Ford to debut special Mustang performance car at Monterey Car Week

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Ford of America has announced to US media that it will unveil a new ‘special project’ at the Monterey Car Week event, held in California, USA this month. 

According to Road and Track magazine, invites have been sent out to a Ford event at the festival where the special project will be unveiled for the first time.

The invite states: “The performance of a supercar. The soul of an icon”, with the car to be unveiled shortly after Monterey Car Week kicks off this week. 

Leaked images have come courtesy of YouTube channel StangMode of a possible ‘Mustang GTD’ model with a wild rear wing, side rear air ducts, a unique alloy wheel design and a large bonnet intake. Sticky Michelin rubber can be seen in the photos. 

It’s unsure in these pictures whether the new GTD will be front-engined, like a traditional Mustang, or even rear-engined. Rumours have circulated that the new performance car from Ford could use a front-mid engine layout, like a Ferrari 812 Superfast, for instance.  

High-power Mustang likely, mid-engined car possible

Information across the internet over the past couple of days has speculated that this special project could in fact be a new mid-engined supercar from the Ford brand. It’s very possible that the car could be the next Ford GT supercar, but there is nothing to confirm this just yet. 

Production for the Ford GT has been confirmed to be ceasing at the end of the 2023 model year, so this ‘special project’ could be the next chapter in the nameplate’s lineage. 

The other possibilities could be a high-powered Mustang variant, such as a GT500 or similar, however there hasn’t been any branding shown for a Shelby-tweaked variant. 

What is likely is that the next model could be similar to the Dark Horse in nature, if perhaps one with branding in homage to Ford’s go-fast road car history. 

However, we’d love to see a new mid-engined Ford supercar to take on the C8 Chevrolet Corvette and even European rivals such as the Porsche 911.

Which Fords in the past have been mid-engined?

Most performance Fords in the past have not been rear or mid-engined, with the exception of the following:

• Ford GT40
• Ford GT
• Ford RS200

The first mid-engined Ford performance car was the GT40, which was originally built to compete in the 24 Hours of Le Mans endurance race. The first of the race cars were built in 1964, with only 105 ever produced. 

Much, much later, in 2004, production began for the all-new Ford GT, which would not be called the GT40 like the original. It was powered by a 5.4-litre supercharged V8 petrol engine that produced 410kW/678Nm. The engine was mated to a six-speed manual transmission and a limited-slip differential. 

On a side note, Ford also created the RS200, which was essentially a mid-engined Group B rally car to go up against the likes of the Audi S1 Quattro and the Lancia 037 – both of which are iconic rally cars from that era. 

The RS200 reportedly produced as much as 608kW of power and 542Nm of torque, with such high figures not uncommon at that point in motorsport.  

As per rally guidelines, road-going versions of the RS200 had to be produced in order to compete, with at least 200 examples having to be built.