Mustang GTD Beats the Porsche GT3 Manthey? Nürburgring Times Shock Fans

The chase for a faster Nürburgring lap time never really slows down, and this year the competition between the 2026 Porsche 911 GT3 equipped with the Manthey Kit and the Ford Mustang GTD felt especially intense. Both manufacturers returned to the Nordschleife with something to prove, and what happened next created one of the closest battles we have seen in recent memory.

Porsche showed up with the new 992.2 GT3 paired with the latest Manthey Kit, a package that focuses entirely on aerodynamic grip, braking performance, and chassis tuning rather than engine output. Even in less than perfect weather, the car managed to set a lap time of 6:52.981. Porsche emphasized that the conditions were not ideal, which makes the achievement even more impressive. It feels like the car still has a little more potential waiting to be unlocked.

Ford arrived with a different kind of monster. The Mustang GTD is built to bring race car engineering to the street, with a supercharged V8 engine and a rear transaxle that helps balance the car unlike any Mustang before it. The result was a blistering 6:52.072 lap, making it one of the quickest American road-legal cars ever to lap the Nürburgring.

Seeing these two cars post nearly identical times is a reminder of how far high-performance engineering has come. Different philosophies led both machines to the same territory: sub-7-minute speed at the world’s toughest circuit.