Ford is rightfully proud of the incredible time that the Ford GT Mk IV just set in Germany at the Nürburgring. The company knows that a time like that is about more than just the car and even more than just the driver. It's all about the team that helped get the car there and then get it ready for the lap. From fuel to lug nuts to the finished car, it takes a tremendous amount of work. So Ford recorded it, and now we get a look behind the scenes. There's No Singing In This BTS, Just Exhaust Sounds Ford Performance The new Ford video is called Where Legends Run, and it starts, like most track days, way too early in the morning. The sun was still below the horizon when the team started unloading the car from the hauler that brought it there.This early in the day, you'll find people surrounding the car with names you don't know but have a tremendous impact. People like Phil Vars, who has been working on Ford racing engines for NASCAR and sports car racing since 2013 and handled the calibration for this car.Eventually, the driver shows up. In this case, it's Ford test driver Frédéric Vervisch, who is an expert around the Green Hell. He has won the 24 Hours of Nürburgring twice and is currently driving Mustangs for Ford's GT efforts. It's cold enough at the track that Ford has its tire ovens out in the pit (which is actually a restaurant parking lot). In fact, it's so coldthat Ford has to block off most of the intercooler intake to make sure that temperatures stay in the right range.After a few slow laps to make sure everything is perfect, Vervisch is ready to go. But he only gets two laps of the 12.9-mile track to set the fastest time he can. And at the end of the first lap, he has to lift. No pressure, then. Wound Like A Spring Before The Real Laps Start Ford Performance From the trailer, the team watches anxiously as Vervisch takes his laps. They cringe at the bumps on the notorious circuit, and at how fast the driver takes them. We cringe at the fluttering windshield, which looks ready to separate from the car at any time. We have the benefit of knowing how it turns out, but the team does not. They won't know anything for at least six minutes after the car sets off. If something happens, it could be an hour before they know what went wrong and if the driver or car are okay.The result is a 6:15.590 lap, which Ford calls the fastest ICE-only lap of the track, the fastest ever by an American OEM, and the fastest lap by a car that you can buy now.Of course, Porsche might disagree about that fastest ICE lap. Not with its 919 Hybrid Evo, which ran almost exactly one minute faster in 2018, because that was a hybrid. Step back to 1982 though, and you get the Porsche 956 running a 6:11.13 lap withdriver Stefan Bellofbehind the wheel. It happened during practice for the ADAC 1000-kilometer race in 1982.The GT Mk IV is available to buy, in theory, at least. The car is a limited edition version of the Ford GT that is not road legal. Ford planned 67 copies, to honor the year the GT 40 Mk IV won at Le Mans. The car makes 800 horsepower, has a Multimatic adaptive suspension, longer wheelbase, and a racing gearbox.If you want to buy one, it comes from Multiminic, not Ford direct. That's the same company that builds the Mustang GTD and the regular production Ford GT cars, which are out of production. The price is rumored to start at around $1.7 million. Plus a crew.Presumably, you could also buy an old Porsche 956 and find someone with Bellof's courage to turn a fast lap. So yeah, there's some wiggle room in Ford's various record claims. There's no doubt, though, that it is the fastest American car to ever conquer the Green Hell. That goes for production or non-production vehicles.However, Chevrolet still holds bragging rights for a car you can actually buy from an automaker right now, and then actually drive it on the street. That, of course, is the Corvette ZR1X, which went 6:49.27 in July 2025.
