New £230k Ford Mustang GTD is firm’s most powerful road car

A targeted output of more than 800bhp from the supercharged V8 makes the GTD the most powerful Mustang yet created, outpunching even 2019’s snarling 700bhp Shelby GT500. It's even more powerful than the £1.4 million, track-only Ford GT MK IV revealed last year.

The bespoke 5.2-litre engine is larger than that fitted to the standard road-going Mustang and packs a suite of motorsport-derived modifications – including dry sump lubrication, dual air inlets and a titanium active-valve exhaust system (which generates “exceptional notes”) – in pursuit of Lamborghini-aping performance figures. 

Drive is taken directly from the back of the engine to a rear transaxle gearbox by a carbonfibre propshaft. The material reduces weight overall, but also reflects the fact that because it’s taking the drive directly from the engine rather than a gearbox, it spins at engine speeds of over 7500rpm. 

GTD hosts complex, race-honed suspension

So too is the chassis radically different to that of the standard Mustang. Up front, the GTD's suspension set-up is a sophisticated take on the classic unequal-length double-wishbone design, with a single triangular wishbone at the top and two individual links at the bottom. The two front coilover suspension units also incorporate Multimatic’s Adaptive Spool Valve (ASV) damper technology, which can select from an array of damper settings on the fly in milliseconds under software control.

The coilovers have two coil springs each rather than the usual single spring. One is softer than the other, and for track mode, completely compressing it with a hydraulic mechanism increases the spring rate by leaving only the single, stiffer spring in play. Doing so also reduces the ride height by 40mm compared with the road setting. 

The steering is rack and pinion and a hefty anti-roll bar runs across the front of the V8.

The eight-speed dual-clutch gearbox and rear suspension are mounted on a tubular steel frame in an altogether more race-like set-up, with horizontal in-board coilover units hooked up to the rear, integral-link double-wishbone suspension by pushrods and rocker arms. Like the front coilover units, the rears are based on ASV technology and are linked to the front. They are also fitted with two coil springs each.

Thanks to the rear-mounted transaxle, weight distribution is 50% front, 50% rear and there’s a variable traction control system the driver can adjust without moving their hands from the wheel.

The GTD has a track that's nearly 100mm wider than that of the standard Mustang, which together with massive 325mm-wide front tyres (wider than the rear tyres of the GT) boosts grip and cornering stability substantially.

Stopping power is from Brembo brakes with carbon-ceramic discs all round – engineered to resist fade under repeated loads – and the rears are cooled by ducted air.

Styling inspired by GT3 racer

Buyers are offered a choice of 20in forged aluminium wheels or optional magnesium items modelled on those worn by the GT3 racer.