The $325K Ford Mustang GTD's Suspension Is So Rad You Get to Watch It Work
Is the Mustang GTD suspension form over function or function over form? Now we can see for ourselves.
The 2025 Ford Mustang GTD promises a lot of things: better performance than the best European sports cars, a sub-seven-minute Nürburgring lap, and better performance than the cars that inspired it. Those are lofty goals, but from what we’ve seen so far, there aren’t any major reasons to believe any of it isn’t possible and plenty to suggest it is.
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The rear suspension design is unique in its engineering, and one of the biggest deviations from the road-going Mustangs of today, or any era. It could be a contributing factor to the future success of the Mustang GTD, and today Ford is giving us a window into its inner workings.
Adaptive Dampers
Really, though, the GTD will ship to a fraction of more than 7,500 North American applicants with a viewing window for the semi-active pushrod-actuated suspension, featuring Multimatic Adaptive Spool Valve dampers. The adaptive dampers can go from their softest to firmest setting in a claimed 15 milliseconds, and the two-spring setup around each damper makes the car versatile for the track and street. Each spring has different rates; The softer spring can be hydraulically compressed in Track mode, lowering the car 40 millimeters and effectively stiffening the spring rate of the system. The front suspension uses a similar two-spring setup to lower ride height. For more details on the suspension and other race-car-beating tech in the Mustang GTD, check out our Deep Dive here.
The Window
The polycarbonate window is 24 inches wide and ten inches tall, with scratch resistant coatings on both sides. It’s visible through the rear window, so the engineering can be appreciated from inside or outside the car. It’s always a sight to see what the suspension must do to keep our cars comfortable or planted to a track, and this is about the best view you’re going to get of a complete suspension at work, given most springs and struts are typically separated. The blue gold, and machined parts now can serve as a centerpiece for gearheads to marvel at physics at work, as if huddled together in front of a fireplace in Tinsel Town, with mugs full of the finest synthetic oil instead of hot cocoa.
Development Ties
In the example photos from Ford, you can even see some of the ongoing development work. The zip ties are holding a yellow K-type thermocouple that is most likely being used to record surface temper of the damper, along with a heat-activated sticker to serve as a visual indicator.
24 Hours Coming Up
The Mustang GTD will make its first European appearance on display at the 24 Hours of Le Mans in June, continuing to the 24 Hours of Spa and Goodwood Festival of speed. After a summer testing throughout Europe, the stomping ground of the cars it hopes to be better than, it will make an official timed lap attempt around the Nürburgring. Then, the GTD’s performance will be on display for the world – not just the suspension.
Cars should look cool and go fast. At least, that was Matthew’s general view of the world growing up in Metro Detroit in the early ’90s, and there was no exception. Raised in the household of a Ford engineer and car enthusiast, NASCAR races monopolized the television every Sunday and asking, “what car is this?” at every car show his dad took him too before he could read taught him that his favorite car was specifically, the 1971 Chevelle SS. (1970 can keep its double headlights, it’s a better look for the rear!) He learned the name of every part of a car by means of a seemingly endless supply of model car kits from his dad’s collection and could never figure out why his parents would drive a Ford Taurus Wagon and F-150 to work every day when a perfectly good 1967 Chevy Impala sat in the garage. Somewhere between professional hockey player, guitar player, journalist, mechanic, and automotive designer, he settled on the University of Northwestern Ohio (UNOH) with the hopes of joining a NASCAR pit crew after high school. While there, learning about electronics and the near-forgotten art of carburetor tuning (give him a call before you ditch your “over complicated” Rochester Qudarajet) were equally appealing, and the thrill of racing stock cars and modifieds weekly on the school’s dirt oval team was second to none at the time. And then sometime late in 2009, Matthew caught wind of the Tesla Roadster on YouTube and everything changed. Before it, electric cars we not cool, and they were not fast. A budding and borderline unhealthy obsession with technology would underpin a 12-year career at Roush Industries that would take him from a powertrain technician for the Roush Mustang, to building rollercoasters, NVH engineering, and finally to a state-of-the-art simulated durability lab working with nearly every EV startup you’ve ever heard of, and some you never will. And then it was time to go, and by a stroke of luck Nikola Tesla himself couldn’t have predicted, MotorTrend’s test team was looking for the exact kind of vehicle testing background he had to offer. And with it, his love of cars, art, engineering, and writing all suddenly had a home together. At this point in life, Matthew has developed a love and appreciation for all cars and methods of propulsion. He loves reviewing minivans as much as luxury cars and everything in-between, because the cars people need to haul their kids around are just as important as the ones we hang on our bedroom walls.
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