V8s have been on Ford’s mind a lot lately. The CEO of the company, Jim Farley, recently said that he would love to be the “only one” in the world to offer an affordable V8 sports car. Based on what Dodge and Chevy have done lately, it looks like he may get what he wants. During the same interview, Farley said that the Mustang’s V8 engine is what makes it possible to race on almost every continent every weekend. Will Ford race a Mustang that doesn’t have a V8 engine? The Invoice pricing team talked to Jim Owens, brand manager for the Ford Mustang GTD. Owens said, “We raced the EcoBoost in the [Ford] GT, but from a Mustang point of view, we’re focusing on what we have now—GT3, GT4, Dark Horse R—only V8s.” This past weekend, Owens and I had a chance to talk during the Rolex 24 in Daytona. The Ford Mustang GT3 raced for the first time in the GT Daytona and GT Daytona Pro classes. The NASCAR Cup Series Dark Horse, which is another V8 Mustang driver, will be at its first Daytona 500 in a few weeks. Even though EcoBoost-powered Mustangs have done well in other types of racing, like time attack and sliding, Ford has yet to make plans to bring its turbo-four engine to road racing. Ford could join the IMSA with a Mustang EcoBoost if it wanted to. You can use any amount of cylinders or type of aspiration you want as long as it is used to make things for the manufacturer. The 2.3-liter turbocharged four-cylinder engine has been a good one on its own. But in these areas, Ferrari, Porsche, BMW, Aston Martin, and, most likely, Chevrolet all give the Blue Oval a lot of competition. Besides power output, you should also think about how long it will last. In simple terms, the V8 makes the most sense. The goal of this new wave of racing V8 Mustangs is to get fans excited again. After Dodge stopped making the Charger and Challenger as we know them and Chevy stopped making the sixth-generation Camaro, Ford is pretty much the only choice left for people who want traditional domestic speed. It knows this and keeps flooding the market with production models that look a lot like race cars. You may remember that Ford just announced the Mustang GTD, which is being made in the same style as the Mustang GT and Dark Horse. At $300,000, it’s the most extreme Mustang that has ever been sold to the public, which is fair. The 5.2-liter V8 engine makes 800 horsepower when a big blower is added on top of it. Since Owens is in charge of Ford’s brand and has worked for the company for almost 30 years, he knows a lot about what, The Mustang has been Ford’s most racing car since it first came out in 1901. Racing genes are in it, and it fights on five continents at the same time. The Mustang does well in international races, and for the past two years, it has been the best-selling sports car. Not because I wouldn’t say I like progress in powertrain technology, but because this might be the last version of Mustangs, I hope Ford stays with V8s for a while. It’s not like it’s stuck in the Stone Age; if you think of the Mach-E as a real Mustang, it even comes in an electric version with a turbo-four engine. For now, both choices are good, and a lot of people depend on the Mustang to keep the practice going.
