Leaked Ford Mustang GTD Makes the Dark Horse Look Tame

Yesterday, "sources familiar with the matter" told Ford Authority that a mid-engined Mustang would be revealed on Thursday, August 17. The car is expected to be called the Mustang GTD, as indicated by images leaked on YouTube and Facebook from an alleged preview event on Monday in Las Vegas.

The Midstang (as I want to call it) reportedly won't use the seventh-generation Mustang's S650 platform, per Ford Authority's sources, and is to be manufactured by Multimatic. You may know Multimatic as the producer of the Ford GT, V8 Bronco DR, and Mustang GT3 and GT4 race cars. The model will allegedly be positioned as a supercar, not as a racing vehicle as its IMSA class-derived name would imply. Supposedly, the Mustang GTD's public reveal will take place tomorrow in Pebble Beach, CA, where Monterey Car Week is ongoing.

Unless there's another, even more special Mustang waiting in the wings, though, the GTD we're seeing doesn't look particularly mid-engined. Perhaps it qualifies on a technicality, in the sense of a front-mid configuration like so many GT race cars employ. If Multimatic's at the helm, it's reasonable to expect the GTD could have more than name in common with its competition counterpart.

Besides, it'd be a surprise for a Midstang (try and stop me) to sneak up on us like this. The current Chevrolet Corvette's switch to its mid-engined layout was basically an open secret for years before reveal.

At the same time, a departure from the conventional front-engined Mustang formula would be perfectly believable. For starters, Ford spoke years ago about how it's treating its bestselling models as brands. Just like how the Bronco spawned a Bronco Sport, the Mustang has already birthed the Mach-E, and could feasibly allow for something with more exotic proportions. What's more, just as GM had with its own flagship, Ford first conceived of a mid-engined Mustang more than half a century ago. It's what the original 1962 Mustang I concept was, after all.

That concept didn't strongly influence the eventual production car, but the idea has been around, and it'd put the Mustang on footing similar to the Corvette. Plus, this could be how those old rumors of a hybrid or all-wheel-drive Mustang are finally realized.

But for now, it's all pure speculation, a total crapshoot. We won't know either way until the Mustang GTD's formal reveal—if that is indeed an official vehicle from Ford, and not something faked to get the internet's attention. There's a load of fakery out there, and two fuzzy images of a so-called Mustang supercar aren't a lot to go on these days.

Ford declined to issue a statement when contacted.

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