Ford has finally announced the outputs of the Mustang Shelby GT500, the most powerful street legal Ford ever. The car was announced early this year, but Ford had not announced what the power outputs would be. The left it at an ambiguous ‘700+’ horsepower. Well, they’ve finally given us a proper number. The 5.2-litre supercharged V8 makes a total of 760 horsepower and 847Nm, making it the most power dense and torque dense production supercharged engine in the world.
The Shelby GT500 will have blistering performance too. Again, we don’t have exact figures yet but Ford claim that it will have a sub-3 second 0-100kmph time and will do the quarter mile in under 11 seconds. The 5.2-litre engine is made of an aluminium alloy and is built by hand. It gets a 2.65-litre roots-type supercharger and gets an intercooler tucked in to the valley of the V8. Like the GT350, it gets high-flow cylinder heads, larger forged connecting rods, better lubrication and cooling. The engine is mated to a 7-speed DCT by Tremec, which shifts in less than 100ms. The gearbox can alter its shift characteristics according to the drive mode selected (it even gets a drag mode), rpm-selectable launch control and being a Mustang, it gets line-lock.
The suspension has been overhauled to deal with the increase in power as well, with active suspension and lightweight coil-springs. Brakes have now been upgraded – 420mm two-piece rotors with 6-piston Brembo calipers while the Shelby GT500 runs on Michelin Pilot Sport 4S tyres. These upgrades allow the GT500 to have the highest lateral acceleration from any Mustang ever.
If you want to dial it up a notch, you can do so with two optional handling packages. The standard Handling package adds adjustable strut top mounts and a spoiler with a gurney flap. There’s also a Carbon Fibre Track Package which specs the car with 20-inch carbonfibre wheels that are 0.5 inches wider at the rear, stickier Michelin Pilot Sport Cup 2 tyres, an adjustable GT4-spec track wing, splitter wickers and a rear-seat delete to save weight.
The Mustang Shelby GT500 will go on sale later this year.