BLUE THUNDER

The Mustang GTD is Ford's answer to a GT3 RS, with a ferocious 815bhp V8, active aero and a sub-7-minute Ring lap time. We try it

- by YOUSUF ASHRAF

ON AVERAGE, PALM SPRINGS GETS AS little as five inches of rainfall per year, but today all of it seems to have arrived at once. Hours earlier we were being baked by intense 40-degree heat, but thick grey clouds have rolled over the Coachella valley, lightning is flashing in the distance and rain is pummelling the ground and flooding the Thermal Club circuit. It's not looking good. The Ford PR manager walks back into the pits flush-faced after a sighting lap, having unintentionally spun the wheels up through standing water at over 70mph. Behind him there's a pickup truck trundling around with a giant hairdryer hanging off it to try to clear the moisture. We won't be allowed out unless there's a clear dry line, but most of the surface is a mirror sheen, and there's a growing sense we might not be able to properly experience the car we've come here to drive. We wait, wait and wait. Thermal Club was chosen for the certainty of dry track time, but this might as well be Anglesey.