from other championship-winning programs.

“When the [Ford] GT ended and a couple of other things happened, Doug Yates ramped that place down a bit, and as a favor, we were needing space as we had the Mazda program,” Holt told Sportscar365.

“Initially we were renting space off Doug for the Mazda, then we picked up the AMG parts business and were in there co-existing with Roush Yates.

“When the Ford deal kicked off, we looked at it all, and we’ve got GT4, Bronco DR, Ford GT Mk IV, and GT3.

“The shop in Toronto is quite big but in the end we simultaneously got the design, development, engineering and build of the GT3 car and the job to run it.

“You want to build them and race them. Me and Charlie Cadieux, who’s the team principal, we worked out that building would be the [perfect size] to build the cars for customers and run a race program.

“I wanted to do those things together because those guys who run them and build them, it’s a perfect deal. We took the whole shop.”

Photo: Ford

The Mustang GT3 starts life at Ford’s iconic Mustang assembly plant in Flat Rock, Mich., where a production chassis is taken off the line before going to Watson Racing in Brownstown, Mich. for modifications.

Multimatic is then tasked with transforming the chassis into FIA GT3-compliant race car, which involves building the rollcage and the complete assembly of all components, including installation the 5.4-liter Coyote-based V8 engine, which is tuned by M-Sport in the UK.

While the GTE-spec Ford GTs, also built by Multimatic, were assembled at the firm’s headquarters in Markham, Ontario, Canada, the large-scale production plans for the Mustang GT3 necessitated a dedicated facility.

“With the GT program we knew it would only be factory cars and there would only be a handful of cars built,” explained Ford Performance global motorsports director Mark Rushbrook.

“Given what we expect to sell with the GT3 program and knowing that we’d build a lot more cars, sell a lot more cars, sell a lot more parts, service cars, we agreed very early on we would need a dedicated facility.

“Mooresville is a great location for us, especially with our tech center there, with our NASCAR teams there and the Ford Performance Racing School, there’s just a lot of resources there.

“It worked well for Multimatic. It’s the building they had raced the Mazda cars out of before.

“It made a lot of sense. The building had to be re-purposed because to build cars, race cars and service cars, it’s different than what they were doing with the Mazda program.

“It’s very different inside today than it was a year or two years ago.”

Photo: Ford

The first Mustang GT3 race cars, which competed in the Rolex 24, were built in October, with the focus now turned to production for its growing base of customer teams worldwide.

Rushbrook said the facility has the capability of producing two cars per month, with demand likely to exceed more than 20 cars in the first two years.

“We can only do things like this with great partners and great people,” he said.

“I’ve been in motorsports at Ford for ten years and I know there’s a lot of history before me between Ford and Multimatic, but for these ten years while I’ve been here, I’ve only seen it grow.

“As Larry and I have worked together on all these different programs, we just get stronger.

“It’s always been a lot of trust there and it just seems to grow stronger and stronger every program that we do together.

“That’s important for the longevity, to have that basis and reliance and commitment to each other.”

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