2020 Ford Mustang Shelby GT350 Final Drive (Autoblog)
One tough goodbye. The GT350 is going away, and we bid it adieu in the Heritage Edition model.
Once upon a time, I was a test driver working for Roush. I’d show up to a Ford building in Allen Park, Mich., at 6 a.m. five days a week, be given a set of keys, a drive route, a massive stack of paper and then be sent on my merry way for about seven hours. Every car I drove was a Ford or Lincoln in one of the various stages of pre-production builds. Nineteen-year-old me was in love with the gig. And c’mon, what teenage car nut wouldn’t love being paid to drive a brand-new car around?
But not all brand-new cars are created equal. Every brutally early morning, I'd stand in line, waiting. Eventually, names were called and the keys start flowing. "No cobra snake on that one, or those three. There’s still hope," I thought to myself. Finally, my name was called, and sitting on the table in front of me was exactly what I’d been wanting for the past couple of weeks: the key fob to a Ford Mustang Shelby GT350. I tried my best to not look too excited, but inside, I was positively giddy. The car gods graced me that fine, summer day, and somehow, I came away with an even higher opinion of the car than I had already built it up to be.
Fast forward five years, two months, a college education and countless cars later, and I’m back in the driver’s seat of the last new GT350 I’ll ever drive. Ford just finished telling me that neither the GT350 or GT350R would be around for the 2021 model year. No surprise there. After all, releasing a Heritage Edition for any model is a decent indicator that it's not long for this world. Still, it's hard not to be sad that a car that meant so much to me half a decade ago is going away. It's like losing an old friend, but at least I will get the lucky draw again, this time for Autoblog's final drive of the GT350. I have one more chance to hear that soon-to-be-classic 5.2-liter flat-plane-crank V8 scream its way to 8,250 rpm.
(photo credit: Zac Palmer - Autoblog)
