GM Conceeds Ring Wars to Ford—Moves Onto Pikes Peak Instead
Ladies and gentlemen, it looks like Ford has won the battle for the Nürburgring after GM has decided it’s had enough and is moving on to a new battlefield. The concession came directly from General Motors’ Executive Chief Engineer for the Chevy Corvette and Performance Cars, Tony Roma.
Before we get into the comment, allow us to give you a brief history of the battle between the two American automaker titans. The Ford Mustang GTD struck first blood when it clocked a Nürburgring lap record of 6:52.072 in May, 2025. Chevrolet went to the ring just a month later in June with the 2025 Corvette Z06, but the best it could do was a 7:11.826 lap time, which is about 13 seconds slower than the Mustang GTD. GM returned to “The Green Hell” in July, 2025 with not one but three 2026 model-year C8 Corvette variants: the Z06, ZR1, and ZR1X.
Both the ZR1 and ZR1X clocked faster laps than the Mustang GTD with 6:50.763 and 6:49.275 lap times, respectively. The latter time was 2.79 seconds faster than the Mustang GTD’s lap. Not looking to back down, Ford came back to the ring in April, 2026 with the Mustang GTD “Competition” variant with a new aerodynamic package, suspension setup, and more power.
The Mustang GTD Competition threw down a 6:40.835 lap time, which is about 9 seconds faster than GM’s Corvette ZR1X. At that point, the question became, “How would GM respond?” It looks like the answer is: they aren’t.
Recently, Roma was a guest on the Drivecast podcast by The Drive, when he was asked about a possible return to Nürburgring. According to Roma, by the time Ford had returned to the Nürburgring, GM had already committed to tackling Pikes Peak.
“I don’t view it as a ‘I have to run back to the Nürburgring and answer what Ford did.’ I’m sorry, I know that disappoints a lot of people, I hear about that at corrals and public events. When we have something that’s worthy and a story that’s worth telling, we’ll do something,” Roma told The Drive. “But I’m not planning on running back and tit-for-tat ‘look at what we can do’ to answer what they did. We’re going to do something that makes sense for us.”
Well, there you have it. It looks like GM is giving up the ring to Ford and the Mustang GTD, at least for now. Who knows? This could all be an elaborate smokescreen to cover up some skunkworks project that could see an even more potent Corvette go back to Nürburgring to take the crown from Ford.
Or maybe a new battle will begin on Pikes Peak? It’s too early to know, but for entertainment’s sake, we really hope the fight continues in one form or another.