Green hell glory: Ford Mustang GTD sets a sub-7-minute Nürburgring time

ACM Entertainment

Only five production sports cars have achieved a sub-7-minute lap at Germany’s notorious Nürburgring. Can the street-legal Ford Mustang GTD join the sub-7-minute elite? Buckle up. Video supplied by Ford Motor Company.

Transcript

00:00Seven minutes feels like an eternity when you're waiting on something.

00:10We can't see him.

00:11We can't talk to him.

00:12We're just waiting for that roar to come back down the straight.

00:16The first thing is, I didn't get any change in tire pressure, so it's staying.

00:35This is his first time in the car since the third week of June.

00:38He felt that the car was down on power, that it was shifting rough, and a little bit concerned

00:44is everything working okay.

00:52He's going extremely fast, and he has to count on the car doing exactly what he expects it

00:58to do all the time.

01:01There's time pressure, but we've got to make sure we can tell him it's good to go.

01:12The Nurburgring has a history that's nearly 100 years old.

01:16It's 20.8 kilometers long, 73 curves, and 300 meters of elevation change.

01:28It's the world's most difficult track, because it's a very hard place to get around without

01:34crashing.

01:38It's super bumpy.

01:40Very fast corners.

01:42With incredible g-loads.

01:44Elevation changes.

01:45Speeds of 200 miles an hour.

01:49And it has a nickname, the Green Hell.

01:58This is the ultimate fitness test for a road performance vehicle.

02:05The Nurburgring lap time, it's the standard by which all performance cars are measured.

02:13You can't hide from a bad lap time at the Nurburgring.

02:20You can run under seven minutes, you join a very elite group of vehicles that have ever

02:23done that in the history of time.

02:25Even that target puts you in rarefied atmosphere.

02:28There's no North American manufacturer that's done a sub-seven lap yet.

02:34This would be a giant accomplishment, especially for its first attempt at going sub-seven minutes.

02:42And there's no hiding from failure.

02:47GTD is our top of the pyramid.

03:01It's unbelievable.

03:05It's the Mustang on steroids.

03:11GTD became something out of the GT3.

03:21When Jim Farley and Bill Ford came into the studio and saw GT3 for the first time.

03:25And he stood back for a minute and he goes, you know what?

03:27He says, we should do a road car like this.

03:31Yes, we got to do this.

03:34Usually you go road to race.

03:39This time we flipped it around.

03:41We went race to road.

03:44We want to make a road car that was actually even more technologically advanced than racing

03:48cars.

03:49So we can go as fast as possible around the track.

03:53So if you want that car to be fast, this is what we got to do.

03:59It took all the good things from racing.

04:01The latest braking technology.

04:03Active aero and the gearbox being at the back of the car.

04:07Basically a prototype race car suspension.

04:09All the bodywork on the GTD is carbon.

04:12So the car's an absolute rocket ship.

04:14Everything taken to the absolute limit.

04:17Supercharged V8s up at 815 horsepower.

04:21And it just feels awesome.

04:24It is the best Mustang ever.

04:29That supercharger roaring that you hear is just screaming at you.

04:41Our mission with GTD is pretty simple.

04:46Go beat the Europeans on their turf.

04:51That's the Nürburgring.

04:54Nürburgring.

05:02Yeah, the Nürburgring is famous for having unpredictable weather.

05:06It wasn't going to rain this morning.

05:08As you can see, a little wet, but the sun's breaking through.

05:15It says by 7pm, full sun.

05:19Team has worked too hard to not be able to run today.

05:23We just need a break here, man.

05:25The team deserves more than this.

05:27Yeah, exactly.

05:29Keep fingers crossed.

05:30We're not done yet.

05:31We are not done yet.

05:34It is very typical for it to be bright sunshine in one part of the course

05:38and absolutely downpouring rain in other parts.

05:42And every five minutes it would change.

05:44You could not plan on what's the best next step.

05:49To go sub-seven, you need a perfectly dry track everywhere.

05:52You add in one wet corner, you're done.

05:57And it could happen from one lap to another.

05:59And that's what makes it extremely crazy.

06:02Jörg is going to run the course.

06:04If it's dry enough, he'll be back here and be ready to go.

06:12These concrete walls, there's not only paint on it,

06:15there's a lot of car material on it from crashes.

06:22Any mistake, you're in the trees, in the guardrail.

06:25There's no runoff.

