Milestone: Ford engine makes its WEC Hypercar debut

Ford’s WEC programme is making good progress. As is well known, the American brand intends to enter the Hypercar class of the World Endurance Championship for the 2027 season. The racing car required for this is currently under development. The project has now reached its next milestone, as the Ford engine has been run in the chassis for the first time.

The power unit is a naturally aspirated V8 with a displacement of 5.4 litres. Ford actually developed the engine itself, ‘at home’ in Dearborn, Michigan. The engine had already been running on the test bench there for some time. For the chassis, Ford is collaborating with Oreca in the south of France. It was at Oreca’s facilities that the two components were brought together, culminating in the successful start-up of the engine.

“The first start-up of the engine at Oreca is more than just a symbolic moment – it is a crucial step towards validation. We carry out the entire engine development process in-house, as this allows us to react and learn more quickly and to feed this knowledge directly into series production. Hearing the Coyote V8 come to life for the first time in its intended environment confirmed that the months of integration work by the powertrain and chassis teams have paid off,” said Dan Sayers (WEC Hypercar Programme Manager at Ford Racing).

Ford plans to begin test drives of the as-yet-unnamed race car as early as the beginning of August. The focus will be on performance, reliability, the integration of the hybrid system and aerodynamic validation. “Of course, we’re still right at the beginning and have an enormous amount of work ahead of us. Whilst the work in the simulator and the data from the test bench provide an excellent foundation, nothing can replace what the drivers feel through the steering wheel and the seat once we’re actually out on the track,” Sayers continued. Ford has already signed Logan Sargeant, Mike Rockenfeller, Sebastian Priaulx, Tom Blomqvist, Nick Yelloly and Matt Campbell as drivers.