2025 Ford Mustang GTD: First American Production Car With Sub-7 Minute Nürburging Time

Ford Mustang GTD’s Sub-7 Minute Record-Breaking Nürburging Lap

The Nürburgring is notoriously unpredictable. While the record was attempted in August, and rain wasn’t initially in the forecast, a downpour threatened to derail Ford’s attempt. A sub-seven lap demands a completely dry track. One wet corner throws the entire runoff balance. The pressure was undoubtedly immense, given that countless engineers had poured their blood, sweat, and tears into this project for months.

Ford entrusted the GTD’s fate to Dirk Müller, a seasoned Nürburgring veteran who knows the track like the back of his hand. The preparation was meticulous. Simulators were used to map out every corner, with sections like the famous Karussell demanding absolute precision. There’s simply no room for error here. The wait for the lap time was agonizing, to say the least. Seven minutes felt like an eternity, each tick of the clock a potential failure. Finally, the news came: 6:57.685. With this monumental time, the GTD not only achieved a sub-seven, but it did it under less-than-ideal conditions.

The Mustang GTD (Grand Touring Daytona) the top-class in the IMSA Race Series, unveiled last year represents a monumental shift in Ford’s philosophy. Traditionally, development flowed from road cars to race cars. Here, they flipped the script. The GTD is essentially a road-legal race car, boasting the latest braking technology, active aerodynamics with a drag-reduction system (DRS) with the active wing, a mid-mounted gearbox, and fancy race-car suspension developed by Multimatic. These are basically features ripped straight out of the racing world. The pièce de résistance? A 5.2-liter supercharged V8 pumps out a staggering 815 horsepower.

The GTD’s achievement is a significant milestone, not just for Ford, but for American muscle cars in general. It may be well off the Porsche 911 GT3 RS’ lap time of 6.49.320, but defies the stereotype that a muscle car is all about big power and only good for straight-line speed or dominating the 1/4 mile at the drag strip. Clearly modern American muscle has come a long way and the GTD has closed the gap to the European competition. At places like the Nürburing, aerodynamics, curb weight and downforce play a crucial role and while we don’t have the exact downforce figure for the GTD, the GT3 RS produces 1,895 pounds at 177 mph. You can read more about how the Mustang GTD stack up against the 911 GT3 RS, in our in-depth comparison.

2025 Ford Mustang GTD Price: A Point of Contention

Despite achieving sub-seven-minute glory, the Ford Mustang GTD’s $325,000 base MSRP could still be a sticking point for some. It puts this Ford, more in line with the limited-run 911 S/T’s $290,000 rather than its main contender, the 911GT3 RS which starts at $241,300. Now keep in mind that these numbers are without those infamous dealer markups or options.

As for the blue oval, most people believe that the Mustang badge just doesn’t carry the caché of something like a mid-engined exotic like the Ford GT. For context, when new, the 2016 Ford GT had a sticker price of around $400,000 and that car had Le Mans Genes. As a result, justifying a 300-grand price tag for the pony car may be a bit of a stretch. But with the GTD’s latest achievement, and it being a limited-run model (1,000 units) it may be worthy of commanding that steep asking price after all.

Also, this could be the start of a new-age competition between Ford and Porsche. Remember how Nissan shocked the world in the 2000s with the GT-R’s blistering Nürburgring time, beating out the then-997 Porsche 911 Turbo and the GT2? Well, Ford’s sub-seven-minute lap time, could be the beginning of a new rivalry between American and European automakers at the ’Ring, with the C8 Corvette ZR1 next in contention for a sub-seven-minute lap time.

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Source: biggarage.de