Ford's Mustang GTD breaks 7‑minute Nürburgring barrier
Ford achieved its goal. As promised, the Mustang GTD completed a lap of the Nürburgring in under 7 minutes. The cost of setting this unique record was not small, but the Americans didn't seem to care at all; the result was the most important thing. Although they succeeded, Ford still wants more. As they announce, they will return even stronger.
The Mustang GTD project generated considerable excitement from the start. Rather than being built merely in the image of a race car, it was directly based on a performance vehicle aimed at higher realms. Ford initially aimed to break the 7-minute barrier on the famous German Nürburgring track.
They succeeded. Multimatic Motorsport's driver, Dirk Müller, who participated in the car's construction, completed the slightly over 13-mile stretch in 6:57.685. This time is almost identical to that achieved by the Porsche 918 Spyder. At the same time, the Mustang GTD is the fastest production car from America and the first to drop below 7 minutes. The previous record for an American car belonged to the Dodge Viper ACR, which completed the loop in 7:01 minutes.
Meanwhile, it fell slightly short of its theoretical rival, the Porsche 911 GT3 RS. When revealing the car's technical data, Ford boasted that their creation generates more horsepower per liter of displacement than the new 911 GT3 RS. However, the Stuttgart coupe proved to be 2.7 seconds faster.
It seems that Ford will not rest until it beats Porsche. During a ceremonial speech, Jim Farley, Ford's CEO, said:
"We are proud to be the first American automaker with a car that can lap the Nürburgring in under seven minutes, but we are not satisfied. We know that much more time can be found with the Mustang GTD. We will be back."
We are waiting for results. The current ones are the product of two years of work by a small team of engineers. They did not build the car as a track model. Instead, they took the performance Mustang GT3 as their starting point and implemented elements in it that are not allowed in the racing class but are possible on the open market. This includes ceramic brakes, active aerodynamics, mechanical supercharging, and semi-active suspension.
If you are interested in Ford's exact path to success, the Americans have also released a 13-minute video showcasing their efforts.
Let's recall that the Mustang GTD is equipped with a 5.2-liter supercharged V8, which generates 826 HP and 664 lb-ft of maximum torque, allowing it to accelerate up to 202 mph. Ford demands a high price for its achievements. While Porsche has priced its GT3 RS at $319,000, the Americans have priced the Mustang GTD at $480,000. Despite this, there is no shortage of interest in the car, and two units from the limited production will also be delivered to Poland.
