Ford Performance today announced that it will collaborate with Multimatic and M-Sport to create a new Mustang race car that can compete in global GT3 events.

“Mustang was born to race from the start and we’re thrilled to introduce the GT3 version to compete head-to-head against some of the greatest manufacturers in the world,” said Mark Rushbrook, Ford Performance Motorsports global director. “With 58 years of global endurance racing heritage, including NASCAR and Australian Supercars today, we are ready to take Mustang to the next level of global performance.”

The race car will be powered by a naturally aspirated 5.0-liter Coyote-based V8 engine that was developed by Ford Performance and will be built by the U.K.’s M-Sport. The team collaborated with Ford on the construction of the Puma Hybrid Rally1, which recently finished first, third, and fifth at the 2022 Monte Carlo Rally.

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“We are delighted to be broadening our relationship with Ford and extending it into the racing world after a very successful 25 years together in the World Rally Championship,” said Malcolm Wilson, owner of M-Sport. “M-Sport has a wealth and depth of circuit racing knowledge and expertise, particularly from our GT3 program that used an M-Sport developed V8 engine for GT3 that powered us to victory in the 2020 Bathurst 12-hour race and 2019 1000km of Paul Ricard.”

Elsewhere, the race car will sit on bespoke Short-Long Arm suspension front and rear, will have a rear-mounted transaxle gearbox, carbon fiber body panels, and will get a unique aero package developed to meet GT3 targets. The car will be built by Multimatic Special Vehicle Operations.

“Multimatic Motorsports is the perfect partner on this project for us,” said Rushbrook. “Not only have they worked with us to develop numerous customer Mustang programs in the past, but its work on the Ford GT program and the new Bronco DR customer race programs has shown together we can provide championship-level race programs for Ford and its customers.”

Joey Hand, one of the drivers of the Ford GT that won the 2016 Le Mans 24 Hours GTE Pro class, will be one of the new Mustang GT3’s test drivers.

Ford will race a factory-backed Mustang GT3 car that it says will be ready for the 2024 running of the Rolex 24 Daytona event. It will also produce customer-ready examples for teams, which will be ready for the start of the 2024 racing season.

In addition, Ford announced today that it will develop an updated version of its successful Mustang GT4 customer race car that’s expected to make its debut in 2023.

“It’s important to us to continue to support the Mustang GT4 effort as well,” said Rushbrook. “We’ve had a lot of success both here and in Europe with the current Mustang GT4, and we look forward to being able to provide our customers with a brand new car for competition in the GT4 category starting next season. We’ll have more to say on that in the near future.”