If anyone was still making jokes about American cars not being able to take corners, this should shut them up. The Ford Mustang GTD has just become the fastest car from the States to ever lap the Nürburgring Nordschleife, banging in a 6min 57.685sec lap to break the seven-minute target Ford had set itself.
It was piloted by Dirk Müller, a German racing driver who currently drives the GT3 racing version of the Mustang in the IMSA SportsCar Championship. The lap makes it not only the fastest American car ever but the first to tackle the fearsome 12.9-mile in under seven minutes, a goal laid out by Ford CEO Jim Farley in August last year.
There are plenty of elements working together in the GTD to make this lap possible, not least its almighty 5.2-litre supercharged V8 that produces 815bhp – the most powerful engine Ford’s ever put in a road car.
It also has a full carbon fibre body, active aero with a drag-reduction system, and brain-hurting complicated semi-active spool valve suspension that drops the car by a whole 40mm when it’s in Track mode. As is usually the case with Nürburgring runs, the car that did the lap differed slightly from the one that’ll soon make its way to customers, with a mandated racing seat, five-point harness and roll cage fitted.
Ford Mustang GTD team celebrates Nürburgring time
The lap means the GTD just barely misses out on being one of the 10 fastest production cars to lap the ’Ring, but it might not stay that way for long. Farley says: “We’re proud to be the first American automaker with a car that can lap the Nürburgring in under seven minutes, but we aren’t satisfied. We know there’s much more time to find with [the] Mustang GTD. We’ll be back.”
The other question is, how long will it remain the quickest American car at the Nürburgring? We have to imagine Chevrolet is cooking up plans to send its wild new 1064bhp, 233mph Corvette ZR1 around the track too. You can keep your Superbowl: this is the big American sporting event of 2025 that we’re most excited about.
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