It seems like Ford still isn’t satisfied with the Mustang GTD’s Nurburgring lap times. While the Blue Oval hasn’t spoken much about its attempts, the automaker has obviously been hitting it hard there recently. Not only did it rent out the track for a private session, but it also had a massive tent set up with the Mustang GTD inside. If breaking the seven-minute mark is what Ford Performance is after, it’ll likely have to wait until 2025 to do so as the weather shut down its most recent chance.
YouTuber and racing driver Misha Charoudin, who knows the Nurburgring as well as anyone, posted a video that shows the Ford Performance tent with the Mustang GTD roaring on track in the background. However, since most of the track was wet, the ambient temperatures were low, and it was windy, Ford wasn’t able to push the 800-plus horsepower monster safely.
And if Ford wants ideal track temperatures to make its mark on the ‘Ring, it might have to wait until spring. The weather is only going to get colder as we head deeper into fall and eventually winter. Attempting such a lap time isn’t cheap, as it can cost hundreds of thousands of dollars for track rental and licensing fees, according to Charoudin. That isn’t including the cost of shipping the car, all of the required equipment, and the Ford Performance engineering team to Germany. Running a perfect, unhindered Nurburgring lap time is incredibly expensive, so Ford isn’t likely to waste everything on more bad weather as temperatures drop.
We just saw how much of a difference this made in the Mercedes-AMG One’s Nurburgring lap time—about five seconds. When the Germans recently took their F1-derived hypercar to the ‘Ring, they broke their own production car lap record. The only changes were the track and weather conditions.
Since Ford was already at the Nurburgring, it used that track time to shoot some b-roll with the $325,000 Mustang. Further proving that a Nurburgring lap time was Ford’s goal is the map of the track right under the “GTD” logo on the Mustang’s trunk lid. It’ll probably stay right there until they reach their goal, too.
No American car has ever broken the seven-minute mark at the ‘Ring. The Dodge Viper ACR got close in 2017, with a 7:01.3 time. Making history as the first American performance car to actually go that quick—with all the press surrounding the feat—is probably worth the time and money.
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