The American Nürburgring war is on.
On Thursday, Chevrolet came out swinging and announced the Corvette ZR1 and ZR1X both beat the Ford Mustang GTD’s Nürburgring lap time. It took less than two hours for Ford CEO Jim Farley to respond, “Congrats to the Corvette team. Game on,” he said.
The exchange took place on the Corvette Instagram account, where Farley just… dropped in and made the comment on the announcement post. That post, reads, “Corvette fans–we got ’em.”
It’s hard to be more crystal clear that Ford is going back to the Green Hell with the Mustang GTD to try and lap the track faster with its carbon fiber-bodied track weapon than Chevy just did with its Corvettes.
When? That’s anyone’s guess. But these things are logistical nightmares between getting cars and equipment over to Europe and renting the track to just praying to the weather Gods.
The Mustang GTD is a $330,000 affair. It was the first American car to cross the sub 7-minute mark at the Nürburgring, which is rarified air.
The Mustang GTD’s final lap time was 6:52.072, but that was the second attempt. The first time the Mustang GTD team reported it broke the 7-minute barrier the time was five seconds slower at 6:57.685. The team shaved five seconds during its second record attempt.
The Corvette ZR1 lapped the ‘Ring in 6:50.763. The ZR1X shaved over a full second off that at 6:49.275.
The math says Team Ford needs the Mustang GTD to shave nearly 3 seconds at the next go around.
It’s worth noting at this point the Mustang GTD is about 500 pounds heavier than the Chevy competition. And the Corvettes were driven by Chevy engineers, not race car drives. The Corvettes might have more in the tank. Seems Farley believes the Mustang GTD does as well.
Are you secretly breaking records at the Nürburgring? Let us know at [email protected].
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