It’s not every day that the CEO of a major automaker personally delivers a car, but the new Ford Mustang GTD is no ordinary car. In a recent episode of his show, Jay Leno took delivery of his 2025 Mustang GTD, car number 12, and was joined by Ford CEO Jim Farley to go over the most extreme Mustang ever built. For Leno, it was a special moment. “Probably the greatest Mustang they ever built,” he said.

The Mustang GTD, as Jim Farley explained, has been an idea nearly a decade in the making. “The secret behind this car was that when we did the GT, we actually wanted to do a Mustang,” he revealed.The racing rules at the time made a Mustang uncompetitive, but the idea never went away. Farley’s motivation was simple: “I just didn’t think it was right that Porsche had all the fun for these kinds of cars.”

The Ultimate Mustang

Jay Leno’s Mustang GTD is a showcase of incredible technology, much of which is too extreme for the actual race car.  Leno’s car is equipped with the Performance Package, which adds an active Drag Reduction System wing that was key to the car’s sub-7-minute Nürburgring lap. “We want the road car to have stuff that the race car doesn’t have,” Farley said. Another unique feature is a small window behind the seats offering a direct view of the pushrod rear suspension at work. “Porsche would never do that,” Farley added. “But like we’re Ford, we’re an American company. Like, that’s cool. Show the engineering.”

The car is a complete re-engineering of the Mustang platform, featuring a carbon fiber rear structure, a rear-mounted transaxle for perfect 50/50 weight distribution, and an 815-horsepower, supercharged V8.For Jay Leno, the car is a triumph of American engineering. “I love the fact that you have the audacity to take on Porsche,” he told Farley. Ultimately, Jay Leno’s Mustang GTD is a bold statement, a ground-up build that proves an American icon can compete with, and even surpass, the best sports cars in the world.