This May Be the Only Chance Left to Buy a Ford Mustang GTD

To say the Ford Mustang GTD has been eagerly anticipated is an understatement. Ford closed the GTD’s application window in North America for the 2025 and 2026 model years on May 21, with over 7,500 applications filed for the $325,000+ limited-production supercar. It appears that you can’t even buy Mustang GTD merchandise any longer: Everything, including the $80 T-shirt that was offered by Ford, is sold out.

If you missed the North American window on the car itself, there’s one more path left to buying a GTD—but you need to be willing to move to Europe. “Mustang GTD’s arrival in Europe comes as the continent prepares to begin accepting applications from prospective owners,” Ford says. You can’t apply yet, though—details on how you can will be released in June.

Meanwhile, by “Mustang GTD’s arrival in Europe,” Ford means that the car will cross the Atlantic for the 24 Hours of Le Mans, which runs on June 15-16, and then the Mustang GTD “will also take to the roads of Europe for testing that will pave the way for an official timed run in the fourth quarter of 2024 at the famed Nürburgring Nordschleife.”

Last September, Ford essentially promised a sub-seven-minute lap at the Nürburgring, thanks in part to “active aerodynamic tech never before used on a street legal Ford car and illegal in GT3-class race cars. The heart of Mustang GTD’s aerodynamic performance is its Drag Reduction System, which uses a hydraulic system that can change the angle of the rear wing and activate flaps under the front of the car to find exactly the right balance between airflow for speed and downforce for grip, depending on performance conditions,” Ford says. The top speed, according to the company, is over 190 mph.

A certified lap of under seven minutes would likely put the Mustang GTD on the roster of the 10 fastest production cars ever at the ‘Ring, according to this list. The 1049-horsepower Mercedes AMG ONE, with a lap time of 6 minutes, 35.18 seconds set on October 28, 2022, remains the fastest production vehicle on the circuit.

None of the cars on the top-10 list are American-made. The GTD team wants to change that.

“With Mustang GTD, we set out to build a road-going race car with the heart of a Mustang and the will to beat Europe’s best. Since opening applications to North American consumers, we’ve seen customers respond to that motivation,” says Mustang GTD Brand Manager Jim Owens. “Whether they own a rival’s sports car or have another Mustang in the stable, the Mustang GTD’s race-derived performance is registering.”

To that end, “Every surface, body opening and vent on and under Mustang GTD’s body is functional,” says Greg Goodall, Mustang GTD chief program engineer. “Some air is directed for cooling, other for aerodynamics and downforce. All of it to help GTD go faster or stick to the pavement no matter what the conditions are. Our Le Mans drivers would love to have the technology Mustang GTD has for the track and street.”

Of course, having in excess of 800 horsepower available from the 5.2-liter, supercharged V-8 doesn’t hurt, either. “Mustang GTD shatters every preconceived notion of a supercar,” says Jim Farley, Ford president and CEO. “This is a new approach for us. We didn’t engineer a road car for the track, we created a race car for the road. Mustang GTD takes racing technology from our Mustang GT3 race car, wraps it in a carbon fiber Mustang body and unleashes it for the street.” It will be the most powerful street-legal Mustang in the car’s 60-year history.

There are, as we’ve told you before, Brembo ceramic brakes to make it stop, and an eight-speed rear transaxle connected to a carbon fiber driveshaft to make it go. “Recaro front seats optimized for track days are complemented by available 3D-printed titanium paddle shifters, rotary dial shifter and serial plate, all made from retired Lockheed Martin F-22 titanium parts. The rear seating area has been removed to reduce weight and provide cargo space,” Ford says.

The Mustang GTD will be built at the Ford Flat Rock Assembly Plant near Detroit, and then transported to Multimatic facilities in Markham, Canada, where it will be “handcrafted for racing-inspired precision by the Ford Performance and Multimatic teams,” Ford says.

As for that trip to Europe: “We’ve tested the Mustang GTD in North America extensively, including laps at Sebring International Raceway and Virginia International Raceway. This has all been in service of engineering a car that can lap the Nürburgring in under seven minutes,” says Goodall. “Moving onto European roads and dedicated test sessions at the Nürburgring is the next step, ahead of a timed run later this year.”

According to the ever-present spy photographers stationed around the track, the Mustang GTD is already there.

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