For the last couple of years, Ford has been benchmarking the Corvette C8 Stingrays and Z06s. Speculation was rife that a mid-engine Mustang would soon be announced. Sources allegedly close to the project said that this new Mustang would be built by Multimatic, a privately held Canadian company that supplies parts and services to the automotive industry. Multimatic is the company that built the mid-engine Ford GT and hence has experience in building cars of this configuration.
The release of the Mustang GTD on Thursday, August 17th confirmed the car would be a 2025 model, limited edition high-performance street legal vehicle, with supercar performance. The use of an abundance of carbon fibre was confirmed, with the roof, hood, fenders, trunk lid, door sills, front splitter and rear diffuser all made in carbon fibre, plus a few other carbon fibre parts as options. The engine was revealed as a 5.2 litre supercharged V8, expected to produce some 800 HP (600 kW). The engine will be the first released in a Mustang for a road use with a dry-sump oil system. The engine is coupled to an eight-speed dual-clutch rear transaxle, which helps the car achieve an almost 50/50 front to rear weight distribution. The GTD will feature a rear track that is almost 4” (100mm) wider than a Mustang GT. The GTD will be built at the Flat Rock Assembly Plant but will be finished at Multimatic. Pricing will begin at about US$300,000 (A$470,000), with only some 2,000 expected to be built.
However, virtually within hours of releasing this rumour, US publication Ford Authority reported the online leak of this new Ford supercar. Footage of what Ford planned to call the Mustang GTD was released on line the day before the official announcement was due on August 17th, 2023. The footage, apparently from the special advanced release for a special group of people, showed a vehicle that was visually based on the upcoming Mustang S650 platform. The vision showed an aggressive looking vehicle fitted with multiple carbon fibre parts including huge side vents on both front and rear axles and displayed a very large rear wing.
One thing that was stated at the release is the Mustang GTD will not be built in RHD, so it will not be sold in Australia. What we certainly hope is that both cars in GT3 form will be seen racing in the GT World Challenge Australia, pitted against the likes of Ferrari, Lamborghini, Mercedes and Porsche. If you are reading this, I expect you are the type of person who might enjoy the scream of big US V8 engines in our Australian sports car racing.
So where will the Mustang GTD compete against the Corvette C8? The Mustang GTD is far more expensive than a Z06 Corvette C8, so there is no real competition between the two as road cars. Perhaps there will be some price equity with the release of the Corvette C8 ZR1 or Zora. The CEO of Ford, Jim Farley, stated to the media “Mustang GTD takes racing technology from our Mustang GT3 race car and wraps it in a carbon fibre Mustang body ….”. So, the Mustang will take on the Corvette GT3R in local and international GT3 racing.
