2020 Ford Mustang Shelby GT500 Is 760 HP of Pony Royalty
Bullitt, Boss, Mach 1, Cobra, GT350 … II, and I’m probably missing some, but by far, the king of Ford Mustangs, possibly the king of pony cars in general, is the GT500. I’ve said this before, but I don’t think this GT500 will ever be topped. It feels as fast as a McLaren. It sounds nearly as good as a Ferrari. It pulls eyes and drops jaws like a Lamborghini, especially in orange or green. By definition, the GT500 isn’t an exotic car, but really, it is.
How else could you describe a car that has a supercharged 5.2-liter V8 making 760 hp and 625 lb-ft of torque, all channeled through a seven-speed dual-clutch transmission and on to the rear wheels? A top speed of 180 mph. A 0-60-mph time of 3.3 seconds. A quarter-mile in the 10s. There is no other way. I will say that if you have children, you’re going to want to skip the harness bar, rear-seat delete and five-point harness — what I call the "things are getting pretty serious" package.
The good thing — whether you have kids or not — are the drive modes. But not just your normal, sport and track (and drag) settings. The GT500 has separate buttons for the steering sportiness, the firmness of the MagneRide suspension and, most notably, the exhaust. The quad pipes have four modes — quiet, normal, sport and track — and my hand can’t get there soon enough after pushing the start button at 8:30 at night when the kids are just getting sleepy and I’m trying to sneak out of the neighborhood without waking them up. I’ll suggest here that, at least the exhaust, should stay in whatever mode you leave it when shutting this beast down.
The 2020 Ford Mustang Shelby GT500 starts at $73,995, including destination and gas guzzler tax. That’s about $12,000 more than the base GT350, but a few bucks less than the extra-sticky GT350R. Granted, you could buy TWO Mustang GTs at that price, but that Coyote V8, as good as it is, doesn’t hold a candle to the Voodoo-based, supercharged 5.2.
(photo credit: Jake Lingeman - Autoweek)
