While the Ford Mustang Mach 1 is the hottest release from the Blue Oval’s sports car range for 2021, no one can deny the star of the current year has been the Shelby GT500 – and with so few of them already delivered it’s no wonder owners are still testing and trying to get a feel of the actual on-track performance.
Case in point Southern Californian Austin Everett, the young host of the Speed Phenom YouTube channel – who is both a C8 Chevrolet Corvette and Ford Mustang Shelby aficionado. His garage also includes a Shelby GT350R besides a red C8, but he recently took delivery of the GT500, so he is currently focusing on the new toy.
We have seen enough of his track outings both in the C8 Stingray and the GT350R to understand that he’s not just one of those socialites that don’t even know how to drive stick. More so, he’s proven on other occasions he’s a very talented driver – and has great technique even though he’s so young.
On this episode he’s only at his second track outing in the new 2020 GT500, back at Willow Springs to indulge in some hot laps in the hopes of besting his previous time (around 1:29 minutes). Well, although he’s quite excited about the prospective of a full track day and kicks off with a new POV (one that shows the speed, as requested by fans) for the on-board footage, things don’t go exactly as planned.
After just a few minutes of full throttle, we can already see at the 3:25 mark he’s not happy at all with the performance of the Carbon Fiber Track Pack monster (an $18,500 option) - claiming issues with slowing down and lots of understeer. So, he’s off to the pits for a quick check of the tire pressure and then heads off into some neat traffic (5:48).
Check out the footage closely because this is where his skills show up best – even though he’s not content with the GT500’s handling he still overtakes a high-winged Mustang and speedy Porsche before slowing down to check if the car that went off-track and caused a little dust storm was all right.
Another pit stop – he needs many of those not just to discuss the handling problems, but also to check up on the tires that seem to be “eaten alive” by the Shelby, as well as to refill the thirsty 760-hp engine. Then it’s off to the track once more, meeting a silver McLaren 720S for the next outing (the friendly feud kicks off at the 10:10 mark).
By the way, after he manages to overtake the British supercar (seems that he was allowed to, more than anything else), those handling issues come up once more – there's even a close call at the 16:50 where he almost loses control...
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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