21 November 2024

Ford Mustang GTD: A New Supercar Arrives in the UK at £315,000

3 min read

Ford has officially opened applications for UK buyers interested in its latest supercar, the Mustang GTD. With a starting price of £315,000, this high-performance vehicle is expected to deliver an impressive 800bhp, placing it in the same league as elite models like the Ferrari 296 GTB. This price tag positions the GTD significantly above the Porsche 911 GT3 RS, which costs around £193,000, making it clear that Ford is aiming for a different level of performance and exclusivity.

Designed for the Track, Awaiting Road Approval

The Mustang GTD has been engineered primarily for track use, but Ford is currently working to get it approved for road registration in the UK and Europe. If it fails to meet the necessary requirements, the GTD will be limited to track-only use in certain markets. Ford has promised to release WLTP fuel consumption data before the vehicle officially launches.

Potential customers in the UK have until July 19 to submit their applications, just a week after the Mustang GTD is set to make its debut at the Goodwood Festival of Speed. Production of the European models is expected to start in the spring of next year, although Ford has not yet confirmed whether the GTD will be available in a right-hand-drive configuration. Additionally, the exact number of units allocated to the UK market remains uncertain, though it is expected to be a very limited run, even more so than the Ford GT supercar, which ceased production in 2022.

Born to Compete with European Supercars

The Mustang GTD is the brainchild of a small group of Ford engineers who worked on the project in their free time at a storage garage in Michigan. Their goal was ambitious: to create a Mustang that could compete with the finest European sports cars. Ford has set its sights on achieving a sub-seven-minute lap time at the Nürburgring, which would place the GTD among the ranks of high-performance models like the Porsche 911 GT2 RS, Lamborghini Aventador SVJ, and Mercedes-AMG GT Black Series.

Ford’s CEO, Jim Farley, was enthusiastic about the new vehicle, stating: “The Mustang GTD breaks all expectations of what a supercar should be. This is a different approach for us. We didn’t create a road car to take to the track; we built a race car for the road. This is our challenge to the rest of the industry—come and take us on. I’ll race anyone in their best road car, and I’ll be driving a Mustang GTD.”

Partnership with Multimatic for Cutting-Edge Design

The Mustang GTD is a product of collaboration between Ford and Multimatic, the motorsport company that also worked on the Ford GT supercar. Essentially, the GTD is a road-legal version of the Mustang GT3, which will be competing at the 24 Hours of Le Mans next year. Its name derives from the GTD class in the IMSA Sportscar Championship, which is designed for cars built to GT3 specifications set by the FIA.

The Mustang GTD is poised to be the most powerful Mustang ever produced, with its supercharged V8 engine targeting over 800bhp. This power output surpasses even the 2019 Shelby GT500, which had 700bhp, and is more potent than Ford’s track-only GT MK IV, priced at £1.4 million and released in 2022.