In early 2018, Ford was at Virginia International Raceway lapping its second-gen GT supercar on the 4.1-mile Grand Course with IMSA champion Billy Johnson at the helm. Contrary to appearances, spokespeople from The Blue Oval maintained that the whole thing was very casual, and they had no intention of chasing records that day. They were as shocked as everyone else when their professionally driven, hand-built half-million-dollar carbon fiber wedge bested the 2:40.02 production car record of the $150k(ish) Gen-V Dodge Viper ACR-E – piloted by Chrysler designer/executive/badass Ralph Giles – by stopping the clock at 2:38.62.
The fake nonchalance of the whole exercise, coupled with the overall elitist, Ferrari-esque vibe of the GT (Even if you had the money to buy one, Ford had to deem you worthy of GT ownership through an intensive application process), frankly, made us sick. But it also perfectly set the stage for one of our favorite moments of the last decade, which would come just one week later when General Motors happened to have VIR booked for some private workouts of its own.
With vehicle dynamics engineer/Mag-Ride guru/also badass Jim Mero behind the wheel, The General was completing validation testing on its pair of final-year supercharged C7 Corvettes. On January 30th, news came out that the perfected Z06 with the updated shock calibrations ran VIR Grand in 2:39.77, sneaking in under the aero-intensive snake’s former record and improving on the 2015 Z’s previous PR of 2:41.32 with the added benefit of the new supercharger lid and cooling enhancements from the 2017 model year. Not too shabby for a $100,000 sled!
The next day, GM raised the bar even higher by dropping the 2019 Corvette ZR1’s lap. The one-year-only, fire-breathing, 755-horsepower swansong for all front-engine Corvettes was able to complete the America’s most challenging 4.1 miles in 2:37.25, setting a new production car record and putting a sizable 1.37-second gap on Ford’s Unobtanium Canadian in the process all for less than one third the price!
Time to Run it Back!
Now, to close out 2024, GM is once again presented with the golden opportunity to rain on the parade of an extortionate Ford with its ultimate thunderhead: the 1,064-horse midengined C8 ZR1!
The target this time around stepped into the massive hole in the Ford Performance lineup left by the end of GT (and Mustang Shelby GT500) production post-2022. Dearborn has again tapped Multimatic to build them something quick… and expensive. The Ontario speed brokers have now been tasked with turning the new S650-generation Mustang into a legitimate Porsche 911 GT3 RS competitor. No small task, to be sure, but what they’ve come up with seems pretty serious. It’s called the Mustang GTD, and it rides on the same platform as the old GT500 and features a version of its supercharged 5.2L “Predator” V8 upgraded to 815 HP along with Multimatic’s trademark Adaptive Spool Valve dampers, a dual-clutch automatic transmission, and optional magnesium wheels all wrapped in a lightweight carbon fiber body and one of the most extreme aero kits ever fitted to a road car. Anyone looking for GT3 RS speed at a domestic discount will be disappointed as this exclusive ‘Stang with so many carryover parts from the $120,000 GT500 now starts at $325,000, overshooting even the Porsche’s pre-option and markup MSRP by some $80,000 – and it also features its own pretentious application process.
This time around, Ford has been running its new baby for the 1% overseas at the infamous Green Hell of Germany’s Nürburgring, with its sights on becoming the first US manufacturer to break the vaunted 7-minute mark on the grueling 12.9-mile track. They’ve apparently produced a documentary about the chase for 6:59, which will be released on December 10th, providing GM a textbook time to pounce!
Other than the obvious long-running cross-town rivalry and the natural big brother/little brother relationship between the older, more focused Corvette and Ford’s Pony Car, there’s an extra layer to our desire to see the GTD knocked down a notch or two.
Around here, there’s nothing we love more than seeing scrappy Detroit metal putting overpriced Euro snob machines in their place. Aside from all of the Corvette examples and the triumphs of the previously mentioned ACR, we had our foam #1 fingers out in full force when the second-gen Cadillac CTS-V shoved AMGs and M5s into lockers and stole their lunch money in 2009. A few years later, when the Boss 302 Laguna Seca punched the stalwart M3 in the mouth at its namesake track, we were once again cheering and beaming with national pride! At over $ 300 grand, though, this newest Mustang is anything but a scrappy, feel-good story. It has officially joined the stuffy bluebloods in standing with the elite (and a turncoat is a far more compelling foe than a steady and unflinching villain); it is a declaration that in the current year, it’s no longer Ford v. Ferrari, its Ford and Ferrari.
Of course, we’re still missing a few key variables vis-à-vis how well the ZR1 and GTD match up. On the Mustang side: Ford still hasn’t published the weight of its exotic pony. To approach the admittedly portly ZR1’s still dominant Corvette-record 3.71 weight-to-power ratio (for reference, the C7 ZR1 was hauling 5.56 lbs. with each horse, the current flat-plane Z06 sits at 5.44, and the benchmark C6 Z06 was saddled with 6.2 lbs. for each member of its stable of 505), the GTD will have to get from the 2020 GT500s beefy 4,225 lbs. all the way down to 3,026! The other elephant in the room is the ZR1’s price. GM hasn’t let that particular cat out of the bag as of yet. We’ve been very public about our qualms with the current, blue-collar-unfriendly pricing strategy of GM’s go-fast products, and it definitely won’t be cheap, but we’ll be absolutely shell-shocked if the twin-turbo monster doesn’t undercut the GTD’s base price by $100,000 or more, once again making the Veyron-level ZR1 an unbeatable bargain just like its predecessors.
What we do know is that a ZTK-equipped ZR1 prominently flying the Stars and Stripes was at the ‘Ring for a good chunk of the fall, and it’s quite possible that GM is already sitting on a sub-7 slip – it’d honestly be pretty devastating if a factory effort with nearly 40% more power couldn’t shave 11 or more seconds off of the already slightly disappointing Sport Auto C8 Z06 ET – all they have to do is drop that bomb, as they say, at the opportune moment next Wednesday!
Related:
[VIDEO] 2019 Corvette ZR1 Nails a Record Lap at VIR with a Time of 2:37.25
[VIDEO] More Track Action with the 2025 Corvette ZR1 at the Nurburgring
[VIDEO] 2025 Corvette ZR1 Returns to the Nurburgring
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