GT3 Mustang Production Increased to Meet 'Very High' Demand

[JGillis]

Ford, Multimatic Ramping Up Production of Mustang GT3
John Dagys

January 23, 2024

Photo: Jake Galstad/IMSA

Ford Performance and its partner Multimatic are ramping up production of the Mustang GT3, with Ford Performance global motorsports boss Mark Rushbrook stating that interest levels remain “very high” from prospective customers around the world.

A trio of Mustang GT3s will be giving the Multimatic-built car its competition debut in this weekend’s Rolex 24 at Daytona, featuring the two factory-run entries in GTD Pro as well as a customer GTD effort from Proton Competition.

Rushbrook confirmed that Proton, which will campaign two cars in the LMGT3 class of the FIA World Endurance Championship in addition to the single-car IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship entry, as well as Fanatec GT World Challenge Europe powered by AWS squad Dinamic GT, will be the only two customer teams that will have cars for full season programs this year.

“There will be a lot of other people that will receive cars that will race them this year but not full season efforts,” he told Sportscar365.

“With our late homologation date, we were limited on the number of cars we could build because you don’t want to risk too much and build too many cars too early and find out you have an issue.

“We’re limited on the number of cars that are built in time to support a full 2024 season.

“But we are ramped up to build two a month. We will keep building to demand and I think we’re going to be busy for quite some time to meet that demand.”

When asked if they expect to quickly meet the FIA’s requirement of producing 20 cars in the car’s first two years of homologation, Rushbrook said: “We will definitely meet that, no question. The interest level remains very high.”

Larry Holt, the Vice President of Multimatic’s Special Vehicle Operations, explained to Sportscar365 that the homologation of the car was pushed back from mid-June to mid-October last year due to a “minor” issue that turned out to be a “nothing” problem.

It thus resulted in a slight delay in the build of chassis at Multimatic’s Mooresville, N.C. production and race facility.

Holt explained that Chassis 4 and 5, which are the Ford Multimatic Motorsports GTD Pro race cars in the WeatherTech Championship, started build in October, with customer cars currently under construction ahead of the WEC and Fanatec GT Europe seasons.

“The problem is that nobody wants a car after the first race of a series that has started,” Holt told Sportscar365.

“We’re probably going to have 8-9 customer cars before that happens and then I expect to have to wait until [the fall] to sell [more]. But we are up there in 15-16 making the commitment to do that because we have enough people saying they want the cars.”

Holt said they currently have between 45-50 “serious” inquiries for the Mustang GT3.

“I don’t think I’m at risk building 16-20 cars,” he added. “Our business plan is to sell 30 [in the first two years]. Ford and I said 30. It will be more than that, maybe 40-45 cars, because there’s that many people that want them.”

Ford hasn’t earmarked a specific series they’d like to see the Mustang GT3 in next, although Rushbrook expressed his desire of having the car compete in the iconic GT3 races such as the Nürburgring 24 and Repco Bathurst 12 Hour.

“We want these cars racing all around the world,” he said. “Yes, definitely Bathurst, but there’s [also] a full series in Australia. We want cars participating in that series.

“We want cars participating in GT World Challenge in Europe, in Asia, Nürburgring [24] is [also] a big one.

“That’s what we love about Mustang, the fact that we’ve got it at such a great road car as the best-selling sports car in the world.

“Since we sell it all over the world, we want to also race all over the world.”

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[Skye]

Ford reported earnings yesterday. The information distributed to the press was overall expected, with some parts promising, others concerning. Ford publishes slideshows to support their earnings calls. If you want to review highlights, you can Google for that.

Within their recent slide deck, one slide displayed the GT3. I pulled that slide and converted it to a JPEG. Something maybe for a desktop background or screensaver.