August was one of the most packed months of the year for the automotive industry, even though it's technically summer – and vacations and road trips should be all that matter. But a few automakers and a copious string of events changed all that in 2023.
We are at the cusp of the first days of autumn and we're still reeling after an incredible August that brought us the worldwide presentation of the 326-hp hybridized 2024 Toyota Land Cruiser (which has regular gasoline or diesel mills, plus Land Cruiser Prado or 250 monikers in other parts of the world), the 2024 Hyundai Santa Fe from Santa Fe, New Mexico, and also the 2025 Cadillac Escalade IQ from Times Square, New York City.
And then we also had the Monterey Car Week! This year's edition of the California-based string of events has had something for everyone – from billionaires (La Rose Noire) to wannabe collectors (NACTOY Kia EV6) and just about everyone in between. But, of course, some new model presentations matter more for the North American market than others – such as the first-ever Acura ZDX Type S all-electric sporty crossover or the Ford Mustang GTD.
My favorite car I would take home from Monterey was the premium Japanese CUV with GM's Ultium underpinnings, but I would not hold it against anyone who dreamt of tucking a GTD inside the garage. By the way, the moniker is a play on Gran Turismo Daytona, most likely, while everything else is nothing to play with and take lightly – neither the 800+ hp 5.2-liter supercharged V8 nor the extensive engineering that essentially makes it a street-legal race car.
Because there's little to no muscle car competition left on the market, the Ford Mustang GTD will be in a class of its own, with a $300k price tag (it's a tentative figure, by the way, it could go up – and fast), with settings inspired by the Mustang GT3 racer created to help Ford return to the 24 Hours of Le Mans race next year, and with the aggressive looks of a 'muscle supercar.' We'll see if Ford gets the term coined, but until the pricey limited-edition model hits the market, of course, the parallel universes of CGI will go berserk with it.
Okay, that's a bit of an overstatement since Ford Performance already gave it every possible sauce from the imaginative realm of digital car content creator's secret recipe – including a slammed attitude and an extra-widebody allure, plus more aero bits and pieces than anyone can count. However, pixel masters still believe they can do better.
And there's no need to take our word for granted as we have yet another eloquent example. Brian Monaco, the automotive renderer and design advisor from West Palm Beach, Florida (aka Monaco Auto Design), has some ample CGI thoughts on the Mustang GTD case. First, he gave it the classic blue-and-white Ford Performance color combination.
Then, he switched tasks and came up with an interpretation of his own after musing that you could buy a 992-series Porsche 911 GT3 RS for the same money and thinking that a lot of Mustang GTDs would cross the auction blocks in the years to come after sitting idle in AC garages instead of roaring across the nation's tracks and carving new canyon paths.
As such, in an effort to dial the design from 11 to 12, the CGI expert decided that Ford should (unofficially) offer an aero track pack for the upcoming Ford Mustang GTD (hopefully without adding another $100k to the list price). And, according to the author, it would include a few essentials – extra front canards, various racing stripes and color combinations, rear wing extensions to make the humongous aero piece even more imposing, plus Ford-branded Aerodisc-style wheels. So, do you like the 'regular' Ford Mustang GTD better because you already think it is crazy enough, or is the upgraded model already better because things can never be too wild in the automotive industry anymore?
Aurel has aimed high all his life (literally, at 16 he was flying gliders all by himself) so in 2006 he switched careers and got hired as a writer at his favorite magazine. Since then, his work has been published both by print and online outlets, most recently right here, on autoevolution. Full profile
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