The New Ford Mustang GTD Just Destroyed the Chevrolet Corvette ZR1X’s Nürburgring Time
Another week means another boundary-pushing lap time for Ford.
The Detroit giant announced the Mustang GTD Competition is now the second fastest American-made car in NürburgringNürburgringA famous German racing circuit in the Eifel mountains with a punishing, twenty-kilometer Nordschleife loop where manufacturers test and benchmark performance cars. Lap times around the Nurburgring are a covetedGo to Nürburgring Glossary history after it lapped the complex’s Nordschleife track in 6:40.835 minutes. In doing so, the variant beat the previous GTD record by more than 11 seconds.
Ford Racing and Multimatic factory driver Dirk Müller was behind the wheel of the GTD Competition when it achieved the sixth fastest time on the NürburgringNürburgringA famous German racing circuit in the Eifel mountains with a punishing, twenty-kilometer Nordschleife loop where manufacturers test and benchmark performance cars. Lap times around the Nurburgring are a covetedGo to Nürburgring Glossary Nordschleife’s pre-production/prototype leaderboard on March 24. The motorsports complex’s northern loop is better known to enthusiasts as the “Green Hell,” and with good reason, since the 12.94-mile circuit has 73 officially recognized turns (33 left and 40 right) and over 1,000 feet of elevation changes.
That GTD Competition’s time only trails the Ford GT Mk IV as far as American cars are concerned, after the supercarSupercarA high-performance sports car with exceptional speed, advanced engineering, and striking design, produced in low volumes by marques such as Ferrari, Lamborghini, and McLaren. Supercars sit near the top ofGo to Supercar Glossary circled the same track in 6:15.977 minutes one week later (though that time was announced earlier). Second place isn’t a bad place to be, especially since the ‘Stang beat the American car in third, the Chevrolet Corvette ZR1X, which went around the track in 6:49.275 minutes last summer, by more than eight seconds. Fourth is the original GTD, which lapped the northern loop in 6:52:072 minutes last spring.
Unsurprisingly, the muscle car has undergone several changes to help it shave more than 11 seconds off its previous benchmark. The GTD Competition features a 5.2-litre supercharged V-8 that’s even more potent than the mill found in the original model. Ford isn’t ready to say how powerful it is just yet, other than to say that it surpasses the first GTD’s 815 hp output. The car also features an even more aggressive aero kit, more lightweight parts (including a set of magnesium wheels), and a set of high-performance tires that provide increased grip.
The GTD Competition may be a pre-production/prototype by Nürburgring standards, but Ford has announced plans to sell the high-performance Mustang. The press release announcing the feat said the vehicle will be sold in “strictly limited, serialized quantities” in North America. We don’t know when that will be, or how much the model will cost, though something well north of the GTD’s $327,960 base price seems very likely.
This article originally appeared in Robb Report US.