You don’t just turn up at Nürburgring Nordschleife with an eye on Corvette ZR1X’s record. And who better to do it than the manufacturer who lost that record to Corvette itself? Well, Ford did exactly that with the new Ford Mustang GTD.
The all-new Competition variant Mustang posted a 6:40.835 lap that crushed the 1,250-hp all-wheel-drive ZR1X’s time from its cross-town rival. In doing so, the Mustang GTD has become the second fastest American car to lap the Nürburgring, behind only its sibling, the 800-hp GT Mk IV, which set the record earlier this month.
And, considering it’s still in its pre-production phase, the Mustang GTD Competition currently ranks sixth on the Nürburgring pre-production/prototype class leaderboard. It currently sits behind the Porsche 919 Evo (5m 19.5s), Volkswagen ID.R (6m 05.3s), its sibling, the Ford GT Mk IV (6m 15.9s), the mad Xiaomi SU7 Ultra Prototype (6m 22s), the Lotus Evija X (6m 24s), and the Porsche 911 GT2 RS MR (6m 40.3).
New Lap Time: Mustang GTD at Nürburgring
The run was more than eight seconds quicker than the ZR1X, and over 11 seconds faster than GTD’s own last record attempt. “When we said ‘game on’, we meant it,” said Ford boss Jim Farley. “Mustang GTD was always meant to bridge the worlds between GT3 race cars and street-legal supercars, and the GTD Competition takes this to the next level to continue keeping Europe’s elite up at night.”
The new iteration gets some changes that have been instrumental in achieving this feat. First off, the supercharged 5.2-liter V8 engine has more power now. How much, Ford hasn’t revealed – it’s simply said it’s “more” than the original 815 horsepower.
Next up, it now boasts a better power-to-weight ratio, and that’s not just solely because of the increased power. It’s also down to the GTD weighing a lot less now.
Ford
It now gets extra aero tidbits like more dive planes, aero discs, and tweaks to the rear wing for better downforce. Its magnesium wheels are not just lighter, they also sport new high-performance tires. Even the damper system sheds some weight on the new GTD.
That list of changes extends all the way inside, with new carbon bucket seats that also help to … you guessed it … shed some more weight. Now almost of those tweaks are oriented towards weight savings, and it makes sense when you consider that the GTD is actually a heavy car. It was initially just under 2 tonnes (1,970 kg) in its last iteration. It would indeed be interesting to know how much weight Ford has been able to shed with this version.
Everything said, the biggest news coming out of this story is that this car is, in fact, street-legal … and the fact that Ford has opened an application window for those who might want a crack at the Nürburgring record-breaker. Keep in mind that production will be very limited.
Ford
And when it becomes a production model (which looks like it’ll be rather soon), it will essentially become the second-fastest production car ever on the Green Hell, trailing behind Mercedes’ AMG ONE hypercar (6:29.090). That is, if Corvette doesn’t come back for revenge by then.
Source: Ford
