Photo: Ford
Rumors are a pain in the you-know-what, especially those of and about the automotive industry and all its baubles. Not only is it hard for the skeptics among us to track down where the rumor originates from, but disproving a rumor is hard as hell. This time around, hearsay about the advent of a dual-clutch auto transmission in the Shelby GT350 is what caught our attention.
Everywhere you search on the Internet, the DCT-equipped Shelby GT350 rumor originates from Road & Track. Every single motoring outlet cites a story published on R&T, a publication that cites the Mustang6G forum as the place where its editor heard something about a dual-clutch auto in the track-focused and Voodoo V8-engined Ford Mustang Shelby GT350 duo.
Well, folks, don’t get too excited. When I first read the story on R&T ("EXCLUSIVE: Ford Planning Dual-Clutch Automatic for Mustang Shelby GT350"), a lil’ question mark appeared above my head: considering that Ford doesn’t have experience with dual-clutch transmissions, how could this go through even in the rumor mill? FoMoCo has the 6-speed PowerShift, which is a Getrag design and it gives the impression of a slush box, not a DCT.
Then there’s the 2017 Ford GT, which gets a 7-speed dual-clutch transaxle from Getrag as well, probably from the 7DC series because only those units can handle the torque produced by the 3.5-liter EcoBoost V6 engine. What’s more, a dual-clutch transmission that can handle more than 400 lb-ft (429 lb-ft in the GT350’s case) is as expensive as a cog swapper gets. These said, Ford doesn’t have too much experience in DCTs, nor does it makes sense to put this type of tranny in vehicles such as the driver-oriented Shelby GT350s.
These are my suppositions and my research, which are in no way enough to challenge the veracity of Road & Track’s report. However, there’s a thread in the forum titled “Dual Clutch Auto for GT350,” which starts with R&T's story.
Over no less than four pages at the time of writing this piece, every single member of the Mustang6G forum has questioned the rumor and Road & Track, chiefly because not a single member has seen the original thread regarding the purported DCT. In other words, Road & Track cited the forum despite the fact the rumor hasn’t been published on M6G whatsoever.
Well, folks, don’t get too excited. When I first read the story on R&T ("EXCLUSIVE: Ford Planning Dual-Clutch Automatic for Mustang Shelby GT350"), a lil’ question mark appeared above my head: considering that Ford doesn’t have experience with dual-clutch transmissions, how could this go through even in the rumor mill? FoMoCo has the 6-speed PowerShift, which is a Getrag design and it gives the impression of a slush box, not a DCT.
Then there’s the 2017 Ford GT, which gets a 7-speed dual-clutch transaxle from Getrag as well, probably from the 7DC series because only those units can handle the torque produced by the 3.5-liter EcoBoost V6 engine. What’s more, a dual-clutch transmission that can handle more than 400 lb-ft (429 lb-ft in the GT350’s case) is as expensive as a cog swapper gets. These said, Ford doesn’t have too much experience in DCTs, nor does it makes sense to put this type of tranny in vehicles such as the driver-oriented Shelby GT350s.
These are my suppositions and my research, which are in no way enough to challenge the veracity of Road & Track’s report. However, there’s a thread in the forum titled “Dual Clutch Auto for GT350,” which starts with R&T's story.
Over no less than four pages at the time of writing this piece, every single member of the Mustang6G forum has questioned the rumor and Road & Track, chiefly because not a single member has seen the original thread regarding the purported DCT. In other words, Road & Track cited the forum despite the fact the rumor hasn’t been published on M6G whatsoever.
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