Ford Now Owns The Fastest Nürburgring Lap Using Pure Gas
Ford is back at the Nürburgring, although not with the car we all expected.
The automaker just ran the track-only Ford GT Mk IV around the Green Hell, setting one of the fastest lap times ever recorded around the Nordschleife.
Wheeled by Ford factory driver Frédéric Vervisch, the GT Mk IV completed the 12.9-mile lap in 6:15.977, making it the third-fastest lap ever recorded at the circuit, easily becoming the fastest American car to loop the circuit.
More importantly, it's the quickest lap ever set by a car powered by pure combustion. That’s a rare flag to fly given the current leaderboard is dominated by electrified hypercars and prototypes.
The all-time Nürburgring record still belongs to the Porsche 919 Hybrid Evo at an absurd 5:19.546, followed by the Volkswagen ID.R electric prototype at 6:05.336. Ford's GT Mk IV lap slots in just behind those two, ahead of other recent high-performance electric entries, including the Xiaomi SU7 Ultra prototype and Lotus Evija. The next closest pure combustion car to the Mk IV is the Manthey-spec Porsche 991 GT2 RS with a 6:43.300 lap.
It’s worth noting that the GT Mk IV doesn’t qualify for official production car records. Unlike street-legal machines, the GT Mk IV is a track-only rig, built without road homologation. Because it's not street legal, the GT Mk IV doesn’t qualify for official production car records like the Ford Mustang GTD and Corvette ZR1X do.
The Mercedes-AMG One—with its Formula 1 powertrain— retains the production car benchmark. Still, the performance gap is mind-bending—the GT Mk IV’s lap is more than 14 seconds quicker than the AMG One’s record-setting run.
Introduced in 2023, the GT Mk IV represents the most extreme evolution of the modern Ford GT. Limited to just 67 units, each example is hand-built and priced north of $1.7 million.
The car features a heavily revised carbon-fiber body, a stretched chassis, and a race-spec transmission. Power comes from a larger version of Ford’s twin-turbocharged EcoBoost V6—3.8L compared to the standard GT's 3.5L unit—tuned to produce more than 800 horsepower.
AutoGuide's Take:
As someone who spent time as part of the GT program at Multimatic, this news makes me very happy. Congratulations to all my former colleagues who should be incredibly proud of the work they put in bringing this car to reality.
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An experienced automotive storyteller and accomplished photographer known for engaging and insightful content. Michael also brings a wealth of technical knowledge—he was part of the Ford GT program at Multimatic, oversaw a fleet of Audi TCR race cars, ziptied Lamborghini Super Trofeo cars back together, went over the wall during the Rolex 24, and wrenched in the intense IndyCar paddock.
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Being a sound purest, why didn't ford just install a coyote V-8 tuned to Roush track specs? Power would be about the same, but it would sound a whole lot better!!!