The Ford Mustang GTD broke into elite territory at the Nürburgring Nordschleife last August when pro driver Dirk Müller clocked a sub-seven-minute lap (6:57.685, to be exact) behind the wheel. That alone was impressive, but Ford and engineering partner Multimatic weren’t done. After more development work, they’ve now managed a scorching new time of 6:52.072, once again with Müller in the driver’s seat.
Ford outlined what’s been improved on the car since that initial run:
- Chassis tweaks that increased torsional stiffness
- Suspension hardware and alignment changes for sharper, more confident handling
- Aerodynamic refinements to increase downforce
- Updates to the powertrain calibration
- Tweaks to ABS and traction control mapping
- Continued work on the Active Spool Valve system
It’s worth considering that Müller now has more seat time in the GTD, which almost certainly contributed to the quicker lap. Back in October, when Ford first took the car to the Green Hell, conditions weren’t ideal for chasing records. The weather may have played more nicely this time around, which always helps at the ‘Ring.
To put the time in context, that 6:52.072 lap places the Mustang GTD just ahead of the Mercedes-AMG GT Black Series and just behind the Lamborghini Huracán Performante. Sitting at the top of the Nürburgring leaderboard for production cars is still the Mercedes-AMG One, thanks to a 6:29.090 lap set by Marco Engel last September.