Ford will return to Le Mans in force in 2016. Today the automaker announced plans to compete in next year’s 24 Hours of Le Mans with a fleet of Ford GT race cars in the GTE Pro class.

The new Ford GT will also race in the full schedule of FIA World Endurance Championship (WEC) and TUDOR United SportsCar Championship events in 2016. Ford has partnered with Chip Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates to field teams in both series.

Ford’s return to Le Mans will mark the 50th anniversary of the original Ford GT’s 1-2-3 finish at the Circuit de la Sarthe in 1966 – the first of four straight victories for Ford in the world’s most prestigious sports car race. Race fans around the world still remember the ferocious Ford vs. Ferrari battles of the Total Performance era with reverence.

“When the GT40 competed at Le Mans in the 1960s, Henry Ford II sought to prove Ford could beat endurance racing’s most legendary manufacturers,” said Bill Ford, executive chairman, Ford Motor Company. “We are still extremely proud of having won this iconic race four times in a row, and that same spirit that drove the innovation behind the first Ford GT still drives us today.”

Based on the Ford GT supercar that will go on sale in 2016, the mid-engined race car will feature advanced aerodynamics, a lightweight carbon fiber chassis, and a production-based twin-turbocharged EcoBoost V6 engine producing more than 600 horsepower.

As a technical partner in the program, Michelin will bring its expertise in tire technology to the ambitious effort. Multimatic Motorsports, Roush Yates Engines, Castrol, Forza Motorsport, Sparco, and Brembo are also joining Ford in the project that will put the Ford GT on the world stage of international endurance racing.