Mustang GTD breaks new ground: Ford's chase continues at Nürburgring
Ford achieved its goal. As promised, the Mustang GTD completed a lap of the Nürburgring in under 7 minutes. The cost of this unique record was substantial, but the Americans didn't seem concerned. The result was the most important thing. Although the target was achieved, Ford still wanted more. As they announce, they will return even stronger.
The Mustang GTD project aroused considerable excitement from the start. Built not so much in the image of a race car as directly based on a performance vehicle, the car aimed to reach new heights. Ford initially announced their goal was to break the 7-minute barrier on the famous German Nürburgring track.
They succeeded. Multimatic Motorsport's driver, Dirk Müller, who participated in the car's construction, completed the slightly over 21-kilometre stretch in 6:57.685. This is an almost identical time to that achieved by the Porsche 918 Spyder. At the same time, the Mustang GTD is the fastest production car from America and the first to drop below 7 minutes. The previous record for a car from across the ocean belonged to the Dodge Viper ACR, which completed the loop in 7:01 minutes.
Meanwhile, it fell a little short of its theoretical rival, the Mustang GTD. Ford, revealing the technical data of the car, boasted that their creation extracts more horsepower per litre of displacement than the new 911 GT3 RS. Meanwhile, the coupe from Stuttgart proved to be 2.7 seconds faster. Still,
It seems that Ford will not rest until it beats Porsche. During a ceremonial speech, Jim Farley, Ford's CEO, said:
"We are proud to be the first American automaker with a car that can lap the Nürburgring in under seven minutes, but we are not satisfied. We know that much more time can be found with the Mustang GTD. We will be back."
We are waiting for results. The current ones are the sum of two years of work by a small team of engineers. They did not build the car in the image of a track car; instead, they took the performance Mustang GT3 as their starting point and implemented elements in it that are not allowed in the racing class but are permissible on the open market. This includes, among other things, ceramic brakes, active aerodynamics, mechanical supercharging, and semi-active suspension.
If you are interested in Ford's exact path to success, the Americans also released a 13-minute video showcasing their efforts.
Let's recall that the Mustang GTD is equipped with a 5.2-litre supercharged V8, which generates 826 HP and 900 Nm of maximum torque, allowing it to accelerate up to 325 km/h. Ford demands a high price for its achievements. While Porsche has priced its GT3 RS at $319,000, the Americans priced the Mustang GTD at $480,000. Despite this, there is no shortage of interest in the car, and two units from the limited production will also be delivered to Poland.
