Could Ford be working on a Dakar Rally-derived road-legal performance-focused off-roader? Well, it seems the Blue Oval brand is indeed planning on bringing such a model to life in the future.

As reported by Australian publication Drive, when asked whether the United States automaker has thought about building a road-legal version of its Raptor T1+ rally car, Ford CEO Jim Farley replied, “Yeah.”

Farley also motioned that the latter race car ‘should be a product we sell’. He further said it’s a model that will ‘break all the rules’.

“What the silhouette looks like, all the details, we’ll continue to look at. But if there’s a company in the world that would break the rules and do something like that, I think it should be Ford,” said Farley.

“There is no Porsche of off-road, and that’s what Ford can be.”

Now, while Ford’s Dakar Rally race car employs a 5.0l V8 engine, which, indeed, is derived from the Coyote unit employed by the Mustang, the firm’s future performance model could likely source its power from an electrified internal combustion powertrain. However, so far, the automaker has remained tight-lipped as to what we can expect from this off-road-focused performance car.

However, there is also the likelihood of this model taking the shape of a Raptor-inspired Mustang; a model similar in vein to the Porsche 911 Dakar and Lamborghini Huracán Sterrato. Initial conversation surrounding such a model began in 2025, with Ford dealers in the states given renderings of ‘a lifted, off-road, Baja-style model with rugged tyres – potentially a Raptor version of the pony car’ as reported by Ford Authority.

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