Ford’s GT Mk IV track car lapped the Nürburgring Nordschleife in 6:15.977, making it the fastest car ever built by an American manufacturer around the 12.9-mile “Green Hell” circuit. Ford Racing factory driver Frédéric Vervisch set the time in testing published April 2, 2026, according to Ford’s own account of the run, edging out the Mercedes-AMG One and putting the GT Mk IV third overall among every production-based car ever to lap the track.
A track car built for one job
The GT Mk IV is powered by a twin-turbo EcoBoost engine making more than 800 horsepower, paired with an Adaptive Spool Valve race suspension from Multimatic, a lengthened wheelbase, a bespoke racing gearbox and a carbon-fiber “long tail” body. Ford is building only 67 examples, all track-only cars that are not street legal in the United States. Vervisch called the car “an absolute weapon, a true extension of your will,” per Ford’s release.
The GTD record that came first
The GT Mk IV’s run followed close behind another Ford record. Ford Racing driver Dirk Müller lapped the Nürburgring in a Mustang GTD at 6:40.835, a time Ford billed as making the street-legal GTD “the most advanced and powerful street-legal Mustang ever assembled,” according to Ford’s own reporting on that lap. Together, the two runs gave Ford the two fastest Nürburgring times ever posted by an American car brand inside the same year.
- 6:15.977 — Ford GT Mk IV, the fastest lap ever by an American manufacturer
- 6:40.835 — Mustang GTD, the street-legal record that preceded it
- 800+ horsepower from the GT Mk IV’s twin-turbo EcoBoost engine
- Only 67 units of the GT Mk IV are planned for production
Where the record sits now
Ford says the GT Mk IV’s time also puts it ahead of the Chevrolet Corvette ZR1X around the same circuit, cementing its position as the quickest internal-combustion car ever recorded at the Nordschleife. Independent coverage of the run, including from the Detroit News, confirmed the timing and noted the achievement came just months after the GTD’s own record-setting lap earlier in the year.
Ford has not said whether it plans to chase a further improvement on the GT Mk IV’s time before the limited production run wraps up.
Why the suspension matters
The Adaptive Spool Valve suspension underpinning both record runs was developed by Ford’s longtime racing partner Multimatic and first proved itself on the previous-generation GT supercar before trickling down to the GTD and now the Mk IV. Unlike a conventional adjustable damper, the ASV system uses separate valves to control compression and rebound independently at each corner, letting engineers tune the car for the Nordschleife’s mix of high-speed sweepers and blind compressions without sacrificing control on the circuit’s rougher sections. That shared hardware is a big part of why Ford now holds both American Nürburgring records within the same model year.