The race-bred Ford Mustang GTD only started reaching customers recently, but it has made headlines for a while now. The GTD has a slew of headline-grabbing attributes like its exceptionally fast lap time at the Nürburgring Nordschleife, its immense 815 horsepower and 664 pound-feet of torque, and its staggering $327,960 starting price. It’s a superlative car with remarkably sophisticated components, including precisely implemented aerodynamics that employ technology used in Formula 1 cars that’s so advanced it’s actually illegal in some race series, like the one where the Mustang GT3 competes, the car that serves as the main inspiration for the GTD.
Said F1-derived advanced aerodynamics is the Mustang GTD’s Drag Reduction System, or DRS. Much like in the single-seat F1 cars, the drag reduction system hydraulically adjusts the angle of the car’s massive rear wing and small retractable flaps mounted under the front splitter to keep the GTD glued to twisty roads and challenging racetrack corners while remaining blisteringly fast on long straights. Here’s how it works.
Taking a page out of the F1 rulebook
Not only does the GTD’s wing look cool, it’s also supremely functional and as intelligent as you’d expect on a $300,000-plus car. It’s closed when necessary to create maximum downforce and keep the car planted through corners, but hydraulics open up the flaps on straightaways to reduce downforce and therefore aerodynamic drag, allowing the GTD to achieve higher top speeds. This works in tandem with the retractable front splitter flaps, which are the second piece of the Mustang GTD’s DRS puzzle.
They’re less apparent than the hulking rear wing, but these elements are still integral to the Mustang GTD’s performance. There are two small flaps mounted directly ahead of the front wheels that extend in high-speed straights to slow the air that travels underneath the car, which reduces downforce up front and makes the GTD more balanced at high velocity. In tight corners when maximum downforce is necessary, the flaps retract to form a flat surface, allowing air to flow under the body and reach strakes that guide it from under the vehicle out to the sides of the car and through large fender louvers in the wheel wells.
The Mustang GTD’s drag reduction system is just one reason why it’s such a spectacular performance car. Its sophisticated suspension, supercharged V8 Predator engine, and reworked chassis all come together to form the most hardcore Mustang the world has ever seen. So far, at least.
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