Motorsports is in Ford’s DNA, back to our founding. 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.

Drawing on lessons from the Rolex 24-winning Mustang GT3, it brings them to the road to take on the world’s best. But before that happens, the first Mustang supercar is proven out on the Nürburgring, the ultimate litmus test for production sports cars.

Mustang GTD was already the first sports car from an American automaker to set a sub-7-minute lap. Now it’s improved on that lap, with a faster time driven by track-proven updates and refinements: 6:52.072, making Mustang GTD the fourth fastest vehicle in the production sports car class.

Shaving 5.5 seconds off a Nürburgring lap is an achievement. Put in practical terms, after one lap of the 12.9-mile Nordschleife, that 5.5-second advantage would translate to being more than 800 feet further ahead. But the fact that the team did this on what is effectively (considering the weather on our past visits) our second attempt goes beyond incremental achievement.

The team spent the winter looking at where it could make gains, where it could improve reliability, and where those thousandths of a second could be clawed back. And it put those learnings into practice on the track, just like the Ford Performance Motorsports team does.

With the start of production this Spring, the Mustang GTD that will be delivered to customers exceeds the early production model that became the first car from an American automaker to lap the Nürburgring in under 7 minutes. Changes since August include:

• Revised chassis tuning with increased torsional rigidity
• Updated suspension hardware and alignment for even more precise, predictable handling
• Aerodynamic tweaks for improved downforce
• Powertrain calibration updates
• Revised ABS and traction control behavior
• New Active Spool Valve development

These changes were made after a second-by-second review of the August 2024 sub-7-minute lap and were proven out first on the simulator and then in April when the team returned to the Nürburgring for only its second good-weather track test since August. Additionally, Multimatic Motorsports driver Dirk Müller conducted additional simulation testing before setting the faster Nürburgring time.

The Mustang GTD is Nürburgring-tuned and heading toward production in Spring 2025. This team, from both Ford and Multimatic Motorsports, is proud of what it’s achieved and can’t wait for customers to get their hands on the most advanced, most track-capable Mustang ever.

Greg Goodall is chief program engineer, Mustang GTD