2020 Shelby GT500 Is the New American Muscle King
Ford finally released the new Shelby’s numbers, and though it has less peak torque than the Camaro ZL1, it could still stomp the Chevy.
Ford Motor Company finally announced the official power numbers for the 2020 Mustang Shelby GT500 this morning and with 760 horsepower, this is the most powerful road car that FoMoCo has ever produced. That is also more power than the Camaro ZL1 or the Corvette ZR1, allowing the new Shelby Mustang to rank second overall in terms of American horsepower behind only the Dodge Challenger SRT Hellcat Redeye.
With 760 horsepower, the uniquely-tuned MagneRide dampers, the gigantic Brembo brakes, carbon fiber wheels, Michelin Pilot Sport Cup 2 tires and a body that has been designed for superior aerodynamics, the new GT500 should prove to be the most road course-capable American muscle car ever, but the critics do have one thing to complain about with regard to the numbers.
The new 5.2-liter supercharged V8 “only” delivers 625 lb-ft of torque – that is 6 lb-ft less than the 2014 GT500 – and that has some people concerned. Fortunately, we think that those concerns are unfounded and even with a relatively low torque figure, the new Shelby Mustang could assert itself as the world’s best-performing muscle car, pony car or whatever else you want to call them.
GT500 Power Delivery
The common conception with horsepower and torque numbers is that torque is how hard you launch while horsepower is how hard the car pulls on the top end and for the most part, that is accurate enough. Of course, both numbers play a factor across the powerband, but that range of power itself can sometimes play a bigger role than actual peak numbers.
At the initial media preview of the 2020 GT500 back in December 2018, the Ford team was quick to point out that the new Shelby Mustang is an all-around performance car, designed to go toe-to-toe with the best sports cars in the world. They candidly commented that it would deliver awesome straight-line performance and acceleration like we have never seen from a factory-built Mustang, but it is made to conquer the corners as well.
If the new GT500 was designed to, say, beat the Camaro ZL1 1LE around the Nurburgring, peak torque won’t be as important as torque delivery. While the Camaro offers 650 lb-ft, the Mustang’s 625 lb-ft could be achieved as a point in the powerband where the car can make better use of that twist. In other words, if the Mustang reaches its peak torque levels earlier or if that torque curve is flatter than the Camaro, it will have an advantage even with less peak torque.
Unfortunately, Ford hasn’t offered up any RPM figures to go with the horsepower and torque figures, but if nothing else, the advantage of the Camaro on the torque side of things should be more-than-equaled on the horsepower side. The Camaro might get away from the line a bit quicker, but it won’t take the new Shelby long to close that gap.
Power-to-Weight Ratios
While the new Mustang has more horsepower than the Camaro ZL1, the Corvette ZR1, every Ford production car before it and the standard Dodge Challenger Hellcat, the Hellcat Redeye has 797 horsepower and 717 lb-ft of torque, giving it a huge advantage on paper. However, when these two cars go head-to-head, curb weight will most certainly come into play.
The Hellcat Challenger tips the scales at just over 4,500 pounds and while we don’t know how much the GT500 will weight, we know that the rest of the current Mustang fastback lineup is well below 4,000 pounds. The current GT350 weighs around 3,800 pounds, so it seems possible that the GT500 would weigh-in around 4,000 pounds, as the bigger brakes, the supercharger components and the added body bits could add around 200 pounds. If the GT500 weighs 4,000 pounds, it will have a power-to-weight ratio of 5.23 pounds-per-horsepower, while the Challenger is slightly worse at 5.65 pounds-per-horsepower. For those wondering, the Camaro ZL1 1LE offers a power-to-weight number of 5.85 pounds-per-horsepower.
While narrow, that weight ratio difference should give the Mustang an advantage in a straight-line battle while the lower curb weight should also yield better handling abilities than the Dodge.
The bottom line here is that while the 2020 Ford Shelby GT500 has a little less horsepower than the Challenger Redeye and a little less torque than the Camaro ZL1 1LE, the odds are good that 760 horsepower and 625 lb-ft of torque will be enough for the Mustang to beat the stock competition on just about any road course in the world while the drag strip will likely lead to a driver’s battle.
Photos: Ford Motor Co.
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