The big boss of Ford, Jim Farley, has made it clear he wants the brand to be the very last to sell cars with a V8 engine under the bonnet.
He plans to do just that with arguably the most famed model in its line-up, the Mustang, a car that the Blue Oval brand is taking to the race circuit in a big way this year.
Speaking at an event to celebrate the launch of the 2024 racing season in Charlotte, North Carolina, the chief executive said that the 5.0-litre Coyote V8 has defined the Mustang as both a racing and sales success across the globe, and he doesn’t want to let either of those accolades fall by the wayside anytime soon.
“What other car in the world races on six continents on any given weekend? And that’s because we have a V8 engine,” Farley told Motor1.
“Our R&D is on the race track, and you’ll be able to buy them [V8 engines] at Ford.”
Ford will enter its muscle car in several different racing series this year, including Supercars, NASCAR, drag racing, GT3, GT4, and the brand’s one-make series for the Dark Horse R, each of which helps develop the engine found in the road car.
The V8 also lends its extended life to Ford’s electrification efforts too, with the Mach-E and F-150 Lightning balancing out the brand’s emissions output.
“Mach-E lets us sell ICE vehicles for a long time to come,” Farley said.
Longevity is something Ford’s competitors haven’t quite been so lucky with, as Dodge and Chevrolet ended production of their respective Challenger and Camaro models last year. And they’ll likely come back as fully electric models if they do.
But the Mustang is going on 60 this year, and it doesn’t look like it plans to slow down any time soon, even if it is the last of the V8s.
