Never let it be said that Ford doesn’t care a great deal about the Nurburgring Nordschleife. Having assured us that the Mustang GTD would go sub-seven at arguably the most famous track in the world (and most certainly delivering on the promise), it then sent a GT MkIV around in a staggering 6:15 just a couple of weeks back. And they’re far from done yet. Having had its all-American glory trampled on by the pesky Corvettes, Ford has been back to the GTD drawing boar - and returned with a car almost 12 seconds faster around the 20 kilometres of the Nurburgring.
It means that here’s a Ford Mustang that can lap in 6:40.835, and you can absolutely bet that they waited for today’s Porsche announcement to confirm that. The previous GTD time was 6:52.072. For anything ostensibly road legal to be lapping that fast is ridiculous; for it to be almost two tonnes of Mustang beggars belief. There are some caveats, however (as always). See, the car used for the attempt wasn’t, strictly speaking, a street-legal machine, meaning it’s going to be classified in the Pre-Production/Prototype section of the Nurburgring leaderboard, which is going to look like the old TG Power Lap board before long. That’s because it previews something called a Mustang GTD Competition, a car that Ford says it will sell - ‘to be offered in the future as a special edition, street legal model available in strictly limited, serialized quantities’ - but which isn’t road-ready just yet.
As you might expect for a Mustang called ‘Competition’ and which can lap so much faster than the 815hp GTD, the spec overhaul is very tasty indeed. There’s an undisclosed power bump, first off, comprising both hardware and ‘aggressive tuning’, so closer to 900hp for the 5.2-litre supercharged V8 doesn’t seem unrealistic; also included is an aero overhaul that tweaks the rear spoiler, secondary dive planes and the aero discs at the back. Apparently downforce is improved, with the balance maintained and no drag penalty.
There’s more, too, the Comp kitted out with new tyres (again Ford isn’t saying which ones just yet) and a pretty severe diet: even lighter magnesium wheels than a regular GTD, carbon bucket seats and lighter dampers. An exact figure hasn’t been quoted, and it’s still going to be at least 1,700kg you’d think, but it’s another demonstration of just how seriously Ford is taking GTD lap times. Just imagine this thing coming up behind you on a tourist day…
It hasn’t forgotten the little Corvette beef in this Competition development, either. You might remember that the sub-seven ZR1 and ZR1X laps were driven by GM test drivers rather than actual competition hotshoes, so that’s exactly what Ford has done also. While the 6:40.835 was set by Ford Racing and Multimatic factory driver Dirk Muller, a 6:49.337 was recorded by Ford Racing engineer Steve Thompson, having lapped the Nordschleife less than 40 times. Not only quicker than Muller achieved with a standard GTD, but also ahead of the 6:50.763 set by Brian Wallace in a ZR1. The ZR1X achieved 6:49.275, so Ford probably isn’t done yet.
Nevertheless, it’s a phenomenal time for something so large and so, well, Mustang-y. While today of all days might not be the one for watching another lap, we’d implore you to spend a few minutes marveling at the GTD’s speed, security and astonishing ability. Or listening at the very least…
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