The Mustang GTD is Ford’s answer to the question nobody asked but everybody wanted: what if you built a street-legal race car with zero compromises? Now that many auto journalists and YouTubers have had their turn behind the wheel, the rest of us can finally see what this insane Mustang is all about.
There are plenty of reviews online already, one Google search away. What you’ll find here are the weird facts, crazy options, and overall madness around the mighty GTD, pulled from the geekiest parts of those reviews.
How The Mustang GTD Came To Be
When Ford CEO Jim Farley looked at the GT3 Mustang race car, which is capped around 500 horsepower, he basically said, "Let’s make one with no limitations for the street." That thought gave birth to the Mustang GTD, Grand Touring Daytona.
Under the hood is a Ford Performance-engineered supercharged dry-sump 5.2-liter V8 producing 815 horsepower and 664 lb-ft of torque. Top speed pushes 202 mph, and Ford fitted the car with active aero like a drag reduction system straight out of motorsport. The numbers aren’t just for show either. The GTD lapped the Nürburgring in under seven minutes, a feat reserved for the world’s most extreme machines. It is the sixth production sports car to complete an officially certified sub-seven-minute lap around the Green Hell.
Suspension You Can Actually Watch
The hardware alone is wild, but the details are what set it apart. Take the in-board suspension, for example. Instead of being mounted at the wheels, the dampers sit deeper in the chassis with a pushrod design. That’s racecar stuff. Switch into Track mode and the suspension drops about 1.5 inches and stiffens up instantly. Plus, Ford went further and put a window inside the cabin, so you can literally watch the coil-overs working in real time while you drive.
Aero That Renders the Trunk Unreachable
Then there’s the aero. The carbon bodywork and optional magnesium wheels already scream race car, but the fixed rear wing makes the point even louder. It’s bolted to the C-pillars, and it’s so massive it blocks any normal trunk use. The trunk itself is filled with cooling gear for the rear transaxle, so there's no actual cargo space under the lid. If you really want to access the area, you unlock the car, pull two pins, and remove the trunk lid completely. But you won’t be tossing groceries back there.
Wild Options And Secrecy
Ford also offers bizarre and exclusive options. Buyers can pay extra for a “color lockout” so no one else can get their GTD finished in your one's color! Pricing for most of these add-ons isn’t public, and Ford only shares the details with actual buyers. Some of the rumored touches, like fighter-jet-derived paddle shifters, only add to the car’s mystique.
Performance That Rivals Supercars
Performance numbers tell the rest of the story. The GTD hits 60 mph in about 2.8 seconds and 100 mph in just over six. It pulls more than 1.1 g in corners and stops from 70 mph in 132 feet, thanks to carbon-ceramic brakes. Everything about this car is over-engineered and over-the-top. The GTD is a car built to live on the track without sacrificing the street side of things. Though “street car” feels like a stretch with a machine like this.
A Limited Run Of American Madness
Ford plans to build somewhere between 300 and 700 units, and the 2026 model year is already sold out. Scarcity will only make it more legendary. As Mustang GTD Chief Program Engineer Greg Goodall put it, the mission from the start was clear: build the first Mustang that’s truly a world-class supercar, without losing the soul of what makes a Mustang a Mustang.
This is more than just Ford flexing its engineering capabilities on other marques. It’s the closest thing to a race car with license plates that we may ever going to see wearing a Mustang badge, and it’s completely unhinged. In the best way possible.
Images: Ford Media Center
