M3hunter

Today I received MYFORD magazine, and it had the front page cover with a Shelby '13 GT500 picture, and the Legend "GERMAN CONQUEST, The 2013 Shelby GT500 masters the Autobahn". Immediately I said, "at last they did it" and hurried to open my magazine to see if they took the car to Nurburgring for some hot lap times. NO!. It was just a boring tale on how someone just drove on a rainy day on the autobahn.
I don't understand why FORD, (compared to GM that they do it), NEVER timed laped the Shelby GT500, BOSS or the GT in Nurburgring, to show the world that the Mustangs are very capable cars that can compete with other european-asian sport cars on that difficult track. Come on FORD show some B@#%&!

Stevedotmil

This has always bugged me as well. I will be cruising around it in a couple of months when I get the time to drive up there. My car should be here in a couple of weeks.

cdynaco

Yeah that magazine is pretty worthless. Just puff piece boring essay's that don't have any meat to them.

bob

Well there is always the possibility Ford can't post a respectable time, or more likely they just don't want to get embroiled in what is more or less the modern equivalent of the "gross horsepower wars" - as fun as watching cars run the 'ring are, each manufacturer is left to thier own devices when it comes to testing and timing the cars, there is no set standard and no attempt at moderating factory ringers. In short its complete marketing bull**** with absolutely zero essence.

Then add in the uncontrollable factors like weather or mechanical malfunction or what have you and it complicates the issue even more.

M3hunter

That will be great Stevedotmil, please post your lap time.

Big Poppa

I had the opportunity to run my '97 at Hockenheimring but they only allowed us to use half the track because another club was using part of the track. Foolish to me but that's the way it was. Wasn't able to get any times but we had a good time.

Stevedotmil

I will be hitting up the Hockenheimring as well when they have their open days. I don't plan on timing myself because I would much rather just go out there to have some fun. There are three famous corners that if you are going to loose it then it's most likely going to be at one of those three. I plan to make videos and stuff while I'm over here of all the cool drives I take and stuff I can see.

houtex

I so wanna do that one day. In any dang car. I'd take a Reliant Robin trailering a caravan for all I'd care. Just to be there, driving it. Yep.

/Man, now THAT is something they should've done on Top Gear. Clarkson would have a field day and a half.
//aaand, the internet does not forget and knows all:

FordService

We always welcome your ideas, guys. You should submit them to Ford Social.

Deysha

stangfoeva

This. This. This. This.

Moustang

It's because Nordschleife (Nurburgring is actually the name of the F1 track) officially has 73 corners, and the Mustang doesn't go around corners very well. It's that live axle rear end holding it back, and Ford doesn't want to go out there and end up looking rather slow in their big bad Mustang.


I know saying that will ruffle a few feathers, but it's the truth. There are some owner videos of GTs going around. Typically the lap time is right around the 9-10 minute mark. Almost 2 full minutes slower than a GTR or Corvette ZR1.


Here is an example....



2011 GT 500 in about 11 minutes 30 seconds for Nurburgring and Nordschleife combined. Yes, it included a yellow flag, but notice how quickly the BMW M3 passes and leaves him in the dust.

stangfoeva

You are comparing amateur owner driver times to factory racing driver times? Not to mention no one truly knows the setup of the cars (could be 100% stock, might not be).



This is why even though I'm curious to know what numbers Ford would put up, I don't really care for them to join this non conclusive pissing match.

houtex

I know... I was watching that video and cringing a little at how wrong he was running that course...

He cared just a teensy too much about bending the car, methinks.

Stevedotmil

Yeah, I have watched litterally every video of newer mustangs of all types hitting the ring and wondering when someone with some actual knowledge of how to enter and exit corners is going to post a video worthy of a nice time. Under 9 minutes is pretty fast without having a closed course. It takes about 100 laps or so to really learn all the lines on this route. I'm not going to be doing anywhere near that while I'm here. 10 if I'm lucky. The posted assumed speed limit (because this is considered a public road) is 80K or around 61MPH. Anything over that and your insurance won't cover you if you get in an accident. You will also have to pay for all the damages to the barriers and the cost of the emergency and recovery of you and your vehicle. The AVERAGE of that cost is around 15K Euros. No thanks.

houtex

Well, that info makes a bit more sense of the video then. I would pansy the car around too if that is the case.

Beauty countryside. Wanna go to just LOOK.

werdna65

Understand the driving he looks to be having Fun, back in my twentys I guess I didn't have any brains My foot had one place on the floor and that was it, I just flat tracked the car in the turns, Lost lots of police that way, never wrecked it and still have the car wife won't let me sell it, as if I really would! (1965 289, 4speed, coupe

Fenderaddict2

You need a great suspension not a very well sorted outdated suspension to run a good time here as much as you need power. There's no doubt my Boss is faster than any of my previous cars but I bet I could run a better lap time in them with less work.

BLKStang50

I'm over here in Germany, and its my goal to put my GT through the ring when I'm done upgrading. Not may american will put their stands on a track over here, I tell you what, the 5.0 can upset a lot of BMW and Audi folks.

Boss 1409

I have some laps at the Ring with my '12 Boss, but I'm not an experienced driver and not willing to push my car to and possibly past the limits. This is probably my quickest lap and I could easily push the car a lot further.


And like Steve said, plan on hitting Hockenheim as well before I leave.

Another thing to remember is A LOT of cars on the Ring are modified. I have seen tons of cars with full cages, might seem like they aren't that fast, but folks are flying around the track.