The recent announcement that a manual 911 GT3 had set a new record at the Nürburgring for three-pedal cars must have stung a little at Ford. Because the Porsche’s 6:56.294 was ahead of the 6:57.685 first clocked by the Mustang GTD last summer and which quite a big deal was made about. The much less powerful, naturally aspirated 911 with the old-fashioned transmission was faster than the most serious, circuit-optimised Mustang ever. Not by much, but that wouldn’t have mattered. So Ford has been back.
Now the GTD is quicker, and usefully so. Ford had always said there was time to be found in the Mustang, so it’s probably just fortunate timing that this new lap arrives so soon after Porsche’s announcement. Probably. They’ve now achieved a 6:52.072, or more than 5.5 seconds ahead of the first lap. It bumps the GTD ahead of the manual GT3 and the previous Manthey Performance Kit 992 GT3, leaving it trailing the current GT3 RS by less than three seconds. So they might not even stop here.
The time has been confirmed in a YouTube video. Sadly there’s not another onboard for the moment, instead some drone footage and behind-the-scenes bits of the attempt. Safe to say the full lap, if it does emerge, will be well worth seeing (and hearing). As for what comes next in the Mustang GTD story, Ford hasn’t said; prospective customers are still being invited to register their interest on the UK website. We must be getting closer to production cars. Don’t expect that news to pass without some fanfare, either…
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