A secret operative near the North Carolina Centre for Automotive Research test track took a little hike through the woods and discovered something pretty exciting: a very stripped-down Ford Mach-e doing doughnuts, drifting, tearing arse and generally hooning like a delighted loon. What’s going on here? Is this an official Ford project? Let’s do some speculating!
First, everyone should watch the video. I suggest watching to the end, where you get to see our intrepid videographer realise he may have been spotted and then tearing some arse of his own, on foot, through the woods:
Damn, they’re really wringing the electrons out of that thing, aren’t they?
The Mach-e is very stripped down, and, looking at the front end, I think I significantly uprated cooling system has been installed, with a large radiator with dual fans (presumably for battery cooling?) that wouldn’t appear to fit under the stock bodywork:
The rear also seems to have additional cooling, with some sort of asymmetrical triple-fan setup.
It’s also got wide, meaty tires that extend significantly beyond the bodywork as well, and I think some suspension upgrades, too.
There may be motor enhancements as well, but I can’t really tell.
It’s also interesting to see the stripped-down bodywork, as it reveals just how thicc modern car pillars are, something that the glass normally hides. Look how beefy that B-pillar is, and look how hilariously tiny that rear quarter window is:
It looks like they cut that window out using a Dorito as a template.
More importantly, though, what’s going on here? There have yet to be any customer Mach-e deliveries, so this must be some sort of official or at least Ford-sanctioned project.
It could be a racing variant of the Mach-e being developed by Ford, or maybe a Ken Block project (we know there’s been some interest there), or even an RTR-tuned version?
I know RTR has used the NCCAR track before for testing, as that’s where I got to drive one of their tuned Mustangs back in 2017. While I was there, I saw Ford testing some GTs as well, so I believe Ford has been known to use that track, too.
Something fun is up, we know that. I reached out to Ford to see if they’ll talk, but I’m not holding my breath. Who knows, though. If we find out anything definitive, I’ll be sure to update.
Ford responded, with, um, nothing:
“Ford continues to develop and test at many facilities. We don’t comment on speculation about future vehicles.”
I’m not really surprised by this answer, but it never hurts to ask.