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2019 Shelby GT500 Mustang Spy Video Suggests FPC V8, Automatic Transmission

After endless rumors and a flurry of spy photos, the 2019 Shelby GT500 returns in a short, potato-quality spy video. It’s exactly the same heavily camouflaged prototype the carparazzi caught mere days ago, but this time around, the exhaust sound produced by the test mule gives away what’s hiding underhood.
2019 Shelby GT500 Mustang spy video 9 photos
Photo: Mustang6G/screenshot via YouTube
2019 Shelby Mustang GT5002019 Shelby Mustang GT5002019 Shelby Mustang GT5002019 Shelby Mustang GT5002019 Shelby Mustang GT5002019 Shelby Mustang GT5002019 Shelby Mustang GT5002019 Shelby Mustang GT500
There’s no beating around the bush the sound is very flat-plane crankshaft V8-like, especially between the 12- to 14-second mark. Even though the driver doesn’t give the GT500 the beans it deserves, those cylinders are firing at evenly spaced intervals.

“So you’re saying the engine bay hides a Voodoo V8, probably supercharged?” I definitely do, and there’s a bit more evidence to back up that claim. You see, the GT350 will be phased off after the 2018 model year, but the 5.2-liter flat-plane mill won’t.

According to a UAW deal with Ford, the Romeo Engine Plant will continue to build the 5.2 FPC through 2020 and possibly beyond, "with upgrade." And with the new Shelby GT500 coming for the 2019 MY, it’s not hard to understand why the Voodoo will soldier on.

The big question is, what transmission does the 2019 Shelby GT500 Mustang has in this spy video? Skip to the 14-second mark and pay very close attention to the upshift. To my ears, that’s too fast for engaging the clutch and swapping a cog manually. And for high-revving applications such as the stupendous Voodoo, I have a hard time imagining the Ford 10R80 10-speed automatic being matched to the said V8 motor.

Ford doesn’t make any conventional automatic transmission that can handle 8,000-plus rpm, and for what it’s worth, neither do the Europeans. Look at what McLaren and Ferrari use for their high-performance machines. More to the point, that would be a dual-clutch transmission. But here’s the catch: Ford’s PowerShift six-speeder is not compatible with the Voodoo V8.

The 2017 Ford GT, however, packs a seven-speed DCT transaxle that’s marketed PowerShift. For the Shelby GT500, however, the more likely candidate is Getrag’s 7DC series seven-speed DCT, a unit that made its debut in the E92 M3 and continues to swap cogs in the M2, M3, M4, and M6.

All in all, let's wait for a more high-quality spy video of the upcoming GT500 to hit the web before we can say for sure what sort of transmission Ford Performance has settled for.

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About the author: Mircea Panait
Mircea Panait profile photo

After a 1:43 scale model of a Ferrari 250 GTO sparked Mircea's interest for cars when he was a kid, an early internship at Top Gear sealed his career path. He's most interested in muscle cars and American trucks, but he takes a passing interest in quirky kei cars as well.
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