This Mustang Was One Of The Fastest Cars At Nürburgring Thanks To A 3D-Printed Part

The Ford Mustang GTD is essentially a GT3 car for the street, with price tag and performance to match. In this instance, Ford's monstrously powerful pony car has taken advantage of 3D-printed parts to gain a time advantage during timed laps of the Nürburgring during August of 2024, April of 2025, and April of 2026. The parts are called "hood flicks," which can be see in the photo above, placed around the edges of the large vents cut into the top of the hood. 

These hood flicks were developed by Mustang GTD Vehicle Dynamics Technical Specialist Steve Thompson, who 3D-printed them at the Nürburgring for testing purposes only to discover that they produced quicker laps. Thompson asked Goodall to get the team back in Dearborn to make an optimized version of the hood flicks. After a week or two and seven or eight tries, a new design was made that produced the additional downforce that Thompson was after, while adding absolutely no additional drag. 

The new hood flicks lowered the Mustang GTD's 'Ring time, which, as of this writing, stands at 6:40.83, set in April of 2026. That time has placed the Mustang GTD in second place within the production car class, just over 11 seconds behind the first-place Mercedes AMG ONE, which set its record time of 6:29.09 minutes in September of 2024. It should also be noted that the Mustang GTD has established a superior Nürburgring lap time when compared to other competitive vehicles fielded by illustrious brands such as Porsche, Corvette, and Lamborghini. 

Ford's Mustang GTD team has made repeated trips to the Nürburgring, improving their lap times with each successive attempt. Over a period of 20 months from August 2024 through April 2026, the GTD team has taken a total of 16.85 seconds off of their official lap times at the Nürburgring, going from a 6:57.68 in their first attempt, shown above, down to a 6:40.83 in their most recent run. This has given the Mustang GTD the bragging rights for the best American lap time at the Nürburgring.

The Mustang GTD, which has a very high top speed of more than 200 mph, has become a regular visitor to the Nürburgring Nordschleife race track. This very special circuit, with its 20.832 km (12.944 mi) lap length and 70 high-speed corners, has become a global performance benchmark. It is a place where Ford, as well as many other brands from various countries, can test their cars on the same track and against the clock — to see who comes out on top. These Nürburgring lap times have become a significant marketing strategy for high performance cars like the Ford Mustang GTD, Porsche GT3 RS, and Corvette ZR1X. The competition for the best lap time is keen, with each brand returning to improve its time after being bested by one of the others.

For now, the Ford Mustang GTD is in possession of the titles of the second-fastest production car and the fastest American production car at the Nürburgring. However, competition among automakers being what it is, it is a record that is likely to be broken any day now.