ROAD RELEVANCY DOESN’T HAVE TO BE A BAD THING
It’s 20 years since the evocative Toyota GT-ONE and Mercedes CLR last graced Le Mans at the height of the ‘hypercar’ era, and anticipation is growing for its return in the 2020-21 World Endurance Championship. One of the marques that is rumoured to be interested is Ford, with a derivation of its existing GT, following the conclusion of its four-year GTE programme this year.
That shouldn’t come as much of a surprise, since if you were to design the ideal GT car to race at Le Mans, it would probably look something like the Ford GT. Low-slung – like the original GT40, so named for being only 40 inches tall – with aggressively tapered bodywork to limit drag, it delivered on its design brief of winning at Le Mans 50 years on from the Blue Oval’s first LM triumph in 2016.
Since Ford had conceived the GT road car with its racing cousin in mind –
having already scrapped its original idea of competing with a Mustang because to be competitive, it would need to be so far removed from the road car to be almost unrecognisable – it’s something of an extreme example of how a road car can influence the on-track product.
But how relevant is it in an age where parity and Balance of Performance rule? Matt Kew weighs up this question in the cover feature on page 8, with insight from top engineers in the British Touring Car Championship and Australian Supercars.
The push for road relevancy is often treated with disdain in motorsport circles but, as Lucas di Grassi points out on page 7, motorsport will still find a way to flourish even with changing market behaviours in the automotive world. And if the result is we get to see hypercars like the Mclaren Senna and Aston Martin Valkyrie competing at Le Mans, then I’m all for it.