This past January, Ford brought its brand new Raptor T1+ to the iconic Dakar Rally off-road race and wound up performing quite well, as Ford Performance took home a third-place finish. It was pretty impressive for the automaker’s first foray there – particularly as it took place in a brand new, from the ground-up racer – but as one might imagine, The Blue Oval isn’t just content to enjoy its podium finish and move on. Rather, Ford CEO Jim Farley recently revealed that the automaker is eyeing a win at next-year’s Dakar Rally, too.
“But there’s one race we’ve never won and that’s Dakar,” Farley stated during a recent appearance on the Spike’s Car Radio podcast. “And I believe Dakar could spawn a whole generation of new supercars that are off-road supercars, not on-road supercars and we’re really focused on Dakar right now.”
It certainly makes sense that Farley wants to bring home a first-place finish in what is one of the most famous and notoriously difficult off-road races out there, given his current focus on off-road-focused products, in general. In fact, Farley recently said that he envisions Ford becoming the “Porsche of off-road,” which makes sense given the fact that off-road-focused vehicles accounted for around 20 percent of the automaker’s 2024 sales, and those models are highly profitable. Farley also said that he believes the Ford Mustang can disrupt the Porsche 911, too.
Farley’s comment regarding a “whole new generation of new supercars that are off-road supercars” is the latest hint that the automaker is considering adding such things to its lineup as well. As Ford Authority reported back in January, Farley stated that “we’re in the middle of creating something, so we don’t have all the answers yet, but the question is should Ford make an off-road supercar? Not a version of a car, a standalone supercar.”
Comments
You aren’t disrupting anything if you’re turning the Mustang into a brand while the 911 is trucking along as the legendary premier sports car.
Spending all that money on racing time to raise MSRPs another 10 percent.
The CEO of podcasts again giving ridiculous comments tonthe oress, this guy is so bad OMG
Winning Dakar for what ? To make Jim ego bigger before he leaves ? Waist of money and meanwhile no plan or strategy for the company …
If Jim Farley truly believes that Ford will win Dakar with the Raptor, he’s mistaken. Why? Because the team behind this effort, M-Sport, is based in the UK—and their track record in WRC speaks for itself. 2025 is shaping up to be their worst season since 2015, and they haven’t secured a significant victory in years.
That said, their PR department deserves a championship of its own—for spinning underwhelming performances into so-called groundbreaking results. But the reality? Even Bentley cut ties with this B-team years ago.
Ford is pushing into F1 and WEC, yet they’ve struggled in WRC for years. Any other CEO would have issued a warning or ended the contract. But not Jim. He still believes in fairytales.
He’s trapped in his own “Sunshine”…..