Ford Australia and its new Supercars associate Triple Eight Race Engineering might workforce as much as provide an official motorsport-themed Mustang particular version, or perhaps a hotter Ranger Raptor.
Based on motorsport web site Speedcafe.com, Ford and Triple Eight have had early discussions on a highway automobile collaboration and it might result in a number of homegrown street-legal fashions.
The Australian motor racing panorama was rocked late final month by information that the powerhouse Supercars race workforce will dump Normal Motors after 16 years and defect again to the Blue Oval for the 2026 season.
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On the time of the announcement, it was made clear the rekindled relationship between Ford and T8 would stretch past Supercars, and in the course of the opening spherical of the 2025 championship in Sydney on the weekend Ford Australia president Andrew Birkic confirmed to Speedcafe that early discussions about potential automotive market initiatives have taken place.
“They’re at first an engineering firm that may be a superb race workforce, so there’s no purpose why not,” mentioned Mr Birkic when requested a couple of potential off-track alliance between Ford and Triple Eight.
“What that appears like we don’t know, however definitely we have now an open thoughts.”
Along with its Walkinshaw Efficiency aftermarket sister model, final yr Walkinshaw Automotive launched a Walkinshaw-branded Ranger restricted version, and Walkinshaw’s engineering workforce helped develop Ford’s official Ranger Raptor entry for its Finke Desert Race debut.
However Ford’s relationship with Walkinshaw Andretti United will stop on the finish of the present Supercars season and Mr Birkic made it clear that Triple Eight would decide up the place WAU leaves off.
“We’ve executed Finke and WAU has helped us in sure areas,” he mentioned. “Clearly, they’re shifting onto one other camp, so we do see alternatives for Triple Eight.”
Requested whether or not discussions have already taken place, Mr Birkic instructed Speedcafe: “Simply when it comes to at a better stage, what have they received, what are we in search of? We’ll see how that pans out.”
Potential tie-ups between Ford and Triple Eight past motorsport, during which logical extensions might comprise co-operations in GT and off-road racing, might embody something from T8-branded highway vehicles to behind-the-scenes engineering work supporting Ford’s ongoing car design and engineering work in Australia.
A Triple Eight-engineered Mustang wouldn’t be Australia’s first regionally developed, motorsport-themed model of the well-known Ford pony automobile.
Present Ford Supercars groups Tickford Racing and Dick Johnson Racing have joined Walkinshaw to work on Ford highway automobile initiatives previously, and DJR helped produce Scott McLaughlin and Dick Johnson-branded Mustang restricted editions alongside Herrod Efficiency, which produced the R-SPEC for Ford in 2020.
Tickford additionally sells efficiency packs for Mustangs and Rangers.
For its half, the Brisbane-based Triple Eight outfit, which has already undertaken initiatives within the aerospace and (throughout COVID) medical industries, is eager to additional increase its design and manufacturing capabilities past motorsport.
The primary of them within the normal automotive space was a current collaboration with Queensland-based Toyota diesel tuning firm Simply Autos, during which Triple Eight developed an aftermarket consumption answer for Toyota LandCruiser 300 Sequence automobiles.
Triple Eight fielded Ford Falcons over 2003-2009, earlier than switching to Holden when Ford withdrew its funding as a part of wider motorsport funds cuts.
