It’s time for another visit to Nürburgring Lap Time Corner, because as Ford and Chevrolet duke it out for supremacy among American manufacturers at the fearsome German circuit, the former brand has just laid down a serious gauntlet.
You may remember back in May of last year, Ford’s 815bhp, GT3 racing-inspired Mustang GTD clocked a 6:52.07 lap around the fabled 12.9-mile Nordschleife, cementing it as the fastest American car ever around the track. That record stood for all of a month until crosstown rivals Chevrolet turned up with both the slightly unhinged 1064bhp Corvette ZR1 and entirely unhinged 1250bhp ZR1X, the latter doing a 6:49.28 lap, and knocked the GTD from first to third in one fell swoop.
Well, now Ford has made some tweaks to the Mustang GTD, and it’s gone faster than the Chevy. Quite a lot faster, in fact: an updated version called the GTD Competition has just done a 6:40.84 lap, once again in the hands of Ford factory racer Dirk Müller.
How has Ford found over eight seconds on the ZR1X? For starters, its 5.2-litre supercharged V8 has been subject to updated hardware and ‘aggressive tuning’, pushing it to an unspecified figure north of the original 815bhp.
There’s some more aggressive aero too, including a tweaked rear wing – still with a drag reduction system for straights – extra front diveplanes and some excellent Manthey-style carbon aerodiscs on the rear wheels. The rather hefty GTD has also seen some weight reduction, with new magnesium wheels, lighter carbon bucket seats and new dampers among the lightweighting measures. A new set of unspecified high-performance tyres complete the changes.
Ford Mustang GTD Competition team celebrates Nürburgring lap time
There is a rather big asterisk attached to all this at the moment: the GTD Competition isn’t yet on sale, so it can’t yet compete for the all important production car lap bragging rights. Even among the pre-production and prototype cars it’s currently listed among, though, it sits sixth overall, behind only properly bonkers stuff like the Volkswagen ID. R and Porsche 919 Evo.
However, Ford has confirmed plans to offer the GTD Competition as a limited edition model in the future (as if the regular GTD wasn’t limited enough already), with North American applications for a build slot opening today. Assuming it can go as fast again once it’s gone on sale, it’ll be the second-fastest production car ever around the ’Ring, behind only the Mercedes-AMG One, a car with a literal Formula 1 engine. Your move, Chevy.
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