It's a Whole New World | 2020 Shelby GT500 | Meanest Snake Yet | How Fast Is It?

It's a Whole New World | 2020 Shelby GT500 | Meanest Snake Yet | How Fast Is It?

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Many more pics on the following pages.

It's been a long time coming. For over 5 years the SVTP Community has been eagerly awaiting the arrival of a new Shelby GT500 Mustang. We've been speculating what the car might be, and finally we know. On paper, the car looks to be an absolute Monster. She is going to arrive this spring and will be packing a 2650 Eaton TVS Supercharged Cross-Plane-Crank 5.2L V8 cranking out well over 700HP. Ford has told us the engine will come equipped stronger forged connecting rods than those found in the GT350 Mustang; which we've seen churn out ridiculous numbers on a stock bottom-end.


However, the biggest change the SVT faithful will have to become accustomed to is the loss of rowing their own gears. The GT500's 7-Speed Tremec Dual-Clutch Transmission is state of the art piece than is capable of shifting faster than you'll ever be able to. I can't say I'm all that happy about losing the clutch pedal, but I can't deny the performance advantage of the DCT. Simply put, it makes the car much faster than a shift. I'm talking shifts in as little as 100 milliseconds. You know you have a rough life when your biggest gripe about a feature of a car is something that makes it measurably better.

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But just how good is it? For has told us that it runs mid-3 second 0-60 times and sub-11 seconds in the quarter. That is blisteringly fast for a factory Pony Car. However, I happened to poke around a big and managed to coax some actual concrete numbers from some Ford Insiders. How does sub-3.5 second 0-60MPH times sound? From what I've been told, test drivers have been able to run faster than 3.5 seconds but traction becomes an issue. With all the fancy electronic driver aids most owners will be ticking off times around 3.5 seconds.

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The real news is in the Quarter-Mile times. I've been told Ford Performance Engineers have run 10.80s with traps over 133MPH. While those time are insanely impressive for a car that it perfectly happy running around VIR and out cornering every Mustang that came before it (try that in your Dodge Demon), I'm told that the guys at Ford Performance are still tweeking things. I don't have a final HP number to share, tuning is still taking place, but it looks like it's going to be in the 750HP range. The last report I got was that the current test cars are producing numbers in the 740s.

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As for the chassis and suspension dynamics, I'm going to defer to SVTP's resident S550 GT500 sleuth @Tob for his take on things:


Chassis


The big question is weight and until Ford leads us out of the dark it remains an unknown. Suffice it to say, Ford had their work cut out for them. Doesn't look as though DSSV's will make an appearance but rather the latest and greatest MagneRide technology does instead. Further refined beyond that of the GT350 and no doubt calibrated to meet most every demand within the spectrum of modes available that dictate how the driver wishes them to perform. The result of which is the "highest-ever lateral acceleration from a Mustang." Can't argue with that.

Suspension geometry has once again been revised. The front knuckles are now referred to as being "high trail" units for better steering response. The steering rack has been improved in kind to match. Lighter weight coil springs (both front and rear) replace previous designs. Michelin tires are Ford spec, in either Pilot Sport 4S or Pilot Sport Cup2's.

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Brakes are once again being sourced from Brembo. The GT500 will use a six piston caliper (even larger than that of the GT350) with the largest of any domestic sports coupe, two-piece, 16.5" diameter rotors up front (no longer cross drilled) and 14.5" rotors out back. Think about it - these rotors are larger than wheels of only a few short years ago. And with an additional 30% increase in thermal mass up front, wheel choice becomes more important than ever. Flow formed 20" diameter wheels are standard with nothing less than 20" carbon fiber wheels being available on the optional "Carbon Fiber Track Pack."

After a near 6 year absence Ford will once again be using a carbon fiber driveshaft behind the blown 5.2L CPC beast. A CF shaft ensures a smooth operating driveline as well as increased potential when it comes to handle typical drag-style shock loading as well as spinning to insane rpms when the car is topped out in high gear. Hallelujah!

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Adjustable strut top mounts will be available on the "Handling Package" (one would assume the CF Track Package as well) that will most likely ease track side camber adjustment. Clearly, Ford has been listening but more importantly they took action and have implemented instead of punting.


Managing the Air


You need to have your eyes examined if you can't see the massively ventilated hood and louvers the GT500 will now come with. But this car has far more in store when it comes to controlling how air will move in, through, up, over, and around. The upper and lower front grille opening has "50 percent more cooling pack airflow" than that of the GT350. The fenders on the GT500 are wider than previous and provide an aesthetic match to the rear.

The standard rear spoiler is new and the rear diffuser takes advantage of an updated composite material. Vehicle aero was developed and optimized in Ford's wind tunnel in North Carolina. There they refined the 31"x28" hood louver such that removing the aluminum "rain tray" will increase air extraction and downforce. No downforce data has been provided yet on the optional GT4 inspired rear wing but expect numbers we haven't seen previously on a production pony car from Ford.

