DETROIT — Ford Motor will end production of its $500,000 GT supercar later this year with a special edition model paying tribute to the vehicle’s racing heritage.
The Detroit automaker on Wednesday said the 2022 Ford GT LM Edition will be the last model of the third-generation car, which was resurrected in 2016 after being a decade out of the market.
Ford said only 20 of the GT LM Edition cars will be produced. Deliveries are scheduled to begin this fall with production wrapping up later this year, according to the automaker.
“As we close this chapter of the road-going Ford GT, the GT LM Edition gave us a chance to inject even more heart and soul from a podium-finishing racecar, furthering the tribute to our 2016 Le Mans win,” Mark Rushbrook, global director of Ford Performance Motorsports, said in a release.
The GT is a collector’s car steeped in racing history. This GT LM Edition pays tribute to the third-generation supercar’s overall win at the 2016 Le Mans 24 Hours as well as Ford sweeping the podium to beat Ferrari — as portrayed in “Ford v. Ferrari” in 2019 — at the famous French race in 1966.
The current-generation GT was a surprise reveal at the 2015 North American International Auto Show in Detroit. Ford kept the car a secret even within the company, only allowing select executives and employees to work on it in a nondescript basement room in a building near its headquarters in Dearborn, Michigan.
Only 1,350 of the third-generation GTs — powered by a twin-turbocharged, 3.5-liter EcoBoost V-6 engine with 660-horsepower and 216 mph top speed — were produced by supplier and contract manufacturer Multimatic Inc. of Markham, Ontario, in Canada.
A Ford spokesman declined to comment on the possibility of a fourth-generation GT in the future. He also declined to comment on pricing of the latest limited edition model, saying GT pricing has started around $500,000.
