Ford Dealership Showdown: The 2025 Ford Mustang vs. the 2025 Ford Mustang GTD
Posted at Thu, May 22, 2025 6:21 PM
The 2025 Ford Mustang and the 2025 Ford Mustang GTD may share a name and a platform, but they serve entirely different purposes. One’s built for everyday performance, and the other’s engineered as a track-dominating, street-legal car. Read the following guide from your Ford dealership to see how these two diverge in intent, execution, and capability.
Traditional Muscle vs. Supercar
The Mustang. You know it: front-engine, rear-wheel drive, aggressive styling, V8 rumble (though lower trims get a four-cylinder), and straight-line dominance. With the Camaro dead and the Challenger trading Hemis for EV silence and inline-sixes, the Mustang remains the last true American muscle car. How appropriate that the original pony car is the only one left.
The Mustang GTD, in contrast, is a homologation special in reverse, born not from the streets but from the tracks. Derived from the GT3, it sheds regulatory limits and gains just enough road equipment to be legal. In 2024, it made history as the first American car to lap the Nürburgring Nordschleife in under seven minutes. This year, it went even faster, setting a new benchmark that ranks it as the fourth-fastest production car to ever lap the Nürburgring.
Under the Hood
Non-GTD Mustangs are available in various levels of intensity. The base engine is a 2.3-liter EcoBoost engine that produces 315 horsepower and 350 pound-feet of torque. GT models get a 5.0-liter V8 that’s good for 480 horsepower and 415 pound-feet of torque. Ford claims that the available performance exhaust boosts output to 486 horsepower and 418 pound-feet of torque. The track-focused Mustang Dark Horse uses a 500-horsepower setup.
The Mustang GTD’s engine will sound familiar to anyone who knows the Shelby GT500. It’s the same supercharged 5.2-liter, but here, it’s been reworked for even greater performance. Ford’s targeting 815 horsepower and 664 pound-feet of torque. That’s more horsepower per liter than the Porsche 911 GT3 RS, a testament to how serious the Blue Oval is about taking on the world’s best.
Other Go-Fast Hardware
All Mustang EcoBoost models come with a ten-speed automatic transmission, while GT variants offer the same automatic transmission or a six-speed manual. Additional enhancements, like Brembo brakes, paddle shifters, a drift brake, and stiffer suspension, are bundled into packages or exclusive to higher trims.
The Mustang GTD is a supercar, and so it gets hardware to match. It features a pushrod suspension lifted from endurance racing, carbon fiber everything, a rear-mounted transaxle, a dry-sump engine oil system, carbon-ceramic brakes, and active aerodynamics, including hydraulically controlled front flaps and a massive rear wing.
