The Road-Legal Ford Mustang GTD Is A Race-Bred 911 GT3 RS Beater

For the last couple of generations, the Ford Mustang has done a pretty good job of challenging preconceptions we have about the car. It’s never exactly been thought of as a proper driver’s machine, but for the fifth-gen ‘Stang we had the scalpel-sharp GT350R, and now there’s this for the sixth-gen version - the Ford Mustang GTD. And it’s a lot.

Yes, we’re aware it shares part of its name with a sporty diesel Volkswagen Golf (we suspect a few people over at Wolfsburg might be a bit irked), but we’d much rather focus on the engineering details. There’s one that stands out in particular - the size of the tyres. They’re 325mm wide at the front. That’s a width we’d associate with rear tyres on a car like this, but here, the ones at the back are 345mm wide - as big as what was used for the Ford GT.

There’s another GT link here, as Mustang GTDs will be shipped over part-way through the production cycle from the Flat Rock, Michigan assembly line to Multimatic in Canada. It was Multimatic, remember, that built the GT, and is responsible for the new Mustang GT3 racing car, which the GTD was developed in tandem with.

The GTD gets an exceptionally fancy version of Multimatic’s Dynamic Suspensions Spool Valve (DSSV) dampers, with the rear pair mounted inboard and actuated via pushrods. They’re semi-active and can vary both the spring rates and ride height. Making the GTD work for both the track and the road (yes, this will be road-legal), it’s possible to lower the ride height in Track Mode by a whopping 40mm. The tracks, by the way, are a chunky 100mm wider than those of a Mustang GT.

Under the Mustang GTD’s vented bonnet is a 5.2-litre supercharged V8, for which we don’t have an exact power figure, but Ford says it’s targeting an “estimated 800 horsepower”. Drive will make its way to an eight-speed dual-clutch transaxle transmission via a carbon fibre prop shaft.

That’s far from the only use of carbon fibre for the GTD - the body uses the stuff extensively. It’s a suitably angry-looking car, with front wings dominated by louvred vents, a sizeable front splitter and, of course, a very big rear wing. On the aero front, there’s quite a lot of active trickery going on, with hydraulically controlled front flaps tweaking airflow that ends up at the big wing. There’s also a carbon fibre aerodynamic undertray.

The press release doesn’t include any interior snaps, but we are at least told to expect lashings of Miko suede, leather and carbon fibre, plus Recaro seating and a digital dash. There’ll be plenty of neat touches, including 3D-printed titanium paddle shifters and a serial number plate made from titanium derived from retired F-22 Raptor fighter jet parts.

None of this sounds terribly cheap, so it’s not hugely surprising to see the US MSRP listed as $300,000, which is about £236,000. The GTD will be available somewhere between late 2024 and early 2025.