- Ford CEO Jim Farley has seemingly confirmed rumours of a Mustang GTD-style Raptor off-road supercar.
- Farley expressed his desire for the company to create a car to win the Dakar rally with.
- Ford wants to go even more extreme than the Porsche 911 Dakar and Lamborghini Huracan Sterrato.
Ford is reportedly working on a hardcore off-road supercar to sit at the top of its Raptor line-up.
As discussed during the August 21st edition of the Bloomberg Hot Pursuit podcast, Ford CEO Jim Farley said he sees this off-road supercar competing in the Dakar Rally.
“Like a supercar, 1000hp, partially electric, totally digitally enabled,” said Farley.
“Everything is adjustable, suspension travel, the damping, the ride height, and it’s fully capable of doing a full-on race.
“It’s not a pickup truck. I think that is the right way for Ford to innovate the supercar business.
“No one’s ever built a supercar for gravel, high-speed [and] sand.”
Farley also noted how this potential off-road supercar, if it’s actually produced, will be different to vehicles like the Porsche 911 Dakar and Lamborghini Huracan Sterrato.
“The on-road performance hierarchy is very simple to see and the very top is over served in my opinion, but no one’s ever done [an] off-road supercar,” said Mr Farley.
“Let’s see how long it would last on the Baja 500 course.”
This follows numerous reports indicating that Ford is plotting a Mustang Raptor that could sit at the top of the Raptor line-up, above the Bronco Raptor, Ranger Raptor and F-150 Raptor R.
It’s unclear if the Mustang will be used as a base for this potential off-road supercar, though Ford did recently create the high-performance Mustang GTD to rival the Porsche 911 GT3 RS.
Only a limited number of the Mustang GTD will be produced and each is priced from US$325,000 (NZ$556,000). It’s likely if this off-road supercar goes into production it’ll follow a similar limited-production style.
“I want to win Dakar way more than Formula 1,” said Farley, noting the Blue Oval’s return to Formula 1 in partnership with Red Bull Racing from 2026.
“I want us to build a vehicle so that all people could experience what it’s like to have the joy of driving no matter what is in front of you.”
- Jack Quick, production editor