Video: 2020 Ford Mustang Shelby GT500 Review

There was a lot of really cool stuff that came out of the '60s, like the '67 Shelby GT500, for instance, but you couldn't take a suitcase full of cash down to your local Ford dealer then, and walk out with a Mustang that made 760 horsepower. See, that's why the golden age of muscle cars, wasn't the '60s, it's today. Because today you can take that suitcase full of cash down to your Ford dealer, and you can walk out with this. (car engine revs) (rock music plays) (car engine revs) This is the 2020 Ford Mustang, Shelby GT500, the ultimate Mustang, the quickest, most powerful Mustang that Ford motor company has ever created. And it may share its name with the ponies that have come before it, but to say that it's a very different animal is no understatement. Start with the way it looks. Unique front and rear ends that aren't shared with either the regular Mustang GT or the Shelby GT350, it has a huge grill with all kinds of honeycomb openings meant to feed that massive cooling system. It flows 50% more air than the GT350 and feeds things like an oil cooler and transmission cooler, as well as the engine. It flows so much air into the engine bay that it required a new hood with a big extractor vent to get all the air out of the engine bay as well. A lot of work has been put into the aerodynamics of the car and for good reason. You'll need all the downforce you can get when you put an engine this powerful under the hood. Now here's the big difference between the GT350 and the GT500. The GT500 has a 5.2 liter supercharged engine making 760 horsepower and 625 lb-ft of torque. It's a different engine than the one seen in the GT350, no flat-plane crank here. The GT500 users a cross-plane crank, but still revs ridiculously high for a supercharged V8. It makes its peak horsepower above 7,300 RPM and has several other modifications from the GT350, such as sodium filled valves, strengthened cylinder head bolts, CNC machine heads, and more, but it's that 2.65 liter Eaton supercharger nestled up top that makes the big difference. And you may notice one other big difference from the GT350 sitting at your right hand. Yep, that's the shifter from the Ford Explorer. A rotary knob controlling a tronic 7-speed dual-clutch automatic transmission adapted from the Ford GT Supercar. Unlike the GT350, there's no manual transmission offered for the GT500 and that's perfectly fine. I don't care what you say. Why? Because the thing can rip off shifts in 80 milliseconds. I defy you to even get your left foot from the brake to the clutch of a GT350 in 80 milliseconds. No, you can't. Don't even try. Combine that massively powerful engine with its immediate torque and the exceptionally fast and smooth 7-speed DCT, and you have a matchup that makes the GT500 something special. (car engine revs) Out on the street, it honestly doesn't feel all that different from the GTS350. The GT500 features the MagneRide electronic suspension too, so you can set it to normal, sport, track, et cetera, and it'll putter around town, happy as you please. The ride is amazingly well damped. It never beats you up or loses composure even on choppy pavement, of which there admittedly really wasn't much of, on our brief street drive in the mountains above Las Vegas Motor Speedway. It's smooth; it's comfortable. It's even relatively quiet when you want it to be. The revised suspension with it's modified spindles, also seen on the 2020 GT350R, helps to reduce the tramlining that the previous car was so notorious for experiencing. You can daily the GT500 without a problem. Although I'd suggest two modifications. First, stick with the Michelin Pilot Sport 4S tires that come with the GT500, and not the Sport Cup 2's that come with the track package, and skip the Recaro sport seats. Yeah, those seats, unless you're a skinny person, you're not going to fit in them all that well. They're very heavily bolstered, but they're insufficiently adjustable. If your butt's wider than the seat bottom bolsters, you're going to be sitting on top of them instead of down in the seat, and the seat bottom doesn't adjust for rake as much as it should. And the seats themselves do sit rather high, so finding a comfortable driving position can honestly be challenging. Definitely, try the Recaro's and the regular base seats before you spec which ones you're going to have to live with. The interior is honestly something of a let down for a car that costs this much. The GT500 features some carbon fiber trim and those optional sports seats, but for a minimum price of $73,000 in change, there should be some more differentiation in this interior, special colors, maybe some fancier leather trim, something to justify the price jump from the GT350 to the GT500. You can specify some additional bling in the form of a technology package, which adds creature comforts like navigation, a 12-speaker BNL audio system, blind spot warning, Shelby puddle lights in the mirrors, and driver setting memory. But chances are, you're not interested in this car for the bling of the interior. You want to know how much better it goes around a track than the GT350. And I can now tell you, definitively, it blows the GT350 away on the road course, thanks to all that extra power. You want some numbers. Okay, here you go. Ford said it'll do zero-to-60 in 3.3 seconds, and the quarter mile in 10.7 seconds. But it's the immediacy of that power delivery that is truly fantastic. The supercharged V8 feels so much more responsive than the GT350's engine in just about every situation. The GT500's bigger brakes, but you stay on the power longer and bleed off speed later with repeatable confidence. The brake performance is outstanding. 13.53-inch rotors up front with big Brembo calipers haul you down for a corner with breathtaking force. Handling was already outstanding in the GT350, and it's fair to say that the GT500 feels pretty similar to the GT350R, in that regard. The steering is light, it's nimble, and the car doesn't feel nearly as heavy as its numbers would suggest. But it's the 7-speed dual-clutch transmission that's the real hero here. You won't miss the manual transmission at all, I promise. Put the car in track mode and just go, don't worry about shifting the paddles yourself. The transmission can do a better job of it than you can. It never faltered, lap after lap, and I never found myself in the wrong gear for what I wanted the car to do. And if you decide you need more power in a lower gear, just stab your right foot on the accelerator, the lightening fast downshifts seem hardwired to your brain. Simply put, Ford has crafted one of the best driving, best handling track cars that you could buy today. It's the quickest Mustang they've ever made, but is it really that much better than the new Shelby GT350R? Well, the GT500 really is remarkable. Out on the track it does definitely feel quicker. And out on the street, it is just as calm as a 350 or a 350R, as well. So really, it's almost about even that way, unless you're taking it to the track a lot. Now on the interior, it really isn't that different from a 350. Frankly, it's even not quite as nice as the 350R with some of that special stitching that it has. So in terms of that, it's kind of a wash. But for the amount of money that they're requesting for this, it really should be a little bit nicer on the interior. If you'd like to learn more about the new Shelby GT500, look everything up on Cars.com. (rock music plays)