Overview
- Ford completed the first integrated engine fire‑up at Oreca’s southern France facility in mid‑July, confirming the 5.4‑liter Coyote V8 runs inside the Oreca‑based LMDh spine.
- The engine is a naturally aspirated, Coyote‑based V8 designed, developed and built in‑house at Ford’s Dearborn facility and it was tested on dynos there before chassis installation.
- The V8 was fitted alongside the Hypercar class’s standardized spec hybrid system during the fire‑up, proving early packaging and hybrid integration between Ford’s powertrain and the Oreca chassis.
- Ford has scheduled a public rollout on August 5 at Le Castellet followed by intensive on‑track testing in Europe and later runs in the U.S. focused on performance, durability, hybrid integration and aero.
- All six factory drivers, including Matt Campbell, Tom Blomqvist and Nick Yelloly, will take part in the driver‑led test program and Ford says in‑house engine work will speed iteration and help transfer learnings back to production.