The days of the track-oriented 2015 Chevrolet Camaro Z/28 roaming free are about to come to an end. Coming in the form of the 2016 Shelby GT350, the new kid on the block was teased once again, and this time around we can see a little hardware as well.
Previously caught on film by our talented team of carparazzi, the upcoming 2016 Shelby Mustang GT350 will be a hell bent for leather cookie. For starters we know it will be packing a naturally aspirated 5.2 V8 with over 500 horsepower and 450 lb-ft (610 Nm) of torque and a convertible variant will soon follow after the fastback will be revealed on November 17th. What else is there to know?
Let’s go through what Blue Oval officials are telling in the teaser video below: “it’s very driver-oriented,” “it’s very track-oriented,” “everything you see on this vehicle serves a purpose,”extremely free-revving,” “obviously develops a lot of horsepower,” “lightweight,” “it started out with a racecar mentality,” “it’s gonna be able to handle on the track,” gratuitous gloryfing blah blah blah.
We agree with everything except for the part that goes like “it started out with a racecar mentality”
NO! It started out with a plain simple V8-powered 2015 Ford Mustang. Don’t dare fool gearheads with marketing mumbo-jumbo like that. Even the Camaro Z/28 started life as a pony car developed to offer just about enough grunt for much less money than European sports cars. Purpose built cars developed from the ground up are the specialty of Radical, Caterham and Lotus, not a souped up Ford Mustang.
I’m a big fan of the American pony, but when I hear people wax lyrical about a vehicle that’s not a proper road-going machine nor a track-focused monster I start to uncontrollably grind my teeth because that’s not the actual truth. With that rant out of the way, what do the stills from the photo gallery below further say about the 2016 Shelby GT350 Mustang?
Slotted and vented steel brake discs that wear Brembo lettering on the calipers, a honey comb grille a la ST and RS-ified performance Ford vehicles and Recaro bucket seats wrapped in Alcantara. Oh, almost forgot about the icing on the cake - who’s the bozo that wrote “carbon-fiber” on a piece of plastic adjacent to the hood latch? Still, figers crossed the new 5.2 V8 will boast with a flat-plane crankshaft.
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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