As far as racing drivers are concerned, Ken Block and Vaughn Gittin Jr. need no introduction. As part of the Cossie World Tour, the master of all things Gymkhana spent some time with the man behind RTR with the most powerful series-production Ford ever made.
The green-painted example has also been driven up the hill climb at Goodwood, hyping everyone with the sound of 5.2 liters supercharged V8 madness. The Predator engine in the Shelby GT500 develops no fewer than 760 horsepower and 625 pound-feet of torque.
Even though it’s more powerful than the previous Shelby GT500, the newcomer isn’t as fast in a straight line. Ford decided to focus on handling and acceleration rather than top speed, which is a good change of direction for the most powerful S550 Mustang of them all.
Another change over the preceding model is the dual-clutch transmission, a far cry from a good ol’ manual or a torque-converter automatic. With launch control and in perfect conditions, zero to 60 takes three and a half seconds. It’s a mighty impressive machine even when compared to the Dodge Charger SRT Hellcat Redeye, and truth be told, a better-handling car than the Mopar brawler.
"With its supercar-level powertrain, the all-new Shelby GT500 takes the sixth-generation Mustang to a performance level once reserved only for exotics," declared Hermann Salenbauch, global director of Ford Performance vehicle programs.” The only problem with this level of suck-squeeze-bang-blow is the starting price.
$70,300 from the get-go isn’t cheap, pitting the Shelby GT500 directly against the Redeye. If you want the full-fat driving experience, then you’ll need to shell out an additional $18,500 for the Carbon Fiber Track Pack. A few other options later, you’re looking at $97,995 for a Mustang. Incredible, isn’t it?
If you had $70,000 and change to spend on a high-performance American sports car, would you take Dodge or Ford on their offers? Better still, have you heard the 2020 Chevrolet Corvette Stingray can pull sub-three-seconds accelerations to 60 with the Z51 Performance Package?
After a 1:43 scale model of a Ferrari 250 GTO sparked Mircea's interest for cars when he was a kid, an early internship at Top Gear sealed his career path. He's most interested in muscle cars and American trucks, but he takes a passing interest in quirky kei cars as well. Full profile
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