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.
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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.