WEC: Ford will build its own hypercar by 2027

      Ford Motor Company returns to the most prestigious category of endurance racing to fight for the title in the WEC and victory at Le Mans. Last night at the presentation held in North Carolina to mark the start of the season, Ford Performance, the racing division of the American corporation, announced a program to create a sports prototype class LMDh, which should debut in the WEC in 2027.

      However, so far it was announced only about the intention in general, but the details of the project are not quite clear, in particular, at the presentation was not even mentioned whether Ford hypercars will participate in the races of the American series IMSA SportsCar Championship. In any case, this will be the first attempt in more than forty years Ford to create its own prototype for the most powerful category of endurance racing. The previous time was in 1982, when five cars were built, called the Ford C-100 and powered by Cosworth DFL V8 engines. Those sports prototypes were quite fast, but unreliable, in particular, to the finish line at Le Mans racers, who performed on them, did not get to the finish line once, and the factory program in a couple of years folded. But in the earlier period, from 1966 to 1969, the legendary Ford GT40 cars won four times at Le Mans, and in 2016 there was a triumphant return of the "blue oval" to the top step of the podium. That was in the LMGTE Pro class when Ford Chip Ganassi Team USA won the marathon in a Ford GT sportscar. And now the American corporation wants to compete for the overall title again. "We're starting a new era in racing," said Bill Ford, president of the company. - And when we race, we do it to win. And there is no race more important to our history than Le Mans. It's where we challenged Ferrari in the '60s and won. It's where we returned 50 years later and shocked the world when we defeated Ferrari again (in 2016). I'm delighted that we're now returning to Le Mans to compete in endurance racing at the highest level. Once again, we are ready to challenge the world!" Thus, in 2027, Ford will become the tenth automaker whose team will compete in the WEC in the LMDh category, joining Alpine, Aston Martin, BMW, Cadillac, Ferrari, Peugeot, Porsche, Toyota and Genesis/Hyundai.