Photo: Ford
Revealed with much pomp and circumstance on September 14th, the seventh-generation Mustang will be available stateside in the summer of 2023. In the meantime, Ford’s current pony car will soldier on for the 2023 model year with only two engines: EcoBoost I4 and Coyote V8.
Speaking to Muscle Cars & Trucks during a private backgrounder event, brand manager Jim Owens confirmed that it’s pulling the plug on the Shelby GT500 for the 2023 model year. “Demand is there,” said Owens, apparently oblivious that Mustang sales are on a downward spiral for a heck of a long time now. “Supply is not,” which is only natural for two obvious reasons.
First and foremost, the semiconductor crunch is made worse by other shortages in the supply chain. Constraints affecting the 2023 Ford Maverick, for example, include the Tremor Off-Road Package and the Tremor Appearance Package that can’t be had without the prior package.
As for the other notable reason, don’t forget what engine hides under the hood of the Shelby GT500. The Ford Motor Company’s most powerful series-production engine is a 5.2-liter V8 based on the Modular architecture. Slightly different from the flat-plane crankshaft Voodoo in the GT350, the cross-plane Predator belts out 760 ponies and 625 pound-foot (847 Nm).
Have a wild guess what other Ford Motor Company nameplate uses the supercharged lump, a nameplate that’s certain to sell more units on a yearly basis than the Shelby GT500. The culprit is the Raptor R, an F-150 Raptor with the 37-inch tire package that had its EcoBoost sixer yanked out in favor of the Predator detailed earlier. In this application, the eight-cylinder mill develops 700 ponies and 640 pound-foot (868 Nm). Although it’s not on the same level as the Hellcat in the Ram TRX, it’s pretty good nonetheless.
Sources familiar with the S650 program told our friends at Ford Authority that the Shelby GT500 will return in 2025 for the 2026 model year. Beyond this timeframe, we do not know anything else about what’s in the offing.
First and foremost, the semiconductor crunch is made worse by other shortages in the supply chain. Constraints affecting the 2023 Ford Maverick, for example, include the Tremor Off-Road Package and the Tremor Appearance Package that can’t be had without the prior package.
As for the other notable reason, don’t forget what engine hides under the hood of the Shelby GT500. The Ford Motor Company’s most powerful series-production engine is a 5.2-liter V8 based on the Modular architecture. Slightly different from the flat-plane crankshaft Voodoo in the GT350, the cross-plane Predator belts out 760 ponies and 625 pound-foot (847 Nm).
Have a wild guess what other Ford Motor Company nameplate uses the supercharged lump, a nameplate that’s certain to sell more units on a yearly basis than the Shelby GT500. The culprit is the Raptor R, an F-150 Raptor with the 37-inch tire package that had its EcoBoost sixer yanked out in favor of the Predator detailed earlier. In this application, the eight-cylinder mill develops 700 ponies and 640 pound-foot (868 Nm). Although it’s not on the same level as the Hellcat in the Ram TRX, it’s pretty good nonetheless.
Sources familiar with the S650 program told our friends at Ford Authority that the Shelby GT500 will return in 2025 for the 2026 model year. Beyond this timeframe, we do not know anything else about what’s in the offing.
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