Stock 2020 Shelby GT500 Sets a World Record at the Drag Strip

After leaving the showroom and traveling across the country, this stock Shelby GT500 finishes the quarter-mile in 10.66 seconds.

Ford Performance put a lot of time and engineering into the 2020 Shelby GT500 to prepare it for track days. They revised its suspension geometry, bolted in a new power steering unit, and installed lighter-weight coil springs at both ends of the car. As substantial as those changes sound, they don’t change the fact that many GT500 drivers will use their cars to go as fast as possible in a straight line. That’s what a popular YouTuber named Austin did on his channel Speed Phenom with his 2020 GT500 shortly after buying it. In the process, he set a world record for a production street-legal Mustang.

You might be thinking, “I hope he broke his car in before taking it to the strip.” Rest assured, he did. Speed Phenom put more than 1,000 miles on his GT500 in two days of cross-country driving that took him to the Texas Motorplex in Ennis, Texas.

His car has one of the available Handling Packages on it. He doesn’t need razor sharp turn-in for a quarter-mile dash, but every little bit of rear downforce from that big rear spoiler will come in handy. For his first run, Speed Phenom has an experienced drag racer named Omar ride shotgun. After exposing fresh sticky rubber on the rear tires, Speed Phenom fires the GT500 down the 1,320-foot-long path ahead. Even with two adult males onboard, the GT500 crosses the line in under 11 seconds doing 129 mph. Omar doesn’t overstate it when he says, “It pulled hard.”

For his next pass, Speed Phenom goes solo and proves less is more. The supercharged 5.2-liter V8 pushes him back into his seat with more than 1g of force while it rockets the GT500 forward. Despite the fact that the GT500 sends the majority of its 760 horsepower and 625 lb-ft of torque through its rear tires only, it has no problem hooking up. As Speed Phenom puts it, “It doesn’t spin, it just goes!” This time, the trip is over in 10.77 seconds (a nearly 0.2-second improvement). Speed Phenom’s final speed is up to 131.96 mph.

After upping his launch control rpm from 2,500 to 3,200, he makes a third pass of 10.728 seconds. If it wasn’t for a bit of “wheel shake,” that time would’ve been even lower. One of the guys at the track noticed it and tells him to lower his tire pressures to 24 psi to help them grip the tarmac better.

Clearly, that guy knows what he’s talking about; Speed Phenom notices the difference shortly after starting his final pass. He trips the sensors in 10.665 seconds at a speed of 132.96 mph. It’s such a good run that the guys at the strip watching him go cheer and applaud when the board lights up. When Speed Phenom finds out his time and speed, he blurts out the two words many of us would let fly if we found out we had just clocked the fastest drag strip time ever in a stock street-legal production Mustang: “Holy shit!”

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Derek Shiekhi

Derek Shiekhi's father raised him on cars. As a boy, Derek accompanied his dad as he bought classics such as post-WWII GM trucks and early Ford Mustang convertibles.

After loving cars for years and getting a bachelor's degree in Business Management, Derek decided to get an associate degree in journalism. His networking put him in contact with the editor of the Austin-American Statesman newspaper, who hired him to write freelance about automotive culture and events in Austin, Texas in 2013. One particular story led to him getting a certificate for learning the foundations of road racing.

While watching TV with his parents one fateful evening, he saw a commercial that changed his life. In it, Jeep touted the Wrangler as the Texas Auto Writers Association's "SUV of Texas." Derek knew he had to join the organization if he was going to advance as an automotive writer. He joined the Texas Auto Writers Association (TAWA) in 2014 and was fortunate to meet several nice people who connected him to the representatives of several automakers and the people who could give him access to press vehicles (the first one he ever got the keys to was a Lexus LX 570). He's now a regular at TAWA's two main events: the Texas Auto Roundup in the spring and the Texas Truck Rodeo in the fall.

Over the past several years, Derek has learned how to drive off-road in various four-wheel-drive SUVs (he even camped out for two nights in a Land Rover), and driven around various tracks in hot hatches, muscle cars, and exotics. Several of his pieces, including his article about the 2015 Ford F-150 being crowned TAWA's 2014 "Truck of Texas" and his review of the Alfa Romeo 4C Spider, have won awards in TAWA's annual Excellence in Craft Competition. Last year, his JK Forum profile of Wagonmaster, a business that restores Jeep Wagoneers, won prizes in TAWA’s signature writing contest and its pickup- and SUV-focused Texas Truck Invitational.

In addition to writing for a variety of Internet Brands sites, including JK Forum, H-D Forums, The Mustang Source, Mustang Forums, LS1Tech, HondaTech, Jaguar Forums, YotaTech, and Ford Truck Enthusiasts. Derek also started There Will Be Cars on Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube.