Ford has been spending a lot of time at the Nürburgring over the past couple of years chasing records with the Mustang GTD. The 815 hp supercar was the first from an American brand to break the 7-minute barrier and has since set a model best 6:52.072.
Unfortunately for Ford, the 1,064 hp Corvette ZR1 went on to beat it by posting a 6:50.763 time while the 1,250 hp all-wheel-drive hybrid Corvette ZR1X knocked another second-and-a-half off of that with a 6:49.275 lap.
A Mustang GTD has been back that the track this year and was reportedly witnessed putting down even faster times, but Ford hasn’t officially announced any.
What it has revealed is that a Ford GT MK IV driven by Ford Racing driver Frédéric Vervisch has set several all-time records at the 12.9-mile circuit with a 6:15.59 lap time. That’s the third-fastest lap ever and fastest for a purely internal combustion engine car.
The 820 hp GT MK IV is a track-only version of the mid-engine Ford supercar that first debuted with a street model in 2017. Ford has claimed the record for the fastest car at the Nürburgring that you can actually buy, as several of the $1.7 million cars remain available. The only cars faster than it were a Porsche 919 Hybrid EVO, which is a one-off unrestricted version of the 919 racing car, and Volkswagen’s electric I.D. R, which was purpose built for breaking track records and not offered for sale.
As a track-only model, the Ford GT MK IV’s time is listed in the prototype category, which also happens to be where the Corvette ZR1X’s is, since that model is not yet sold in Europe.
Chevrolet doesn’t currently sell anything like the GT MK IV, so it won’t likely be challenging its record anytime soon, but it is already working on the next-generation Corvette.
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