Our Best Look at the Ford Mustang GTD So Far! (Unimpressive Interior?)
Along with the first detailed look at the 2025 Mustang GTD’s interior, Ford announced a Carbon Series option with visible carbon fiber.
Months after its debut, the Ford Mustang GTD is currently making its way across Europe, with appearances set for the 24 Hours of Le Mans this coming weekend, along with the 24 Hours of Spa, the Goodwood Festival of Speed, and the Nurburgring, where FoMoCo is attempting to join the likes of Porsche GT3 and GT2 cars with a sub-seven-minute lap time.
Ahead of its European debut at Le Mans, The Blue Oval pulled the covers off the 2025 Ford Mustang GTD Carbon Series, which in this case is finished in Chroma Flama paint, one of six GTD hues along with Polymimetic Gray, Race Red, Shadow Black, Frozen White, and Lightning Blue. The Carbon Series also adds unpainted elements to its carbon-fiber body — including the hood, roof, and rear Tech Deck, coupled — with Magnetite wheels. Customers can also choose to add body color or contrasting painted stripes, and painted brake calipers in Race Red, Grabber Blue, or black.
The Ford Mustang GTD Carbon Series is equipped with the Performance Package as well, though it’s also available as an option on all GTD pony cars. That upgrade adds a host of aerodynamic elements aimed at helping the GTD achieve its sub-seven-minute Nurburgring time, including dive planes, a bigger front splitter, underbody flaps, and a drag reduction system for the rear wing that’s designed to reduce drag in a straight line without giving up cornering performance. Finally, the Performance Package also comes with the Lightweight Package, which adds 20-inch magnesium wheels and a unique front fascia, all while removing some sound deadening to shed a few pounds.
As if all of this wasn’t enough, FoMoCo also showed us the GTD’s interior for the first time, aside from the previously-revealed rear suspension window. It looks, well, a lot like the cabin of a regular 2024 Mustang with the same infotainment and digital gauge displays, albeit with its own unique welcome and farewell graphics. There’s also a GTD present in the six drive mode screens, and a Performance gauge cluster moves the tachometer and gear indicator to the front/center, while the My Mustang page features a GTD, to boot.
The GTD comes with Recaro seats as standard. They look like versions of the GT350 and GT500 Recaros but with more leather and suede than before. There’s also a unique flat-bottom steering wheel with a padded rim, Dinamica inserts, a leather wrap, carbon-fiber inserts, and buttons to adjust the firmness of the suspension and choose an exhaust mode. Behind it lie 3D-printed titanium paddle shifters, while a pair of new buttons were added to the “hero panel” in front of the gear selector – one, to enable users to quickly access Track Apps, and another, to activate the front lift function.
But the question we’re asking ourselves — after examining all of these press images — is this: does this interior really look like the interior of a car that’s going to cost north of $300,000 to purchase? In some ways, it does. Race cars, for example, are expensive, but offer minimalist interiors. And Ford appears to be using more high-end materials than normal (not to mention the see-through panel into the rear suspension). But most of the interior looks like a Dark Horse Premium with a little more carbon fiber.
European customers will get their chance to apply for the privilege of purchasing a Ford Mustang GTD starting June 13, though the application window in the U.S. closed in late May. Of course, even if one is selected to do so, they’ll have to shell out more than $300,000 to bring a GTD home, which is obviously exotic hypercar territory.
While the GTD will likely hang with those cars in terms of performance – and perhaps even beat them in many cases – Ford CEO Jim Farley sees it as more of an unpretentious choice compared to its more exotic rivals, as he explained in a recent interview with Matt Farah of The Smoking Tire.
Farley noted that he didn’t want the Mustang GTD to be like the last two Ford GT generations because “it’s hard to go to dinner in those.” With the GTD, owners can, “Go out for dinner and it doesn’t feel like some super snotty person when you show up,” he said. “And it feels good, going slow, going fast, on your favorite corner, on ramp, off ramp, on a track day, and it feels good and it doesn’t feel like a supercar kind of experience. That’s the car that we wanted to do. Rear transaxle. Super lightweight, you know, carbon fiber body. But still have that Detroit swagger. And let’s just make this an interesting discussion. It won’t be the last thing we do.”
Photos: Ford
