Game on! Ford is working on a more-extreme Mustang GTD

Ford CEO Jim Farley wasn’t joking when he said ‘game on’ back in August. That was his direct response to the Corvette team after their hybrid, 4WD, 1,250bhp ZRX1 blitzed the ‘Ring in 6m 49.3s, eclipsing the GTD’s personal best of 6m 52.1s… thus making the Chevy the new fastest American car to ever lap the Green Hell. 

To rub salt in the wound, the ‘standard’ ZR1 - with its 1,064bhp, twin-turbo 5.5-litre V8 powering the rear wheels alone - wasn’t far behind, posting 6m 50.7. But like all great, but ultimately pointless battles between two great American institutions… Ford isn’t taking this one lying down. 

Or so it would appear, according to these pictures of a suspiciously angry looking GTD taken at the Nürburgring earlier today. Clearly visible at the front are a set of downforce-boosting double dive planes. The front sills and splitter look more prominent too, while at the back it appears to be excreting its own exhausts – here’s hoping for something freer flowing and even fruitier sounding once this ugly mule becomes a tearaway ‘Stang. 

Remarkable really that Ford has found any headway to boost power and downforce when the standard cars produces 815bhp and 664lb ft of torque from its dry-sumped 5.2-litre supercharged V8, and 885kg of downforce at 180mph. It shouldn’t be hard to find some weight to shave though, given it weighs a porky 1,930kg in its lightest guise. 

We can only assume once the ‘Vette’s time has been beaten a handful of these more extreme models will be offered to the paying public, in addition to the 1,000 ‘standard’ GTDs that are being built. Those cost $325,000 in the US, or £315,000 in the UK (left hand-drive only), and using Manthey’s psycho upgrade kit for the 911 GT3 RS as a guide, expect this to add another £100k to the price. 

Fire up the pay-per-view and watch this space, this is one heavyweight battle you don’t want to miss.