Beth's Final GT500 Thoughts and Gallery

Probably the best way to explain what it felt like to drive a car like the GT500 is to tell you that when I got back into my Civic to head home, I felt like I was driving a Matchbox car. That I was half concerned the breeze created by suburban kids chasing their ball down the street would knock me off course. That I could cover less territory through the first three gears of my beloved (and it is beloved) little coupe than I had in first gear in the GT500. So that’s what they mean by muscle cars.

All things considered, though, I can tell you pretty definitively that I’ll never buy a car like this. As much fun as it was, it’s equally impractical for someone like me. So I caught a bit of a driving bug in the GT500; I don’t think I’d feel quite so good about it when I got my monthly Visa bill filled with astronomical charges from gas stations. I drive to get places, not to have fun (I’m sure there’s a chicken-egg argument in there somewhere, but that’s for another day).

Of course, there’s no way Ford’s concerned about people like me, given there are plenty of drivers out there who think about driving in precisely the opposite way. And if someone like me can enjoy driving the GT500 as much as I did, I can only imagine what they’ll think of it.

-Beth Palmer

Read all about Beth and Dave’s drive in the Shelby GT500 here. For a photo gallery click the link below.