When I heard we’d secured a new Ford Mustang GTD for a few days, the road trip part of the arrangement didn’t seem too important. Honestly, I just wanted one killer stretch of road and a racetrack to experience Ford’s most-focused and technically advanced Mustang ever created. Ever since visiting Multimatic last year and then watching the car’s subsequent Nürburgring Nordschleife lap record with wide eyes (short-lived though its record was), the GTD seemed the most badass car to be launched in years. I needed to experience it.
But the show is called Road Trip America, and Road & Track digital director Aaron Brown said the Catskills region of upstate New York was a must-see (and must-drive) location. He also arranged for us to visit the New York Safety Track, so everything seemed rosy. Three days, many miles, more gas burned than even our sponsor Shell could have imagined. And, most importantly, a chance to really get to know the GTD.
Many of the stats would appear to speak for themselves. The dry-sump 5.2-liter supercharged V-8 makes 815 horsepower and 664 pound-feet of torque. The GTD will reach 202 miles per hour and lap the ‘Ring in 6.52.072 thanks to all that power, along with an incredibly sophisticated suspension utilizing adaptive spool valve dampers and carbon fiber bodywork, dive planes, splitter, and a vast rear wing (complete with a DRS system) to generate substantial downforce. It’s a spectacular, intimidating-looking car that oozes intent, and calls to mind Daytona, Sebring, and Le Mans.
Ford and Multimatic left no stone unturned, even developing a new transaxle to help improve weight distribution, as well as that pushrod-operated rear suspension. The trunk is full of coolers, Track mode drops the car 40 mm, and the massive carbon-ceramic brakes sit behind Michelin Cup 2 R tires that are almost comically wide—325s at the front and 345s rear. It doesn’t sound too concerned with the road at all, does it?
And yet our Road Trip America format revealed a surprising story. Ride quality is firm but supremely controlled, and I actually found myself clicking the dampers up into Sport mode for added precision. The wide tires do hunt around, so it’s quite a busy car on the freeway, but once you’re on a winding, challenging stretch of tarmac the GTD feels composed, fluid, and incredibly accessible. There’s physicality, yes, but also surprising poise. You certainly know you’re in a Mustang—the scale and the noise tell you that—but it’s so far beyond the experience of, say, a Dark Horse, that it’s not comparable. The GTD belongs to a whole different world.
On track, it’s an absolute monster. The front-end response is incredible for such a big, heavy car. Traction is amazing, and it’s the way the car eats up curbs and strings a lap together with composure that stuns. The forces are big, the noise brutal, but once you delve a bit deeper the car displays fine balance and communicates beautifully with the driver. Despite its huge mechanical grip and downforce-enabled high-speed stability, the GTD still feels indulgent and even playful once you’ve pushed beyond the limit.
Oh, the roads? Yeah. Pretty beautiful, certainly varied, and spreading like vines across the whole region. The Catskills is all right. Go check it out. I’d recommend taking a GTD if you can, too. In the meantime, take a look at the video and enjoy the sights and sounds of the best Mustang ever made doing its thing.
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