Ford GT Mk IV Sets American Car Nürburgring Record

It’s the third- (or fourth-) quickest ’Ring time ever for an automobile, and the quickest ever for a solely internal combustion-powered car.

Well, this was out of left field. Ford Racing apparently decided to take one of its Ford GT Mk IV cars, a $1.7 million track-only, limited edition version of its Ford GT supercar, and make an assault on Germany’s famed Nürburgring.

The result? It’s the fastest American car of all time around the legendary circuit, turning in a blistering time of 6:15.977 and besting the Corvette ZR1X for the American title. That time also makes it the third-fastest car ever to post an official time at the ’Ring, only bested by the Porsche 919 Hybrid EVO race car and the Volkswagen ID.R. You can watch the run here.

Well, actually, it’s the fourth-quickest time, but the Nürburgring doesn’t officially count the famous 6:11.13 lap of late German racer Stefan Bellof in a Porsche 956 because he set that time under “racing conditions,” or more specifically, during qualifying for the 1983 edition of the 1,000-kilometer sports car race. But Bellof’s time for years was considered the all-time record, until Timo Bernhard beat it in the 919 Hybrid Evo in 2018. (Click here to read our feature story about the 919 record run.)

In any case, it’s been roughly 10 years since the debut of the latest-generation Ford GT, which is something of a reason why this record run took place. It’s a car that carried on the lineage of the legendary GT40 that took Ferrari and the world by storm in the late 1960s at Le Mans, where it won three straight times. The race-trimmed version of the latest car was also designed to take on Le Mans, where it scored a class win.

The Ford GT Mk IV, like the base GT built in partnership with high-performance car and race car builder Multimatic, is limited to just 67 examples (yes, you can still buy one, apparently). While it’s a “production car,” it’s limited to track-only driving and is powered by a 3.8-liter twin-turbo V-6 version of Ford’s EcoBoost engine with 800-plus horsepower, which also makes it the fastest solely internal combustion-powered car ever around the 12.9-mile-long ’Ring. The Mk IV also boasts huge downforce and a distinctive long-tail design, a Multimatic race suspension, and a racing gearbox. So, no, you won’t be posing down any boulevards in it, just blasting around circuits.

To help make the assault on the Green Hell, Ford Racing turned to Multimatic and Michelin to make sure the car, driven by Frédéric Vervisch (a factory driver for Ford Racing with extensive experience at the Nürburgring), was tuned properly. Interestingly, the day of the run, April 1, was cold, so the car was top-speed limited to roughly 193 mph to make things safer.

Ford Racing billed this run as something of a mic-drop moment for the Ford GT. Consider it dropped. Your move, Chevy.

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