As Monterey Car Week kicks off, rumors are running hot about a new special Mustang. Will it be mid-engined? Will it be Laguna Seca-themed? It turns out, it could be neither. According to leaked photographs, the next hot pony car will be the Ford Mustang GTD, and it looks wilder than just about anything Ford’s ever done with the Mustang before.
On the face of it, the Mustang GTD — which has leaked, though it’s not exactly clear where from (MotorTrend sources the YouTube channel StangMode; then there’s the tweet above from 6th Gear Auto) — looks very much like a roadgoing version of Ford’s GT3 race car. From the wide fenders to the C-pillar-mounted rear wing, everything about this car seems inspired by sports car racing on some of America’s most prestigious circuits. However, look a little closer and differences will emerge. The headlights on the GTD are straight off the standard roadgoing car, the front bumper has DOT-spec amber retroreflectors hugging the wheel arches, the entire front grille is new, and the sills don’t prominently house full-length side pipes. Even the wheels ditch their centerlocks for a traditional five-lug bolt pattern. It seems that the Mustang GTD may bring a little bit of racing DNA to the road.
Believe it or not, Ford has actually teased the arrival of a GT3-style Mustang road car before. In a promotional video for the Mustang GT3, a brief shot of a model with five-lug hubs, amber reflectors, and the GT3’s wide fenders appears at a time marker of roughly 50 seconds. There’s a chance Ford slid this car right under our noses months ago. Here’s a screenshot:
The powertrain of the Mustang GTD hasn’t been revealed yet, but we’d be surprised if it’s identical to the five-liter 500-horsepower Coyote V8 and Tremec TR-3160 six-speed manual transmission combination found in the Mustang Dark Horse. Typically, when manufacturers go this crazy, they don’t keep the powertrain absolutely standard. In fact, beyond looks and a name, we don’t know anything about the Ford Mustang GTD. It doesn’t look like the rumored mid-engined Mustang because that thing supposedly wasn’t based on the standard S650 car. However, all shall be unveiled later this week in Monterey.
[Random Ed Note: Volkswagen sells a Golf GTD, a diesel version of the GTI. -DT].
(Photo credits: Ford Performance)
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Next shot what looks like the same car,(maybe) is coming of air jacks then doing a burnout out of the pits
That car got too many damn holes.
No thanks ICE Mustang Hybrid Mustang, EV Mustang, SUV Mustang, what next pickup Mustang? Ford is just slapping the Mustang name on everything. It is the later seasons of Eureka Mustang. If you have so many versions you cant tell it is a Mutt.
This will be priced so high you’d have to be crazy to get it over a Cayman GT4 RS or a C8 ZO6….but hot damn it looks awesome!
Should be called Cobra R. There’s precedence for homologation road race Mustangs, and the Cobra Rs are always by far the coolest Mustangs.
It’s $300,000.
That whole thing looks completely ridiculous and silly and over the top.
More of this, please.
I might be a man whose entire structural understanding of existence is based solely on the first three Fast and Furious movies, but that wing is hella rad! I will debate all challengers IRL in public forum, @ me.
Hella? Didnt that end with South Park Cartman?
It’s Bay Area tradition.
In my peasant opinion, Ford is friggen killing it with everything they do with the mustang these days. Praise.
*Except the Electric Crossover whose name we will not speak.
Why? Mustang! Yes everything is a mustang. Surprised no mustang pickup.
I know that the name is a coincidence, but I’m still imagining that a Mustang with a hottened-up Powerstroke diesel would be a lot of fun.
Anything else will be a major let down.
Only if it’s a 7.3L Powerstroke with a massive turbo
Shades of MG X Power SV. Things come full circle, I guess.
Gives me Aston Martin Vantage GT12 vibes in the best way possible. Also love the Cosworth RS style wing. Hope it comes to light
Whoops not a Cossie style wing was just something in the background
Ha – me too! That’s what I thought when I looked at it. I’m a little disappointed.
Huh? The wing is straight from the GT3, look at the video. It appears to be real, not a background illusion.
They literally just launched the new Mustang with a My Mustang Best Mustang version in the Dark Horse and a few weeks into that car being on sale we already have a more audacious one? I just can’t be bothered to care anymore and I’m someone who really likes pony cars. I’m sure this will be like $80,000 and then every single one will sell at $120,000 to rich Boomers who already have a Z06, CT5 V BW, and some Hellcat mothballed in their garage.
I’d be more interested in a track focused Ecoboost trim or a completely stripped GT trim of some sort than I am in another cash grab like this. Enough with the stupid goddamn limited editions already. Doge has a million. Ford has a million. The Camaro is dead but of course they’re milking as many of those sweet sweet Boomer Bucks as they can with a handful of special ones before they close up shop next year.
