Ford GT Mk IV Posts Third-Fastest Lap Ever at the Nürburgring, Sets New Record

Ford has once again pressed the pedal to the metal on one of motorsport’s most challenging tracks. The GT Mk IV completed a lap of the Nordschleife in 6 minutes and 15.977 seconds, driven by Frédéric Vervisch, a Ford Racing factory driver. He completely tore it up, setting a lap time that will go down in history.

This moved the car into third place on the all-time rankings for the 12.9-mile lap. To put this in perspective, only the Porsche 919 Hybrid Evo from 2018 and the Volkswagen ID.R from a few years later are ahead. Not only that, but the Ford outpaced the Mercedes-AMG One by roughly 14 seconds, as well as the Xiaomi SU7 Ultra Prototype and Lotus Evija.

Frédéric has extensive Nordschleife experience. He has won the 24-hour event twice and is intimately familiar with the track. Every twist, elevation change, every blind crest is simply second nature to him. During this run, he described the GT Mk IV as a proper beast, an utter pleasure to drive and a true extension of the driver’s desire. Every input he provided was met with swift, exact replies, which gave him the confidence to push it even harder, such as up into Kesselchen and across the legendary Flugplatz leap. With the car handling like that, he could just let his foot down without hesitation.

The GT Mk IV was designed from the ground up to be a track-only machine. Production is limited to 67 units, each of which costs just shy of 1.7 million dollars. A new twin-turbocharged 3.5-liter EcoBoost V6 generates an impressive 800 horsepower and gets the job done. A larger wheelbase allows for more stable handling, while the carbon-fiber long-tail body provides almost 2,400 pounds of downforce at 150 mph. The Adaptive Spool Valve race suspension was built by Multimatic, and the power is sent to the wheels via a custom racing gearbox.

It was quite cold on the day they made the attempt, which meant regulators limited top speed to 192mph for safety reasons, but the GT Mk IV still delivered. The crew focused on getting the grip and balance just right rather than attempting to squeeze every last bit of speed out of the car, and the results were ideal for the Nordschleife’s mix of blisteringly fast straights, tight corners, and unexpected dips. That’s it for the third-generation Ford GT; it’s been ten years since the modern GT first arrived on the scene and won a class at Le Mans.

Ford currently has the fastest lap time ever recorded by an American manufacturer at the Nordschleife, and the result remains the fastest ever posted by a pure gas-powered vehicle. To top off the final edition of the limited-production Mk IVs on their way to their forever homes, it provides the fortunate few who receive one with a direct link to this specific time in racing history.
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