In the context of the Ford Mustang GTD, a carbon fiber aesthetics package is clinically uninteresting. I mean, this is a street-legal racecar made by Multimatic; it has an inboard rear suspension that you can see through plexiglass; it has a ridiculous 815-horsepower, supercharged 5.2-liter V8; it can lap the Nürburgring in well under 7 minutes; its wing is enormous … I can go on and on. This thing is dope and needs nothing more to protect its dope status, and yet here is the new Liquid Carbon edition.
Ford Mustang GTDs have only begun hitting the road, and yet here we have a new edition that gets rid of the paint and replaces the door skins with carbon. “The Mustang GTD Liquid Carbon skips a trip to the paint booth to amp up aerodynamic, race-derived style while sacrificing none of the extreme on-track performance,” Ford writes in its press release. “The appearance is functional, too. Deleting paint and replacing the sheet metal in the doors with bonded carbon-fiber saves about 13 pounds compared to a Mustang GTD Carbon Series with the Performance package.”
Here’s the result:
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“The carbon weave of the hood, roof, rear deck, and rear wing match up perfectly down the midline of the vehicle. Additionally, fenders and side panels match up to the dorsal elements of the vehicle, presenting a cohesive pattern in the carbon-fiber bodywork,” continues Ford in its press release, prompting me to look more closely at the GTD:
Notice how the carbon fiber weave’s direction changes right up the middle of the car. Trying to get the weave to line up between various panels must have been a humongous pain in the butt. Of course, they don’t all line up — the fender-to-hood interface involves a change in direction, and there are other areas where two parts meet and the weave isn’t exactly aligned — but the big parts seem aligned, which I’m sure is a tough thing to get right.
Here’s the interior, which Ford says is a “bold combination of black leather and Dinamica microfiber suede and Hyper Lime stitching on the seats, door panels, center console, instrument panel, and steering wheel.”
What do I think about the Liquid Carbon GTD? Well, the interior doesn’t seem like anything that special, and 13 pounds ain’t much. I realize when we’re talking about a car that Ford and Multimatic have already painstakingly tried to wring every pound out of, 13 pounds probably seems like a lot to engineers. But it’s about a week of dieting for most Americans. It’s not nothing, but it ain’t a lot. And while I appreciate the effort that went into making this carbon fiber look good, I own a carbon fiber car, and its raw carbon fiber roof is known to delaminate in the hot sun. Hopefully that’s not a problem here.
Also, I just like paint!
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Just look at Beau’s “Beauberry” GTD above. I realize paint color is a personal taste thing, but I think that color looks absolutely fantastic – not just on that car, but on the Ford GT, too:
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To forego that for carbon fiber … I just couldn’t do it. So maybe the Liquid Carbon GTD isn’t quite for me, but even I can appreciate how badass this thing looks. I mean come on:
It’s absolutely menacing.
I found a GR Corolla Core edition with all 3 option packages, that made it essentially the Circuit edition minus the hood and spoiler. I bought a hood and spoiler.
Know the only other difference? CF roof, that I did not want.
You know what would pair nicely with all that carbon fiber? A lotta’ aero . . . https://www.theautopian.com/how-much-aero-is-too-much-aero-this-much/
I’m painfully uninterested in mustangs usually. But the gtd is pretty fantastic and that rear spoiler reminds me of the cosworth escorts
Eh. It’s your car. Do whatever you want.
Okay, I’m going to need wallpaper sized versions of every image in this article. Please and thank you.
As someone who works in the composites industry, I fucken hate most carbon fiber used in the car industry. Majority of the time is it all just for show. Gaudy as hell. In that first video the Ford spokesperson is somehow proud of supposedly 13 lbs of weight savings… on a 4300 lb car.
Boomers had chrome, this younger generation has tacky carbon.
I just can’t the name.
GTD was already the name for the diesel GTI, but this isn’t the first time Mustang has done this…
SVO is “straight vegetable oil,” also a biodiesel conversion acronym.
Seems like Mustang is just stalking diesels. Is this a giant, multi-decade viral campaign to tell us they’re going diesel?!
GTD is the name of the GT3 equivalent class in IMSA, and the road going mustang is basically a barely tweaked race car. My assumption is European companies (ie. Porsche) stick with GT3 because WEC is international, while IMSA is US based, and so is Ford.
Also, if my memory serves, the I in GTI stands for Injection, while the D is for diesel. The D in GTD is for Daytona, so in both cases the acronyms make sense, but are just referencing different things.
Now available on PS5, Need For Speed: Liquid Carbon
Basically my first thought, too. Someone on that team spent too much time on Forza with the “custom” paint tabs open.
Somewhere there’s a troll with a lot of money on his or her hands strongly considering buying that car and painting it with bedliner paint.
Well, I agree it’s “bad” and looks like “ass.” And I’ll bet it’s a joy to insure. Will creasing a fender total it?
The regular GTD looks so much better.
Too much carbon fiber. Everything I’ve read says that while carbon fibers themselves are highly resistant to UV radiation, the epoxy resin matrix that binds them together can be susceptible to degradation from prolonged exposure to sunlight. It can cause yellowing, and cracking.
Yes, which is probably why there’s not much weight saving here. It’s likely a cosmetic weave over the structural stuff with a healthy amount of UV blocking clear coat.
But sadly, let’s be real. None of these are going to see much sun. Major props to the folks who actually drive them.
It’s like, how much more carbon fiber could it be? And the answer is none. None more carbon fiber
Well, it’s more carbon fiber, isn’t it? Where can you go from there? Where? Nowhere. Exactly. If we need that extra bit of weight loss, you know what we do? Add more carbon.
There is such a fine line between stupid and clever
“13 pounds probably seems like a lot to engineers. But it’s about a week of dieting for most Americans. ”
I wish! 1-2 lbs a week is the best most Americans can manage
A week of dieting? Maybe if you’re a 17yo wrestler with a coach and parents who don’t care if you die. 🙂
But seriously, back when Porsche was like “Check out our hollow carpet fibers!” (really), my immediate reaction was that most 911 owners had a lot of work to do to reduce the overall weight of the vehicle+driver.
Billions in engineering will always go up against its mortal enemy, IHOP.
“a 17yo wrestler with a coach and parents who don’t care if you die”
That’s water weight. It comes right back after the match.