For months we’ve seen the Ford Mustang GTD testing at the Nürburgring. Ford wants to set a sub-7-minute lap time on the Nordschleife, something we’ve known since the car debuted in August 2023. On December 10, that question will finally be answered.
If it does go quicker than 7 minutes flat, it will officially be the fastest American production car to ever lap the infamous 12.9-mile loop. That mark is currently held by the Dodge Viper ACR, which came close, at 7:01:30. On the other side, the Lamborghini Aventador LP750-4 Superveloce awaits with a time of 6:59.73. From there, it’s a sea of German and Italian exotics, largely Porsche and Mercedes-AMG battling for ‘Ring supremacy. Claiming an outright record for production cars would require a time quicker than 6:29.09, set earlier this year by the Mercedes-AMG One. The Mustang GTD is good, but not that good.
But what about the record for the fastest front-engined production car? Everything quicker than 7 minutes has the engine in the middle or back, except for the Mercedes-AMG GT. The Black Series went 6:43.61 back in 2020, an astounding achievement that, for a brief spell anyway, was the overall record. Porsche came back in 2021 with a Manthey-tweaked 911 GT2 RS that turned a 6:38.83 time. Only the AMG One is quicker.
At this point, it’s safe to assume the Mustang GTD went faster than 7 minutes. It’s highly unlikely Ford would be doing a teaser campaign if it didn’t reach that milestone. The bigger question is: By how much? With 815 horsepower and a GT3-based chassis, it might actually compete with the Mercedes-AMG GT Black Series. The ‘Stang has more power and a near 50/50 weight distribution thanks to its rear-mounted gearbox. It has the same 202-mph top speed as the Merc, as well as a bonkers aero kit. And Ford benchmarked the AMG GT (along with the 911 GT2 RS) during GTD development.
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Stay tuned. All our questions will be answered on December 10.