The Ford GT Just Tackled One of The World's Greatest Driving Roads

TopSpeed

By Kirby Garlitos

Published Sep 29, 2017

It also set a lap record at the Arctic Circle Raceway

When I wrote about some of the world's most memorable driving roads a few months ago, I was immediately drawn to the Atlantic Ocean Road. It may not be as thrilling as the Stelvio Pass in Italy and the Transfăgărășan in Romania. It's not even as dangerous as the North Yungas Road in Bolivia. But for my money, the Atlantic Ocean Roads is the most scenic piece of road in the world. It certainly looked like one in Ford's new episode of its on-going web series Europe’s Greatest Driving Roads..

The episode in question stars the Ford GT driving along the breathtaking 5.2-mile road that runs through an archipelago in Eide and Averøy in Møre og Romsdal, Norway. Locals refer to it simply as “64,” a reference to it located along a section of the country’s County Road 64. Veteran Le Mans racer and current Ford Chip Ganassi Racing driver Stefan Mücke is behind the wheel of the Ford GT as he drives along the road, all while narrating its history and unique make-up. See, the Atlantic Ocean Road is unlike most scenic highways in that it traverses an archipelago of small islands via bridges, causeways, and viaducts while the Atlantic Ocean sits calmly below. The scenery is nothing short of spectacular and being behind the wheel of the Ford GT makes the whole episode all the more memorable. Then again, the drive along the Atlantic Ocean Road isn’t the only reason why the Ford GT traveled so far up north. It also set its sights on breaking the lap record in one of the most unique race tracks in the world, the Arctic Circle Raceway.

Continue after the jump to read the full story.

Don't sleep on the Ford GT's own record-breaking performance

It doesn’t quite hold the prestige of Le Mans or the worldwide acclaim of the Nurburgring, but the Arctic Circle Raceway is famous in its own right for being the northernmost race track in the world. It’s located just 20 miles south of the Arctic Circle, which means that it’s the only racetrack in the world that can host a full 24-hour race without the sun ever leaving. Thank the midnight sun in the summer season for that. I can keep talking about the Arctic Circle Raceway for hours, but I won’t do that. Instead, I’ll talk about why the racetrack made news recently, and it has everything to do with the Ford GT.

See, Ford’s new supercar recently went to the Arctic Circle Raceway - it passed through the Atlantic Ocean Road to get there - and laid waste to the track’s lap time record. Veteran Le Mans racer and current Ford Chip Ganassi Racing driver Stefan Mücke took the wheel of the GT and after getting familiar with the track by running a few introductory laps around it, Mücke clocked in a time of 1:36.29 seconds, destroying the old 1:41.0 record held by the first-generation Audi R8 4.2 FSI Quattro and its driver, Norwegian rallycross racer Tommy Rustad. Incidentally, Rustad actually owns pretty much all of the fastest lap times around the Arctic Circle Raceway. Home track, perhaps?

It must be noted though that despite getting the production car lap record at the race track, Mücke and the Ford GT still fell short of Lars Magnussen's time attack record of 1:29.8, which he set with the Mitsubishi Evo back in 2014.

In any case, the Ford GT’s new production car lap record is still a nice bow on the Blue Oval's breathtaking trip to Norway. If you haven't been up to date on Ford's Europe’s Greatest Driving Roads series, here are the past episodes for your viewing pleasure.

Ford Focus ST on the MA10 Mountain Road in Mallorca, Spain