Zac Quinn 
There’s plenty of reason to admire the Ford Mustang GTD, it’s a fantastic vehicle, and it seems to be poised to make some history for the Blue Oval as it has the potential to be the fastest car in the companies history; yes, even faster than the legendary Ford GT.
Technically, that’s probably because the Multimatic-built Ford GT never posted a Nürburgring time. Let alone the hyper-fast Mk II or Mk IV variants. But let’s not let that get in the way of this plot line.The Mustang GTD is estimated to cross the finish line of the 12.9-mile course in under 7-minutes. That’s up at the top of the leaderboard with the best of them, and a time that was practically unthinkable just 5 years ago.
How Fast Is The Ford Mustang GTD?
Ford Chief Program Engineer for Future Model Year Performance Vehicles Greg Goodall and Group Product Marketing Manager Enthusiast Vehicles Omar Odeh recently talked with Motor1 at The Quail, A Motorsports Gathering, during Monterey Car Week. When the Ford Mustang GTD was unveiled, Ford mentioned that it intends to have this car do a sub-7-minute lap around the Nürburgring Nordschleife. Though the vehicle is still under development, simulations indicate this is a possible time. We’ll have to wait until the company takes the car to a track, and hopefully, with the right conditions, they can meet their goals.
Odeh even said the Mustang GTD could be the “fastest Ford ever taken to the Nürburgring.” However, even if we wanted to compare the Ford GT to the Mustang GTD, we couldn’t, as the company never formally took its mid-engined flagship to the ‘Ring to set a lap time. But Ford is benchmarking the GTD against the Porsche 911 GT2 RS and the Mercedes-AMG GT Black Series. Those are some seriously competitive vehicles to benchmark, and Ford will need to do more than break the 7-minute barrier to beat those models.
The GT2 RS lapped the ‘Ring in 6 minutes and 47.3 seconds in September 2017. Following that, it set a new record of 6:41 in June 2021 with the assistance of Manthey Racing upgrades. Meanwhile, the Mecedes-AMG GT Black Series ran around the circuit at 6:43.61 in November 2020, making it the fastest “front-engined” car to do the dance. That’s the likely target for the 2025 Ford Mustang GTD, which will begin production late next year.
With 800 horsepower and options to make it even lighter and provide improved downforce, such as the aerodynamics package, which adds hydraulically controlled front flaps, a carbon-fiber underbody tray, and an active rear wing. Not to mention the upgrade to carbon fiber parts for the front and rear fascias and a set of forged magnesium wheels. This thing can have some jaw-dropping performance. We can’t wait to see it race around the Nürburgring, and with a price tag of around $300,000, we hope it’ll be featured in something like Forza Motorsports in the future, as that’s the only way most people will get to drive it.
However, if GM can post similar times with the C8 Corvette, for a fraction of the price, that may call the formidability (and value) of the Ford Mustang GTD into question. So far, The General hasn’t published any official C8 Corvette Z06 Nürburgring lap times (let alone the even faster ZR1 that’s on the way). But hopefully that changes soon.
