Ford Mustang GTD Returns to Nürburgring to Topple Chevy Corvette
Ford was open about its goal to claim the fastest American production car lap time at the famed Nürburgring. The Ford Mustang GTD was built with lap times in mind, and the carbon-bodied pony uses a lot of exotic racing car tricks to make the most of its 815-hp V8. Ford met its goal of a sub-seven-minute lap time on the Green Hell on its first outing, recording a time of 6:57:685 in late 2024, an impressive feat for a car that’s surprisingly easy to drive on track. Ford went back in the spring of 2025 and shaved five seconds off, recording a lap time of 6:52.072.
That achievement, as impressive as it was, ended up being short-lived. Team Corvette rolled into Nürburg earlier this year with a rear-wheel drive ZR1 and an all-wheel drive ZR1X prepped to take on Mustang’s title for fastest American production car around the vaunted circuit. Vehicle dynamics engineer Brian Wallace set a 6:50.763 time in the ZR1, while vehicle dynamics engineer Drew Cattell used the extra acceleration afforded by the electric-driven front axle to bring his Corvette ZR1X to a 6:49.275 lap. Ford’s CEO Jim Farley congratulated the bowtie team and welcomed the challenge.
At the recent first-drive event for the GTD, we asked chief program engineer Greg Goodall about the latest Ford vs. Chevy battle. “If you’re a competitor or a racer, losing a record’s not okay with you, right,” he asked. “You take that seriously. We’re very proud of being the first American car that went under seven minutes, so it didn’t take any time at all for us to rally the troops and decide that we’re going back.”
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https://www.hagerty.com/media/news/ford-mustang-gtd-returns-to-nurburgring-hopes-to-topple-corvette/
(photo credit: SpyPix | Hagerty)
