You know you’re a very important customer when the president of the Ford Motor Company delivers your car. But Jay Leno is the definition of a special car customer.
The American comedian had Ford president Jim Farley handover his new Ford Mustang GTD, the fastest production pony the blue oval has ever made.
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“I didn’t think it was right Porsche had all the fun with these cars,” Farley told Leno, as they went over the technical details of the race-inspired Mustang GTD
Leno has received build #12, matching his previous Mustang specials, but the former talk show host was full of praise for this latest model. He hailed it as the “best Mustang ever built”, with the GTD taking direct knowledge from the GT3 racing version of the iconic muscle car.
The GTD is powered by a unique supercharged V8 and has an eight-speed dual-clutch transaxle and carbon fibre driveshaft, just like the racing version. It also features lightweight carbon fibre panels for a large amount of the body, as well as active aerodynamics, magnesium wheels and carbon ceramic brakes.
Leno specified his GTD with the optional ‘Performance Pack’, which is a series of extra aerodynamic parts, including a drag reduction system (DRS), to ensure it cracked the seven minute barrier at the Nurburgring.
While Leno got the VIP treatment for his delivery, he still had to wait 18 months from his initial order to his first drive of the latest addition to his huge collection of cars and bikes.
Farley was directly responsible for pushing the Mustang GTD program, pushing it through as a ‘passion product’ to inspire the company to aim to to build a sports car as good or better than anything from Europe.
“It’s great to see real car guys running the show in Detroit,” Leno said.
Check out the full video of Leno and Farley with the Mustang GTD below.
