![The road-legal Ford Mustang GTD race car records a time of 6 minutes 57.685 seconds at the Nürburgring [Video]](https://wheelfeed.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/2840-1761204283982.jpg)
Ford Mustang GTD
First American-made car to achieve a sub-7-minute time
The Ford Mustang GTD, developed with the concept of a road-legal GT3 racing car, recently completed a time attack at the Nürburgring, becoming the first American-made production sports car to achieve a time under seven minutes.
The Nürburgring Nordschleife, a world-famous German race track known as the mecca for sports car development, saw Ford, Ford Performance and Multimatic bring the development-ready Ford Mustang GTD to the track, becoming the first American car to achieve a sub-seven-minute time.
Dirk Muller, official driver for Multimatic Motorsport, took the wheel of a Mustang GTD boasting a maximum output of 826 PS and set a time attack on the Nürburgring Nordschleife, known as the “Green Hell.” He set an officially certified Nürburgring record of 6 minutes 57.685 seconds, making it the fifth fastest time for a production sports car.
The sub-seven-minute time cleared the goal set by Ford CEO Jim Farley when the Mustang GTD was unveiled in August 2023. Following this record-breaking achievement, CEO Farley expressed his enthusiasm for further breaking the record.
“The Mustang GTD development team has taken what they’ve learned from decades of track racing to create a Mustang that can compete with the best super sports cars in the world. We’re proud to be the first American manufacturer to offer a car that can lap the Nürburgring in under seven minutes, but we’re not satisfied. There’s still time left for the Mustang GTD, and we’ll be back.”
Official video “The Road To The Ring” released
Ford has produced a documentary video, “The Road To The Ring,” that follows the Mustang GTD’s Nürburgring attack and has released it on its official YouTube channel.
The Mustang GTD’s success at the Nürburgring was the result of two years of hard work by a small team of engineers and designers who transformed the Mustang GT3 race car into the first ever road-legal super sports car.
The Mustang GTD is powered by a custom-developed 5.2-liter supercharged V8, the first Mustang to feature a dry-sump engine, and features a lightweight carbon fiber driveshaft and a rear-mounted eight-speed dual-clutch transmission for near 50:50 weight distribution.
Ford has produced a 13-minute documentary video, “The Road to the Ring,” that follows the Mustang GTD’s Nürburgring time attack. The documentary video was released on Ford.com, the official Ford YouTube channel, and Facebook.
The film features extensive footage of the Mustang GTD’s development, from development circuit testing at Sebring to test sessions at the Nürburgring. It also features appearances from CEO Farley, driver Muller, Multimatic Chief Technical Officer Larry Holt, Mustang GTD Chief Program Engineer Greg Goodall, Mustang GTD Design Manager Anthony Collard, and many other members of Ford and Multimatic.
