The critics had their say. Track-only, they said. Elitist, disconnected from the spirit of the original GT, a vanity project for 67 lucky, or very wealthy, souls who’d never actually push it. Turns out, the Ford GT Mk IV wasn’t interested in their opinions.
On the Nürburgring Nordschleife, one of the most punishing and unforgiving circuits ever laid on tarmac, the GT Mk IV did what extreme machines do best: it let the clock do the talking.
Frédéric Vervisch, a man who knows a thing or two about the Green Hell, having won the 24 Hours of Nürburgring, guided the American supercar to a lap time of 6 minutes and 15.977 seconds. That puts the GT Mk IV third on the all-time list, behind only the Porsche 919 Hybrid EVO and the Volkswagen ID.R, two machines that make the word “prototype” sound like an understatement.
Among every internal combustion car ever to circle the Nordschleife, none has been faster. The GT Mk IV also carries the distinction of being the quickest car ever built by an American manufacturer on this circuit, which, for a country that has spent decades being told its muscle cars belong in a straight line, is a meaningful detail.
Under the longtail bodywork sits an evolved 3.8-liter twin-turbo EcoBoost V6 producing around 820 HP, tuned exclusively for track use with zero concern for emissions compliance or parking sensors. Ford developed the suspension alongside Multimatic, engineering a setup with no road-going compromises. The aerodynamics, the chassis configuration, the weight distribution, every decision was made with a single directive: be faster than everything that came before it.
Vervisch described the car’s precision as one of its most striking qualities. Immediate response, total control, a machine that translates driver input without hesitation even at the Nordschleife’s most demanding points.
The Ford GT Mk IV is the closing chapter of a lineage that started in the 1960s with the GT40 and Le Mans glory. Ford chose to end that story not with nostalgia, but with a lap time.
