The Ford Mustang GT3 makes its first run at the 24 Hours of Le Mans this weekend. That means the road-going version, the GTD, is on the way, too. Ford just sent out new images of the GTD, including the first shots of the interior.
Are you ready? Do you have a deposit on one of these? Here we go:
It’s a Mustang interior in a $325,000 car. Three hundred and twenty-five thousand dollars.
Yes, the Blue Oval's six-figure pony car gets almost the same interior as a regular 'Stang, with a few minor changes. And I do mean minor. Most of what GTD buyers are paying for is the magical suspension, aerodynamics, and carbon fiber courtesy of Multimatic. But buyers at this price usually expect more from every part of the car.
The additions to an otherwise normal Mustang interior are as follows—don’t go get a cup of coffee or anything this won’t take long:
- Carbon fiber trim
- 3D-printed titanium shift paddles and accents around the gear selector
- New steering wheel
- Two new buttons on the dash
- Recaros
Besides that, I hope you didn’t rent a convertible on vacation. It’s gonna look familiar.
There’s more. The GTD Mustang will have an optional performance pack. Yes, on top of the $325,000 sticker price, Ford wants just a little more money—turn out those pockets buddy I wanna see the lint fall out—to unlock the full potential of the highest-performance Mustang ever made. The automaker still hasn't released official pricing for this package, but considering it includes magnesium wheels, a DRS system, and even more carbon fiber aero, I would assume it's not very cheap.
I want to be clear that the Mustang GTD is a really cool machine. Underneath, it’s not a regular Mustang at all, and the active aerodynamics are not only wonderful from an engineering perspective but have likewise been presented in a beautiful manner. Who doesn’t want to see a supercharged Mustang with an 800+ horsepower 5.2-liter V8 and a transaxle tear apart a bunch of European cars like Godzilla in Tokyo? Just tell me when and where.
That makes it even more perplexing that Ford isn’t going the extra mile with the interior. If anything, it should’ve taken more stuff out. The performance pack removes some sound deadening. How about ripping the iPads off the dashboard and losing the cupholders? This is essentially a homologated race car—we’re not going to Dennys. I would even go as far as to say this interior would be acceptable if the GTD cost $150,000. Not $325,000, though.
In the end, it’s up to the buyers to decide if this is appropriate (my checks from Ford just started to bounce so I’m out) and I’m sure they’ll still sell every single one of them. It’s just a shame that such a special car will look only slightly less pedestrian from the inside.
