The Ford Mustang GTD has claimed the fastest Nürburgring Nordschliefe lap time by an American production car, breaking a record that was set in Sep. 2017 by the Dodge Viper ACR. The Mustang’s 6:57.685 lap bested the Viper’s 7:01, but it’s not the only record set in 2017 that the Mustang broke.
Earlier in the year, Chevrolet brought a 2017 Camaro ZL1 1LE to the 12.9-mile track to see what it could do, and, boy, did it do something.
The 650 hp coupe posted a 7:16.04 lap. That stands as the fastest time ever officially posted by GM in one of its vehicles, beating the 2012 Corvette ZR1’s 7:19:63. But it also established a record for American pony cars.
[We’ll note that both the Camaro’s and Corvette’s times aren’t perfectly comparable with the Mustang’s, as the lap clock started a bit down the circuit from where it did for the Mustang and cut about four seconds from each.]
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Now, plenty of people associate the term “pony car” primarily with the Mustang itself, but it refers to the class of compact affordable performance cars that originally competed with it in the 1960s. That includes the Camaro, the Pontiac Trans Am, the Dodge Challenger and the Plymouth Barracuda. The larger Chevrolet Chevelle, Dodge Charger and their ilk were the true “muscle cars” but there are certainly gray areas between the two and we can argue about that another day.
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Regardless. if there’s one thing the Camaro has never been it is a “sports car” in the same vein as a Corvette or Viper, and its Nürburgring time should be considered apart from theirs. While the Mustang GTD strays far from the rest of the Mustangs — with its 815 hp V8, pushrod rear suspension and extreme aerodynamic bodywork — it starts out with a stock body and is still technically a pony car at heart, so we think it can take that crown from the Camaro.
Sadly, the Camaro won’t be able to go for a record again anytime soon, and neither will the Challenger as they are both out of production with no direct replacements on the way.
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Chevrolet should soon have something to say about it, however. The 1,064 hp 2025 Corvette ZR1 has been testing at the track and Chevrolet told American Cars And Racing to “stay tuned” when we asked if a time would be released. The far less powerful 2019 Corvette ZR1 clocked an informal 7:05 lap during testing, so it’s very likely that the new one will give the $325,000 Mustang GTD a run for its money.