Manoli Katakis 
If you’re tired of the vapid audiences and predictable racing of Formula 1, there’s good news. You don’t have to watch it. In fact, if you’re seeking out a superior motorsports product, look no further than the several sports car racing leagues happening around the world. We see thrilling multi-class racing here in North America with IMSA (Daytona 24 Hour, Sebring 12 Hour), globally with WEC (24 Hours of Le Mans, 6 Hours of Fuji), as well as SRO (Bathurst 12 Hour, 24 Hours of Spa). There are plenty more cars — ones that are actually based on what you can drive home − all sorts of different engineering techniques (such as a mid-engine twin-turbo V6 Ferrari taking on a Lexus with a front-engined V8), and hours and hours of more racing for your price of admission. Now, are there yacht parties festooned with A-list celebrities and Instagram models trying to get close to a race-winning driver. No, not so much. But you shouldn’t care about that. You should care about the new race cars entering the fray, such as the upcoming S650 Ford Mustang Dark Horse GT4.
You’re probably thinking “hey, Ford already revealed the new Mustang race car!” And yes, they did. They also didn’t.
What we saw revealed ahead of the 2024 Hours of Le Mans earlier this month was the new Ford Mustang GT3 race car, which is intended for customer teams seeking to compete in top-tier sports car racing all over the world. Beneath that, however, will be the S650 Ford Mustang Dark Horse GT4, which will debut just ahead of the Crowdstrike 24 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps in Belgium, which is an SRO event.
While details are slim, the S650 Ford Mustang GT4 is expected to compete in support series racing such as the IMSA Michelin Pilot Challenge, as well as SRO racing. It’s also expected to bear closer resemblance to the Ford Mustang Dark Horse road car compared to the GT3 car, and is still expected to feature a front-engined Coyote V8 engine that will have to outshout the V8 engines from the Aston Martin, Mercedes-Benz, and McLaren race cars it’s going to compete with.
Immediately, we can see very distinct differences between the GT3 car (pictured: above) and the GT4 teaser image (pictured: top). They include different lights, dive planes, front splitters, wheels, and tires. The GT4 Mustang also features the unique “eye shadow” calling card that will be on all production Dark Horse models. It’s likely to bear very strong resemblance to the previous teaser image just below.
Watch this space on Wednesday, June 28 for more details on the upcoming S650 Ford Mustang Dark Horse GT4.
