2024 Ford Mustang Shelby GT500 Meets Its Digital Competition, a Kindred Wide Spirit

No, we are not talking about Stellantis, dear Dodge and Mopar aficionados, as we will have to wait and see what the near future has in store for the nine levels of Banshee EV lifestyle destined to come after the 2023 Charger and Challenger in ICE format are no more. And no, beloved GM enthusiasts, we also have no idea what Chevrolet has in store for the Camaro nameplate after the sixth-gen production ends in January 2024 and everyone snatched a 2024 Collector’s Edition.

Instead, if you catch our drift, we are hinting towards great things from the Blue Oval, as far as the Mustang series is concerned. Sure, maybe they are not as great as Ford returning to Formula One, but the iconic pony car is sure pegged for an outstanding S650-based career all-around plenty of motorsport disciplines, from GT to Formula Drift, and anything in between.

And there is no way to put it other differently, but this is exactly the way it should be. After all, the Ford Mustang has evolved through the years not just as an astonishing pony car but also as a muscled hero that was never afraid of taking on track duties. Plus, let us not forget about the Shelbys, of course. They first appeared as the Shelby GT350 Mustang, in 1965, followed by the bigger sibling GT500 in 1967, and the world of American sports cars has never been the same, ever since.

Naturally, Ford’s Performance division (formerly SVT) also took notice of the hype and not long ago everyone had the option of snatching a third-generation Shelby American Mustang or a third-gen Ford Performance Ford Mustang Shelby directly from the OEM. Sadly, the GT350 model was retired early on during 2020, followed by the GT500 in 2022, as it had to make way for enough 5.2-liter Predator supercharged V8s to be produced for the all-new, first-ever 2023 Ford F-150 Raptor R.

Anyway, people are not too concerned with the disappearance, mostly because the Blue Oval company has already revealed the seventh generation S650 Ford Mustang for the 2024 model year, and this summer first deliveries will kick off with EcoBoost, Mustang GT, and Dark Horse prowess. From then on, everyone probably expects the Shelbys to come out next, right? But what happens with the folks that are more eager than others? Well, no worries, as the imaginative realm of digital car content creators always envision a solution.

Naturally, since the introduction of the Coyote V8-equipped Mustang GT and Dark Horse, the next order of CGI business for pixel masters around the world was to create the Shelby GT500 package for them. A good case in point was also made – on more than one occasion – by the virtual artist better known as hycade on social media, who can easily be seen as a massive contemporary sports car fan, so a couple of CGI GT500s are spot on, always. Only this time these are not just color variations of the same S650 project.

Instead, a dark (emerald) green Ford Mustang Shelby GT500 dwells around the digital lot next to a two-tone black and crimson kindred spirit. Only the author’s ‘extraterrestrial’ transformation with a thoroughly slammed atmosphere, bonkers aftermarket wheels, and an ultra-extreme widebody kit mixed with a bonkers aerodynamic package is slapped on top of two different generations.

So, the green hoot looks like an S-197 II fifth-generation and the black-shaded-into-burgundy is the hypothetical S650 Shelby GT500. Interestingly, one might assume that it’s an easy choice between the two – but I dare say that it’s not if you need our two cents on the matter. This is because the S650 Shelby GT500 idea looks decidedly more contemporary from the front whereas the fifth-gen appears to be more enticing from the rear!