Ford Mustang GTD clocks an impressive time at Nurburgring
When setting lap records at the Nurburgring, Ford may not carry the same legendary status as the German and Italian titans. Think Porsche, Mercedes-AMG, Lamborghini, or BMW. But make no mistake, the American marque has had its share of attempts at the ‘Green Hell.’
Look at the Mk4 Focus ST, for instance. While it didn’t smash any records, it impressed with a lap time of 8:22.70 seconds. The Mk6 GT, on the other hand, pushed boundaries with an impressive 8 minutes and 18 seconds.
Just recently, Ford took to the track with its new Mustang GTD at the Nurburgring with Multimatic Motorsports driver Dirk Müller at the helm, and it blistered around the 20.8-kilometre-long track in 6:57.685 seconds, fulfilling the brand’s sub-7-minute time it hoped to achieve when it unveiled the car before the end of 2023. This makes the Mustang GTD only the sixth vehicle in its class to break the seven-minute barrier, as well as the fifth fastest stock production sportscar around the iconic track. Not convinced enough? Well, that’s more than 2.2 seconds faster than the outgoing Porsche 911 GT3 that was tested in 2020.
Looking at the time, the GTD’s performance is phenomenal. For a clear context, the current titleholder of the fastest production car to ever lap the ‘Ring is the Mercedes-AMG One with a time of 6:29.090 seconds.
Dubbed the race car for the road and named after the IMSA (International Motor Sports Association) GTD racing class, with the ‘D’ standing for Daytona, it packs a 5.2-litre supercharged V8 engine with 607kW, thus making it the most potent production Mustang in Ford’s history.
“The team behind Mustang GTD took what we’ve learned from decades on the track and engineered a Mustang that can compete with the world’s best supercars,” said Jim Farley, Ford president and CEO.
According to Ford, it’s not entirely satisfied with what the GTD achieved at the Nurburgring and further mentions that there’s even more time to be found with the car. It will be fascinating to see what the brand is planning to achieve in the foreseeable future.
