by Dan Heyman
760 horsepower. Think about that for a second. That’s more than the McLaren F1. It’s more than the Viper SRT. More than even a modern NASCAR makes, and that’s taking into account the power levels before the new regs kick in for 2020. In short, it’s a whole heck of a lot of power and it makes the 2020 Shelby GT500 the most powerful production Ford, ever. Yes; that includes the ultra-rare GT.
It sure looks like it, doesn’t it? A glance at the massive, gaping maw that is the radiator and the huge hood bulge all point to the GT500 being the meanest Mustang to ever roll off the line and as we’ll soon see, you can make it look even meaner if you so wish.
Fed to the fat rear tires through a 7-speed dual-clutch automatic (your only choice – according to the Shelby’s engineers, that’s the fastest way to go and that’s all there is to it), it will get you from 0-100 km/h in about 3.5 seconds, on to a top speed of 180 mph.
“Whoa, whoa, whoa hold ON!” I hear you saying. “Didn’t Ford make a big deal about how the last GT500 could crack the 200 mph barrier? What’s with this 180 mph nonsense?” That they did, but the new car has been restricted to 180. Our guess is that with that kind of power, and given the right amount of tarmac, it can do a lot more than that.
Unfortunately, the Angeles Crest Highway north of Los Angeles where we had been dispatched to put the new Shelby though its paces – glorious that it is — doesn’t really provide the kind of straights required to test top speeds. Indeed, Ford had us there to see how the latest GT500 could perform on the tricky, off-camber and sometimes slippy curves this wonderful ribbon of road presents. So it was written that Ford needed to make sure that the GT500 wasn’t just going to be a drag-strip demon. It needed to handle because there’s a brand-new mid-engined Corvette on the horizon and if the Shelby was going to keep up, it would need more than a big, honkin’ supercharged V8 to do so.
To wit: magnetic dampers are standard on the GT500 as are super-sticky Michelin Pilot Sport Cup 2 tires. If you need even more grip than that, there’s an optional carbon fibre track package that provides super-light carbon wheels – they lower total unsprung weight by 90 kg – and massive carbon rear wing. Remember that “make it look meaner thing” we talked about earlier? Yeah, that should do it. The aggressive front splitter, meanwhile, helps the GT500 use wind to its advantage to hunker down, clutch the surface below and keep you surging forward.
Keep you surging forward, that is, accompanied by one of the biggest bellows you’ll find in the muscle car market. There are multiple exhaust settings but in a car like this – and with canyon walls like these – you have to select “Sport” or “Track,” right? I mean, performance car, drag car, show car or whatever you want to call it, a Mustang needs to sound a certain way. With the GT500, that sound is something like a cross between a NASCAR – you know, one of those world-class racers that actually have less power than this — at the low end, and Jurassic Park’s T-rex at the top end. You can quiet it down, but I know I’d only be doing that in and around my neighbourhood. Anywhere else, it’s loud exhaust for me.
My goodness, is it quick. Indeed, those paddles are necessary because I found myself regularly flicking one even before it seemed the last gear had engaged, so furious is the acceleration. You’re pinned back in the (optional) Recaro racing seat as the world around you blurs, and you do your best to keep computing all the obstacles and turns the Angeles Crest throws at you for miles and miles.
The steering wheel itself is big but wrapped in Alcantara suede so the grip is good, and the front end responds well to driver inputs. It’s a much more aggressive rack than you’d think something with a big, heavy V8 up front would have, but considering the marching orders the Shelby had, the steering had to follow suit. I must admit; at first, I thought any comparisons made with the new Corvette would really be just based around the fact these two happen to be the newest sports cars from two of the oldest rivals in the game.
The way the GT500 handles, however, suggests that this really could be more than an exercise in simple power one-upmanship. The way this latest Mustang feels so light on its feet, and so nimble through its corners that you have a hard time fathoming how they can fit so much engine up there and not destroy the handling aspects, is an engineering feat rarely seen at this level. I have not yet driven the Corvette but I will do so soon, and I am eager to see just how different it feels from this.
Even more remarkable than that are the brakes; six pistons up front and four at the rear and while a ceramic disc option is not available at this juncture, these babies bite so hard that you can see why a ceramic option is easily forgotten. Perhaps those that plan on tracking their GT500 a lot would go this way, but for most, the way these perform will be more than enough. Since the GT500 is so darn fast – and gets going so darn fast so darn quickly – having brakes like this really does provide good peace of mind.
The Shelby GT500 overall, though, provides a whole heck of a lot more than that. It provides power, panache, legend and an indisputable sense of occasion few cars today can match. In short, it provides everything any red-blooded car enthusiast could hope for. Not only that: with the impending arrival of the Mustang Mach-e EV CUV thingy, it serves to show that the Mustang will still be a sports car, through and through.
