Although they’re cool representatives of the America vs. Import breed, the “right off the showroom floor” (as the announcer said) 2021 Ford Mustang Shelby GT500 might have a slight advantage in certain departments against the supercar hidden under a German business sedan suit (a.k.a. the BMW M5 Competition).
Let's start with pricing. Although both vehicles aren’t for anyone looking for affordable deals, the GT500 starts from a MSRP of $72,900, whereas the Bavarian asks for at least $103,500 for the 2021 model year. So, the first point goes to the U.S. representative of the high-performance game.
Now the technical specifications might come ahead of the body style, since a coupe is probably more desirable visually, but the sedan form brings inherent practicality (and there’s no ugly grille like on the M3/M4). So, the design chapter can easily be called a tie. As for the former, we have a few details from the Race Your Ride YouTube channel itself, and we’ll fill in the rest of the blanks.
The 2020 BMW M5 Competition comes with a turbocharged 4.4-liter V8 engine that’s good for cranking out 625 PS (617 hp) and 553 lb-ft (750 Nm) for a quick sprint to 62 mph in 3.3 seconds. The Voodoo V8 from under the hood of the Shelby is even better, at least on paper, churning out 760 horsepower and a massive 625 lb-ft (846 Nm), claiming an even better acceleration of 3.1 seconds.
If these two cars met on the drawing board, especially considering the weight advantage for the feisty Mustang (4,182 lbs/1,897 kg to 4,370 lbs/1,982 kg), we’d have our clear-cut winner from America. But the sometimes cruel (though always spectacular) reality of quarter-mile racing is that calculations can easily go down the drain in a matter of seconds.
That’s usually all the time a driver needs to nail a perfect start and gain the advantage across the crucial first 60 feet or so. And as far as these two are concerned, we have no idea if the driver experience or the fact that we’re dealing with a rivalry between xDrive all-wheel drive and RWD had an impact or not.
But, as it turns out, a good (clean) start was all the M5 needed to snatch the lead from the first moments of the race and never let go until the board showed the BMW victorious over the mighty Shelby with an ET of 10.88 seconds to 11.75s.
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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