Yawn. BORING. If I ever buy a Mustang (and I sadly won’t, as I’ve said a few times my wife absolutely hates pony cars) it’ll probably be a well loved S550 GT350 or an S197 Boss 302. I feel like Ford is trying to eat into Corvette sales at this point and a Mustang is always going to be a 30-50k (yes I know the GT350 would run me a bit more) or so sketchy working class rocket to me. Stuff like this just misses the mark for me I’m afraid.
Bring back the GTS? Sign me up!
Yes and more yes. How cool would that be, a raw, performance focused machine that eschews the luxury touches/niceties? The closest thing available to the ethos of the original Shelby GT-350s.
Boss 302 was the last, “proper old school” Mustang to me. The Voodoo is neat, but at the time, a Coyote that revved to 7500 (and it could go higher) without a cross-plane design — and ergo, still that classic rumble — seemed relatively magical for what it cost.
I wanted one. Best I could find was $30K over, so new OG Boxster Spyder or Cayman R money. “For that money I could buy a Porsche. Call me when you’ll sell for MSRP” was my final reply to the owner of the largest Ford dealership in New England.
Got the call 18 months later. He had FOUR for MSRP. “Remember what I said?” He did.
Well, I did what I said I could do. Get effed.
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Always makes me wonder how many people never shop certain things again because they actually took the big step up. Think of all the people getting rolled paying well over for a CTR, Integra Type S, or GR Corolla right now. People who had Focus RS or GT350 issues. Subaru WRX STi S209 buyers who paid well over, kept it stock, and STILL had the thing blow up.
I was fortunate way back that I found a fair dealer to sell me a Lancer Evolution VIII MR at MSRP. I can genuinely say I’ve never met another GM of another mass market dealer that was as honest and as fairly as he ran the place.
I’m clearly not hatch passionate but even I think the people paying $50,000+ for GRCs, CTRs or 60+ for Type S’s are utterly insane. I’d actually started the process to get a GRC then when I realized what an absolute nightmare it was going to be I wound up in my N instead. I paid under MSRP. Is it as good of a car? Objectively speaking no, but it’s about 90% as good and it’s way cheaper.
GRCs have been on the road for a full year now and yet they’re still selling way over asking, and in the core models the interior is straight up econobox. Imagine paying $50,000+ for that. You’re in M2, CT4V BW, Zupra, etc. territory at that point. It’s just nuts. Hell if you want to talk Porsches you can find a nice certified 718 for that much money or a 6 cylinder Macan if you need the hatch versatility.
I agree on the Boss 302. I’ve been fond of them since they came out. I think it’s probably the coolest Mustang of the last 10-15 years or so and as you say it’s properly old school…but that was pretty much the exact time when they figured out how to make modern Mustangs actually handle and put the power down well. So you get all the older rawness but with a Coyote, limited slip diff, etc. Best of both worlds, if you will.
I just took a look at listings because of this conversation and there’s a yellow one with 45k miles on it and a clean Carfax listed for $29,000 and some change about an hour and a half from me. That’s not fuck it money of course but the performance per dollar ratio is nuts. Nicer ones near me are in the mid 30s and garage queens are in the low 40s.
Get em while you can, they’re going to be sought after in a few years and are at the bottom of their depreciation curves with the S650s hitting lots.
S197-refresh with the original Coyote is the first time I ever truly trusted a live-axle Mustang. I took a manual GT for a test drive, really hucked it on some garbage backroads, and when it took a mid-corner bump without a real hop and the rear basically did as expected, I was like, “Oh shit, they’ve gone done figured it out!”
Yeah, lots of cost cutting everywhere to get it down to that price, but honestly was solid for the money with a great engine. Had a few folks shocked when I started recommending them, a few listened, and one still has his GT over a decade later that’s been fine aside from expected squeaks and creaks.
Paying over $50k on any vehicle is ignorant. Because 80% arent worth it and the remaining 20% you cant use it. My cars got 18 million HP, IT can go 9,000 mph.
Wow how fast have you driven it?
Well 65 mph that is the speed limit you know.
And also 99% cant properly drive it.
I bought a Hellcat because I just couldn’t find a GT350 to buy.
Also bought a CTR because I couldn’t find a Focus RS to buy.
I even told the Ford sales people I was interested in TWO cars.
I’m basically done with Ford.
At least it’s not a crossover.
This.
I appreciate that they’re willing to let some engineers go crazy once in a while and to try to put something really neat out at a fair price given the likely capabilities. Let’s just hope people can buy it at that price, and then they actually drive the crap out of them.
Woof. Talk about over-styled and ugly. The front end looks very Kia-like, and Kia did it better.
IF this is real (and boy, that is hideous), the GTD name is most likely from the IMSA class name for GT3 (since for IMSA, everything must be about Daytona for some reason).
And then changed every few years seemingly just to confuse people. I’m an avid IMSA fan, and even I can’t keep it all straight anymore.