Track-bred 2025 Ford Mustang GTD revealed

The 2025 Ford Mustang GTD has been officially revealed just 24 hours after it was leaked online, confirming the ‘racer for the road’ won’t have a mid-mounted V8 but will be a street-legal coupe based on the Mustang GT3 race car and designed to take on Europe’s best supercars.

Described by Ford as “the most audacious and advanced Mustang ever”, the 5.2-litre supercharged V8-powered GTD was indeed developed in tandem with the factory-built Mustang GT3 to be the ultimate American performance car, and some of its preliminary numbers are certainly compelling.

Ford says it’s targeting a maximum output of 800hp (597kW) and sub-seven-minute Nurburgring lap time for the GTD, and its mountain of firepower will be supported by a new level of chassis and technical sophistication never before seen in a Mustang.

For starters, it has perfect 50:50 weight distribution courtesy of a rear-mounted eight-speed dual-clutch transmission, plus active aerodynamics, adjustable ride height, carbon-ceramic brakes, carbon-fibre body panels and drastically widened wheel tracks.

“We didn’t engineer a road car for the track, we created a race car for the road,” Ford CEO Jim Farley said.

“Mustang GTD takes racing technology from our Mustang GT3 race car, wraps it in a carbon-fibre Mustang body and unleashes it for the street.”

Underneath the lairy body is an all-new suspension architecture comprising a short/long-arm front-end and an integral-link pushrod/rocker arm rear-end, with inboard adaptive spool valve shock absorbers, adjustable coil springs and racing-derived geometry at all four corners.

All this is paired to a set of Michelin Pilot Sport Cup 2 tyres measuring 325/30 up front and 345/30 at the rear, encasing lightweight 20-inch alloy wheels.

Those fat tyres are housed within hugely flared front and rear haunches and contribute to the almost 100mm-wider tracks at both ends, while a Brembo carbon-cermaic braking package takes care of stopping duties.

Adding to the huge amount of mechanical grip is a new variable traction control system accessed via a controller on the steering wheel.

Like pretty much every stripped-out homologation special, the Mustang GTD’s interior is a far cry from the standard Mustang’s cabin design, featuring Recaro bucket seats, a rotary gear selector, Miko suede and leather upholstery, bespoke digital displays, carbon-fibre trim, titanium accents and no rear seats.

The rear pews have been removed in the name of weight-saving and cargo space, with the traditional boot now filled by the semi-active rear suspension, a hydraulic control system for the active aero and a transaxle cooling system.

“The hardware has been carefully selected and developed to enable blistering lap time performance,” said Ford chief program engineer Greg Goodall.

“The target for this project was clear – go much, much faster than we’ve ever gone before with a targeted sub-seven-minute Nurburgring time.

“This makes it the fastest road-going Mustang ever from Ford.”?

Ford is yet to confirm exactly how many Mustang GTDs it will make in collaboration with its high-performance vehicle production partner in Canada, Multimac, but has stipulated the model is a limited-edition that will have a base price of around $US300,000 ($A466,950) before on-road costs and customisation options.

Production is set to start next year ahead of first deliveries starting in the closing stages of 2024 or early 2025, but Ford Australia has confirmed the Mustang GTD won’t be coming to Australia because it won’t be made in right-hand drive.

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