Ford's 3.5-liter EcoBoost V6 started successfully in passenger cars, expanded to competition with a Sebring-winning Daytona Prototype, and is now the heart of the company's GT racer. But things aren't likely to stop there, as Ford Performance boss Dave Pericak hinted the company is looking at customer sales of the racing and road-going variants of the GT's twin-turbo 3.5-liter.
Speaking to Autocar at the first race of the World Endurance Championship, Pericak said Ford could one day sell it to private race teams. Based on current regulations, the only place we'd probably see a private race team with EcoBoost power is in the US WeatherTech series, where Ford currently fields cars in the Daytona Prototype class. The 3.5-liter EcoBoost is too big for the WEC's LMP2 class – the FIA limits force-induced cars to 3.2 liters – and while it could power an LMP1 car, it'd be an impossibly tall order to successfully challenge the hybrid-powered entries from Audi, Porsche, and Toyota.
More enticing for average road users is the idea of selling the road-going GT's 3.5-liter EcoBoost to boutique automakers, something Pericak said was possible. According to Autocar, Ford already sells the EcoBoost to Radical for use with the RXC Turbo, but that's an older 448-horsepower model. Selling the GT's engine would be a serious power increase for customers like Radical – Ford has said the production engine makes around 600 hp.
What we'd really like to see, of course, is Ford selling the GT's 3.5-liter as a simple crate engine for private owners. We're sure there are some enterprising fools out there looking to stuff this thing in a Miata, after all.
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Speaking to Autocar at the first race of the World Endurance Championship, Pericak said Ford could one day sell it to private race teams. Based on current regulations, the only place we'd probably see a private race team with EcoBoost power is in the US WeatherTech series, where Ford currently fields cars in the Daytona Prototype class. The 3.5-liter EcoBoost is too big for the WEC's LMP2 class – the FIA limits force-induced cars to 3.2 liters – and while it could power an LMP1 car, it'd be an impossibly tall order to successfully challenge the hybrid-powered entries from Audi, Porsche, and Toyota.
More enticing for average road users is the idea of selling the road-going GT's 3.5-liter EcoBoost to boutique automakers, something Pericak said was possible. According to Autocar, Ford already sells the EcoBoost to Radical for use with the RXC Turbo, but that's an older 448-horsepower model. Selling the GT's engine would be a serious power increase for customers like Radical – Ford has said the production engine makes around 600 hp.
What we'd really like to see, of course, is Ford selling the GT's 3.5-liter as a simple crate engine for private owners. We're sure there are some enterprising fools out there looking to stuff this thing in a Miata, after all.
Related Video:
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