2020 Ford Mustang Shelby GT500 Review: 750bhp ‘Stang Driven in the UK (Top Gear)
What is it? It looks angry.
This is the 2020 Ford Mustang Shelby GT500. A car that we’ve tested in the US, but never on UK soil. We’re big fans of even the standard Ford Mustang, a car that combines gentle attitude and some real handling ability. But what we have here is more … motivated. A rear-wheel drive, seven-speed DSG Mustang with MagneRide active suspension and a great deal of know-how wound into it, powered by the ‘Predator’ 5.2-litre V8 wearing a 2.65-litre Roots-type supercharger as a hat. A supercharger that, at full chat, takes 90bhp just to get it going. Together, they produce 750bhp and 625lb ft or thereabouts, maxing out at 7,500rpm. It takes just three-and-a-half seconds to reach 62mph and has a top end of 180mph, managing those acceleration figures while still tipping the scales at nearly 1,900kg - and there’s a slight feeling that it weighs a bit more than that. Still. Quite the thing.
The shade you see here is called ‘Grabber Green’ and it’s as much an assault on your eyeballs as the rest of the car is on your other senses, seeing as this is one of the loudest roadgoing production cars Top Gear has ever tested. Even the ‘Quiet Mode’ on the switchable exhaust isn’t, and the irony of having a ‘Track Mode’ which is unsuitable (as in, too loud) for actual tracks isn’t lost on us. There’s a seven-speed paddleshift - there is no manual option - and various modes. It’s probably fair to say that this is not the ‘enthusiast’s choice’ — that would likely be the 8,500rpm-revving, flat-plane crank (GT500 is cross-planed), manual GT350 — but in terms of out-and-out theatre, the GT500 is the boss.
(photo credit: Top Gear)
