Inside the fascinating engineering that makes the Mustang GTD Ford's fastest ever

The Mustang GTD is the fastest car to ever come from the esteemed Ford series, but now we’ve been given a look under the hood to see how these magnificent beasts are made.

We’re some 60 years into Ford Mustang engineering.

It’s safe to say the new Mustang GTD has come a long way from the old pony cars from the 1960s – no matter how good those timeless classics are.

Following the release of the fastest car in the series, Ford has revealed how it’s managed to pump so many horses into the gallant, galloping goliath.

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Behind the building process of the Ford Mustang GTD

The Mustang GTD has already proven to live up to its speed claims, having shaved time off record laps around the Nürburgring.

It also stunned one of the greatest Mustangs of all time in a drag race, and it looked even quicker when legendary racer Max Verstappen got behind the wheel.

But how did it get so quick?

Well, The Autopian has now shared a video with Ford engineers describing the entire process.

Described by Ford as ‘a car no one asked for’, the Mustang GTD is a flexing of its muscles, showing what’s possible with the Mustang platform.

In the upload to Autopian, Todd Valentine, Project Manager, was quizzed about whether it is even a ‘Mustang’, but he soon broke down how they partnered with Multimatic to give it a racing identity.

“This absolutely starts off as a Mustang… but then we ship it to Multimatic, and they use plasma cutters to cut off some of the sheet metal so we can replace it with carbon fibre,” he said.

In other words, it’s still a Mustang at heart, but the GTD has been to the gym and come back like a jacked jock.

A 5.2L supercharged V8 engine and an 8-speed dual-clutch transaxle are perfectly set up to complement the pushrod/rocker suspension layout that handles corners at wild speeds.

But there are also a few ingenious tweaks that they made to beat the Nürburgring record.

How Ford beat the Nürburgring

Having shipped the Ford Mustang GTD to customers, there was still a lot to do in order to continue making gains around the German racetrack and set an American precedent.

Particularly, Valentine explained that the ‘flicks’ of the hood were changed on the fastest car to create more downforce.

“This is a direct result of the tuning that we did on the Nürburgring. This improves the centre of pressure, moves it forward by about 4 percent with zero drag effect,” he said.

Sometimes, it’s as simple as changing a few waves on the bodywork to create speed, but when it has 815hp stomping its hooves in the engine, it was always destined to be great.

The upcoming 2026 Shelby Super Snake-R promises to give it a run for its money, designed specifically for the track, but for now, the GTD reigns supreme.

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