Jay Leno calls it the “greatest Mustang ever built.” Doug DeMuro, meanwhile, describes it as the “ultimate Ford Mustang.” Ever since it went on sale, the GT350R earned its stripes for being an absolute hoot to drive.
The GT350 is perfectly fine as is, but with the GT350R, the Ford Motor Company produced an instant classic. Introduced almost five decades after Carroll Shelby started modifying Mustangs, the ultimate expression of the S550 captured the hearts and imaginations of many.
Sure there’s a Shelby GT500 in the pipeline for model year 2019, but that is then and this is now. Hence, it remains to be seen if the Voodoo V8 will get supercharged for that particular application. Be that as it may, there’s no denying the flat-plane crank engine sounds amazing on full song in naturally aspirated form. More to the point, the 5.2-liter bruiser can keep on revving until the rev meter indicates 8,250 rpm.
The engine is only the tip of the iceberg, though. The wheels, for example, are carbon fiber in the case of the GT350R. The MagneRide suspension, therefore, works better, giving that extra edge to the driving experience when the going gets twisty. Moving on to weight-saving measures, the R doesn’t feature air conditioning or back seats.
Other than less weight and less rotating mass, Ford garnished the GT350R with more aggressive aerodynamics. And last, but certainly not least, don’t forget that the R features some of the stickiest road-legal tires in production today. It’s no wonder, then, why everyone is waxing lyrical about the most extreme constituent of the S550 breed.
If its drawbacks you’re more interested in, the rear wing doesn’t help with rear visibility, and the ride height isn’t exactly soothing. In Doug’s words, it’s actually “atrocious.” The fuel economy isn’t something to write home about either: 14 mpg city and 21 mpg highway. Who cares anyway, though?
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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