There is a fierce rivalry between muscle car makers in the US. Glory is divided among the three, and each one had its slice. Mustang is most wanted one by buyers, Camaro is fastest on the track and Challenger has most insane figures on the paper. That last segment in which Dodge is leading left Ford lagging plenty behind. When current generation debuted in 2014 highest number that you could get was from GT model boosting 435 hp. Power went up a year later to 526 hp with the introduction of a track focused GT350 and that was it by Ford.
Challenger, during the same year, introduced SRT Hellcat with no less than 707 hp, while in 2016 new generation of Camaro debuted, pumping out 650 hp in the ZL1 outfit. Like that all was not enough, Dodge went ludicrous this year with Demon and 840 hp, though mostly usable just on a drag strip. Does that mean that Mustang threw the white towel?
IT’S NOT OVER YET
No, Ford hasn’t dropped the game of high figures. There is a thing called GT500, which in the previous generation produced as much as 671 hp. GT500 is top Mustang’s offer, the same thing as ZL1 is for Camaro or Hellcat for Challenger. Three years has passed since the last generation of Mustang was introduced, so Ford is a kind of slow with a top performance model, but plenty of spy photos are here to convince us that 2019 Ford Mustang Shelby GT500 is indeed on the way.
BIG QUESTION
The biggest question surrounding it would be, how much power? We don’t know exactly, but we could imagine an open attempt at Hellcat figures so something above 700 hp could be a right guess. Source of that power is another mystery. The traditional way would be mounting of a supercharger on the naturally aspirated 5.2-liter V8 Voodoo engine from GT350 version. Unit in question is a pure masterpiece. It features flat-plane crankshaft with attachments at 180 degrees something that you find in a Ferrari’s V8 just for example.
Although 180 number would probably shrink to more usual for V8s 90 degrees in the case of GT500, but when power is concerned with forced induction and some other tweaks, it could easily jump by 200 hp reaching over 700 hp mark. A different way, would be the use of naturally aspirated 5.0-liter V8 Coyote engine from GT model and refine it with two turbochargers. We would consider that as a bad move. Yes, it would use less fuel in that case, but who cares about that when power figures are so high. Turbo always carries at least some lag, it usually doesn’t fancy high revs, it lacks cool whining of the supercharger, and it obviously is not “American way” with muscle cars.
Both Chevy and Dodge stick with superchargers and hopefully, Ford will too as it always did. Whatever engine it will be, expect it to be paired with a currently offered 6-speed manual or 10-speed automatic which is also shared with its biggest rival or Camaro ZL1.
2019 Ford Mustang Shelby GT500 LOOKS
Ford made little confusion about the Mustang looks lately. It has just been redesigned, receiving prettier and meaner fascia but GT350 and GT350R models retained pre-facelift appearance. Don’t worry GT500 will come with the new design, but in its case additionally flavored with bumped hood, huge air intakes, large side vents, more menacing diffuser, quad exhaust, and possibly a rear wing that we saw Ford was experimenting with on some earlier test mules.
On the inside expect all commodities featured in the regular version, missing with GT350, since GT500 is not track oriented thing. Though things will get more interesting with special touches, probably involving carbon and Alcantara, while sports seats will be mandatory.
GAME IS ON
2019 Ford Mustang Shelby GT500 could debut close to the end of this year, if not, the first part of next one is for sure, with a price tag in resemblance to main rivals or around $62k for a start. And then, the game is on! Camaro ZL1 is by far more competent thing on the tarmac than “wild tail” Challenger Hellcat, but Dodge has figure’s bragging rights.
Mustang could change that completely by getting Hellcat amount of power and keeping close to Camaro’s handling abilities. So, an absolutely perfect mixture is about to arrive.