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The Ford patented splitters make their debut as well. An interesting deviation from the typical canard-style hardware we have seen for years now on cars that are looking to stay glued to the track at speed.

There's so much more. Finally, after all this time we have what looks to be something to study, argue, and study some more. Going to be a long winter and spring but just knowing that the car will happen at all is a relief given how volatile the industry has become.

Thanks Ford for pleasantly surprising. This car looks to be a really good one.

All I can say is Wow, this car looks to be something special. It's breaking norms and raising the bar on what buyers can expect from a factory Mustang. I have absolutely no doubt that the aftermarket will have these cars running 9's with not much more than a pulley and tune. I know for a fact that companies like HP-Tuners and Whipple Superchargers are already gearing up for these cars to hit the streets. I'm calling it now, Lethal Performance will have a 2020 GT500 cranking out over 1,000 HP with a 3.0L Whipple blower on a stock engine and Rebecca Starkey will be out running 8's in one before you'll know what hit you. This Shelby GT500 from Ford Performance is a whole new world, and I hope you're ready to explore.
 
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Gt350 owners though “fLaT pLaNE cRaNK”

4l1f3!!!!

Much much different car than the 350.

I love my 350 and have no plans on getting rid of it. I don't see Ford keeping the dynamics of the 350s motor and pushing well into the 700s with reliability. Ford has to answer Dodge mainly and this car should do it.

Having owned two Hellcats, I can tell you straight up that Ford produces a MUCH nicer car than Dodge, no question. Now when they have similar power at a similar price, with a better produced car and better road dynamics, not really a comparison between the two.

My wife does call the 350 slow when she drives it though lol
 
It's nice and it's great that it's better than _all_previous Mustangs but I kinda feel that if this car doesn't beat the Camaro ZL1 1LE then it's lost some of it's significance. Compare this car to the 13 GT500, which basically detonated a nuke in the "pony car" marketplace. This car has to beat the GM competition doesn't it?
 
I’m not crazy about the gaping maw. I guess black with white stripes would help hide the horror. Love everything else about the car, though....
 
Great job with the write-up Travis. I have to say that overall the 2020 GT-500 is better than I expected. I had seen earlier renderings that had me concerned about the exterior. But Ford did a great job. That hood is perfect(ly) menacing. There really is nothing that I've seen here in this Reveal that disappoints me. I'll never own one, but I can drool!

I'm anxious to read the first road/track review. I have high expectations on this one....the best Mustang Ford has ever built!
 
because your just feeding the monster... its the basic economic principal of supply and demand. When you overpay for something your artificially driving up demand for no good reason other than... the "OMG... I gotta have it mentality" its so ridiculous. Be patient, let the jack wagon's at Ford deliver them to dealer lots first, let them sit on the lots until Ford starts offering rebates to move them.

What do you think created the housing crisis? Idiot lenders giving money to idiot buyers that couldn't afford the homes they were buying in the first place. It artificially drove up the cost of homes across the entire country.

Bottom line - STOP feeding inflation.... A Cobra in 2004 was 35K... 2007 - 50K Now there 100K... give me a ****ing break. Where does it stop?
I didn’t say I would pay the adm. lol. But if someone has the funds to pay the adm, that’s their business and I’m happy they have the disposable income. My boss will drop 50k on a weekend trip. He bought a new gt3rs sight unseen for over sticker and then asked me about the turbos on it. I had to inform him it doesn’t have turbos. He said oh well, looks and sounds amazing though doesn’t it. Lol. Point being, a 25k markup to some people doesn’t even blip the radar. Just because I’m not one of those people, it doesn’t piss me off that those fortunate people are out there.
 
Well if memory serves the 13~14 GT500 was not exactly cheap when it came out. Sure you can get one on the "less than" side now, it's a 5~6 year old vehicle. You just have to hope you get one that someone put in a bubble wrapper hoping it would be worth a fortune later on, or someone who was not interested in racing.

The new GT500's will be hit by the ADM bug sure. It will probably be around 75k. The mark up's will have it well beyond 100k for sure. Hell I saw a 350r going for that just a few days ago. People will pay, we will complain, then after the hype, the car will come down to earth....Well 75k to earth. But still down to earth.

It's the same argument every time a new platform comes out. Let's face it people...it's not 2003 and this is not the terminator motor. You want to play with the Porsche's and Zr1's and every other high end vehicle, your going to have to pay for it...Seems this very thread was out for the GT350...
Exactly, cars are priced fairly reasonable per their competition. What car, new, will be running times this quick, for this price? Msrp, not adm. I can get one at msrp, so just because someone pays 100k, that doesn’t mine will. And im not talking about modded anything. And I know the terminator is the end all car because I have one. Lol
 

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