Driven: 2020 Ford Mustang Shelby GT500 (Turnology)
The best way I can describe driving the 2020 Ford Mustang Shelby GT500, is that it’s like you’re driving “Goliath.” The 2020 GT500 is Ford’s “most powerful, street-legal car” built to-date. With 760 horsepower, the GT500 certainly has the power you would expect from a modern Ford, it sounds like a V8 Mustang should, unsurprisingly, its straight-line performance is killer, and track-handling is on point, but where the GT500 will surprise you the most is with its street manners.
At its core, it’s still a Mustang. The Recaro seats are comfortable, and back seats are standard if you care for them. The air conditioning is great, and the interior layout and materials are all very familiar. The trunk is still large enough to put a body inside.
After driving my 2014 3.7-liter Mustang to Las Vegas, I was excited to get behind the wheel of a Mustang with more than double my daily driver’s power. The last GT500 Ford produced was made the same year as mine, and it came with a 5.8-liter, supercharged V8 with 662 HP. To give you some perspective, the 2020 model has nearly 100 more horsepower from a smaller engine.
The 2020 GT500 comes powered by a 5.2-liter cross-plane crank V8 topped with an inverted Roots-type 2.65-liter supercharger, with an air-to-liquid intercooler. Ford boasts the set up is capable of 760 horsepower and 625 lb-ft of torque. The engine redlines at 7,500 rpm, which is high for a supercharged application, and power is sent to the rear wheels via its seven-speed Tremec dual-clutch transmission.
