-As we reported two weeks ago, Ford is planning a Le Mans debut next month for the racing version of its new Ford GT supercar—this year’s iteration of the 24-hour race will be held June 13 and 14—and we now know that the competition car has been out testing. The news comes from Motorsport.com.
Whispered rumors of the Le Mans racing program for the GT trickled out prior to the reveal of the roadgoing version (as a thinly disguised concept) at this year’s Detroit auto show. While the racing car is expected to be unveiled at the 2015 24 Hours of Le Mans—at which point the racing program finally will be officially confirmed—the GT won’t compete at Circuit de la Sarthe until 2016.
-Motorsport reports that the GT racer was piloted by Canadian driver Scott Maxwell at Calabogie Motorsports Park near Ottawa, Ontario; initial testing took place on May 16 with a second, longer excursion occurring in the middle of last week. The heavily Canadian flavor to the testing makes sense, of course, as Ontario-based Multimatic will handle the assembly of both the race and roadgoing versions of Ford’s supercar.
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Power for both iterations will come from an ultrapowerful twin-turbo EcoBoost V-6 perhaps making 700 horsepower in street trim. The initial competition run for the race car was alleged, according to Motorsport, to have been scheduled for Petit Le Mans later this year, but the car ultimately may not hit the track in anger until next January’s 24 Hours of Daytona. Whenever it happens, we can’t wait to see the GT in full race livery—it’s perhaps the only way the thing could possibly look more bad-ass.
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