Zac Quinn 
The Ford Mustang Mach 1 muscle car is all about styling, handling, and power. Bringing back an iconic trim level that has a pedigree in road rallying, the Mustang Mach 1 has been tasked with effectively replacing three other trim levels: the Mustang GT PP2, the Mustang Bullitt, and the howling Shelby GT350. The former two, the Bullitt does so with little trouble, being the most track capable S550 Coyote V8-powered Mustang ever made. As for being an adequate replacement for the Shelby, well, that’s a taller order.
The truth is that we haven’t really seen a lot of officially posted lap times for the Ford Mustang Mach 1, where the hardcore nature of the Shelby GT350 (and more extreme GT350R) made it quite the track star. With a Car & Driver Lightning Lap time of 2:51.8 around Virginia International Raceway, The GT350R variant of the Shelby Mustang is faster than that of even the Nissan GT-R Track Edition, while the Mustang GT PP2 and its massive Michelin tires wasn’t far behind at 2:53.8. As for the Mach 1… it has yet to participate.
Okay, so what about the Nürburgring Nordschleife? Here’s German car magazine Sport Auto with the result:
Ford Mustang Mach 1 Nürburgring Lap Time
When a video was uploaded to the Mustang6G forum revealing the lap time of a Mustang Mach 1 at 7:58:29, we couldn’t help but wonder if it could go faster. The vehicle storms around the track like one would expect, reaching a top speed of 268 KMH (166 MPH) before having to slow down to turn, but it seemed as if the car could go even faster, if it was perhaps driven by a Ford Performance vehicle dynamics engineer. Then again, Sport Auto test driver Christian Gebhardt is far from inexperienced, winning the 24 Hours of the Nürburgring endurance race four of the past seven years (’15, ’16, ’18, and ’21) in his respective class each time. It’s a track he’s a true expert in. He’s also dealing with a compromised horsepower output. If you recall, the Mustang Mach 1 is sold in Europe with 453 horsepower, instead of 480 470.
A few years back, a Ford Mustang Shelby GT350R unofficially clocked at 7:32.19, by comparison.