06:29You've got to be 100% committed

06:31and counting on the equipment to bring you through.

06:38We have a lot of great race car drivers,

06:40but Dirk Mueller was the obvious choice to put into the driver's seat

06:43to set this lap time.

06:44He knows that place like the back of his hand.

06:52I'm a big, big Nürburgring Nordschleife fan.

06:58I've done a lot of laps in the simulator

07:00in order to get ready for the Nordschleife.

07:05Nordschleife is a long track, so you need to have good preparation.

07:08You need to be ahead of what's coming up, corner by corner.

07:13And this is preparation for the famous carousel.

07:17Probably one of the most important corners.

07:21You can only lose time here.

07:23You will never really gain.

07:28If you're too fast, you lose it at the exit.

07:31You just need to nail it.

07:33And if you're going in just too slow,

07:36lap time is lost.

07:42To get a car developed,

07:44it takes a small group of dedicated people.

07:47They usually do their work in silence when no one's watching.

07:51When you have engineers who dream of working on a project like this,

07:55when you set a goal like that,

07:58they know that they have to deliver.

08:02This car is very special,

08:04but it's only special because of how talented the team is

08:06and the blood, sweat, and tears they pour into this.

08:10The guys on this program have ownership

08:13in the application of the technology that's theirs.

08:17Ford Performance Team are a pretty special organization within Ford.

08:23We care about this car more than you could ever imagine,

08:25and we want this car to go down in history

08:27as one of the best performance vehicles ever.

08:31We all knew it was going to be a compressed timeline

08:34and a challenge, of course.

08:36We worked pretty much 24-7 for two years,

08:39so it's been a mammoth task.

08:42When we go into seven,

08:43we'll know that working with the engineering team

08:46will have completed the task that was put in front of us.

08:52Yes, it's going to be tough, it's going to be challenging,

08:54but that's what we do.

08:59We've got the car ready,

09:01but now we're in the hands of the ring.

09:05We are preparing the car for its run.

09:09All these guys from around the world

09:11are preparing for this one ultimate lap.

09:15And it's nerve-wracking,

09:17because it's all dirt at this point.

09:21Let's get the tires.

09:29You have ten minutes.

09:33Blankets!

09:42Clear.

09:44You're good to go.

09:48This is a really special effort,

09:50and it takes a lot of people putting their heart and soul into it.

09:55And all I would say to all of them is thank you,

09:58and I hope you lay it all on the **** damn line.

10:12It's incredibly nerve-wracking,

10:14waiting for the car to come around.

10:19Those seven minutes are the longest seven minutes you've ever seen.

10:26The slightest mistake will cost you.

10:30You've got to be ready for it.

10:33You've got to be ready for it.

10:36You've got to be ready for it.

10:38The slightest mistake will cost you half a second.

10:52Time is standing still.

11:09If we can do this,

11:12nobody can take it away from us.

11:38This has been a lot of work leading up to this,

11:41and a lot of people that are back home,

11:43watching what happened today.

11:52This business is a lot of hard work.

11:54Twenty-four hours, seven days a week,

11:57and then these moments are the moments that makes it all worth it.

12:04That sounded quick.

12:09A year ago, we told the world what we were going to do,

12:12and we told them who we were going to compete with,

12:14and what technologies we were going to use to do it.

12:16So now this is our opportunity to go into their backyard

12:19and pick a fight.

12:23Go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go.

12:28But nothing's official until you see it in real time.

12:31Holy shit, 6.57.

12:37The target for today was up 7, and we got it,

12:39so that's impressive.

12:42I tried so much.

12:43I was so much faster than ever before.

12:45I just drove by feel,

12:47and then I just laid everything on into the last lap,

12:50and it was really cool.

12:55I wish I could do it again.

12:57It was really cool.

13:01I wasn't sure this day would come, but it has come,

13:04and we're now in the club.

13:06We made it in the club.

13:09We need to do some celebrating tonight for sure.

13:15I think the GTD is a special project.

13:17It doesn't come along very often, maybe once in a lifetime.

13:21But we're not done.

13:23That's what gets us up in the morning,

13:25over and over and better and better.

13:31Not only we achieved the sub-seven lap,

13:34we achieved it in sub-optimal conditions.

13:36The car has a lot more to offer.

13:39We know there's more in the car.

13:41We know there's more in the track.

13:43We know we can do better.

13:48Mission accomplished for today.

13:51We'll see what future brings.

13:53We'll be back.

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