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Ford Mustang GTD scorches Nürburgring for another record lap
Posted by Talbot Payne on May 6, 2025
Like the Terminator, the Mustang GTD came back.
In August 2024, the 2025 Ford Mustang GTD became the first American-made production car to lap Germany’s famed 12.9-mile Nürburgring race track in under 7 minutes. Not satisfied, the Ford team said it would return for another go. Last month, Mustang’s 815-horsepower beast shattered its own 6.57.7 record by five seconds with a 6:52.1 minute lap.
The feat makes the Mustang GTD the fourth-fastest production sports car to ever lap the so-called Green Hell, trailing only the Porsche GT2 RS, Mercedes AMG GT Black Series and Porsche GT3 RS.
“We’re proud to be the first American automaker with a car that can lap the Nürburgring in under seven minutes, but we aren’t satisfied,” Ford President and CEO Jim Farley said last year after GTD’s first sub 7-minute lap. “We know there’s much more time to find with Mustang GTD. We’ll be back.”
The new time came as the halo Mustang — estimated to cost $325,000 — ramps up for production this spring for customer delivery. Improvements to the car over the August, 2024 test included updated powertrain calibration, chassis stiffening, refined aerodynamics, and reconfigured traction control for better acceleration out of Nürburgring’s corners.
The GTD’s 2024 achievement was celebrated at the New York Auto Show last week where the ultimate ‘Stang was featured in a special exhibit on the show floor detailing the car’s 2024 accomplishment. For its next stop, the display will have to be updated to reflect the new time. The high-speed, roller-coaster, 73-turn track is the benchmark for performance car testing with speeds cresting 180 mph for long stretches.
The 2025 Ford Mustang GTD recorded the fourth-fastest production sports car lap at Germany’s Nürburgring. Giles Jenkyn, Ford
Like last year, the Nürburgring lap was clocked by Ford pro-race driver Dirk Müller. Along with co-driver Joey Hand, Müller also piloted the Mustang GT3 — the race car version of the production GTD — in North America’s IMSA Weathertech Sportscar series. The pair placed 7th at the Detroit Gand Prix and 10th overall for the year.
The Mustang GT3 kicked off 2025 by winning the Rolex 24 Hours of Daytona — following up on an impressive 2024 when it debuted internationally with a third-place finish at the 24 Hours of Le Mans in France.
The winged GTD monster validates Ford’s ambitions to compete against elite sports car brands including Porsche, Ferrari, McLaren, Mercedes, Aston Martin, Lamborghini and Corvette. Ford will also be entering the top-rung prototype class in 2027 to compete for the overall world championship for the first time since the GT40 dominate Le Mans in the late 1960s.
The 2025 Ford Mustang GTD hits speeds upwards of 180 mph on its Nürburgring lap. Ford
“Motorsports is in Ford’s DNA, back to our founding,” said Ford in a press release. “Our vehicles are bred to race, because there’s nothing better than high-stakes competition with the best in the world for improving quality, reliability, and performance. No current Ford vehicle exemplifies this philosophy like the Mustang GTD.”
The GTD’s 2024 attempt was marred by inclement weather, a common issue in the remote Eifel Mountains where Nürburgring resides.
The lap time closed the gap to the lap times of the Mustang’s Porsche and Mercedes rivals, both of which compete against Ford (along with Chevrolet’s mid-engine Corvette) in the international GT3 class with race versions of their own supercars.
The Mustang GTD on display at last week’s New York Auto Show. Henry Payne, The Detroit News
The supercharged 5.2-liter V-8 engine is similar to the mill in the last-generation, 760-horsepower Shelby Mustang GT500 but includes upgrades like a rear-mounted transmission, lightweight carbon-fiber driveshaft, dry-sump oil system and swan-neck rear wing for better downforce. The carbon-fiber-skinned GTD was developed by Ford’s Toronto-based racing partner Multimatic, which also developed the mid-engine Ford GT.
The lap record by a production hypercar is 6:29.1 set by the Formula 1-based Mercedes-AMG ONE. The outright lap record is held by the Porsche 919 Hybrid Evo race car at 5.19.5.
Henry Payne is auto critic for The Detroit News. Find him at hpayne@detroitnews.com or @HenryEPayne.