The world of performance motoring is increasingly moving towards electrification, but no one seems to have mentioned that to a few engineers at Ford. The company has just unveiled the wildest pony car ever made by the factory, called Mustang GTD. The Mustang GTD was born from the concept of the Mustang GT3 race car returning to Le Mans next year. It may look like a racetrack refugee, but it’s a road-legal machine.

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“Mustang GTD shatters every preconceived notion of a supercar,” said Jim Farley, Ford president and CEO. “This is a new approach for us. We didn’t engineer a road car for the track, we created a racecar for the road. Mustang GTD takes racing technology from our Mustang GT3 racecar, wraps it in a carbon-fibre Mustang body and unleashes it for the street.”    

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Race Derived

Ford Mustang GTD driveline

The Mustang GTD is based on a completely new concept when compared to its siblings. The high-performance machine has a 5,2-litre supercharged V8 that boasts dry-sump lubrication. Ford is predicting about 600 kW of power when it makes it to showroom floors. As a result it is the highest horsepower street-legal Mustang ever developed by Ford.   

The engine sends power to the rear transaxle that features an eight-speed dual-clutch transmission. The rejigged powertrain layout is to achieve a 50:50 mass distribution across the axles. It even has a new, onboard rear suspension arrangement with pushrods and rockers.

Lightweight and High Downforce

The Mustang GTD shape was honed in the wind tunnel. The results are easy to see. Mustang GTD takes advantage of the extensive use of carbon-fibre to reduce mass. Body panels made from the lightweight stuff include the fenders, bonnet, cover that replaces the trunk lid, door sills, front splitter, rear diffuser and roof.   The aero package includes an underbody tray, hydraulically controlled front flaps to manage airflow and an active rear wing. 

Fightin’ Words

Ford says that the Mustang GTD is targeting a sub-seven minute Nurburgring lap time. As a reminder the current production car record is held by the Mercedes-AMG GT Black Series. 

Farley, who is quite handy behind the wheel isn’t mincing his words: “This is our company, we’re throwing down the gauntlet and saying, ‘Come and get it’. We’re comfortable putting everybody else on notice. I’ll take track time in a Mustang GTD against any other auto boss in their best road car.”