Fast Lane Car Lights Up Sin City in 1967 and 2020 Shelby GT500s
You can go to Vegas to gamble. We’d rather go and do what Roman Mica did: Hit the track in classic and modern GT500s!
The time has come, Mustang fans. The media embargo on driving impressions of the 2020 Ford Mustang Shelby GT500 has lifted so you can watch videos from its media launch event in Sin City until your eyelids snap shut and you drop your phone on your face. But you won’t just learn about the newest model; Ford made sure to have a 1967 GT500 at the big debut, too.
The Fast Lane Car‘s Roman Mica got behind the wheel of both Blue Oval beasts in Las Vegas. Even though the pair of cars is separated by 50+ years of time, changes in consumer tastes, and technological advancement, they are linked by more than just their names. There are the most obvious commonalities, which include their light green paint, dual stripes, and fastback bodies. Then there’s the philosophy about what goes under the hood: a whole lot of power.
Of course, that’s also where the two GT500s diverge. The older car’s engine bay holds a massive naturally aspirated 427-cubic-inch V8 with 350 horsepower. Its modern ancestor has a GT350-derived supercharged 5.2-liter V8 with a whopping 760 horsepower and 625 lb-ft of torque. That’s routed through a revolutionary seven-speed dual-clutch gearbox from Tremec that was specially developed for the ultimate Mustang. According to Mica, “Ford and Tremec say it’ll shift in 80 milliseconds, which is much faster than any of us can actually push a clutch.”
With the engine fully unleashed and the transmission in maximum attack mode, the GT500 is capable of roaring to 60 mph in only 3.3 seconds and zooming through the quarter mile in 10.7 seconds. Mica takes the GT500 out on the drag strip at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway twice and manages to clock a time of 11.33 seconds at 129.95 mph on his second pass.
Ford also kept another time in mind when it developed the GT500: how long it takes the mega Mustang to go from 0 to 100 to 0 mph. According to the automaker, the GT500 can accomplish the feat in 10.6 seconds. Doing that definitely takes a lot of power, but it also takes serious stopping hardware. The GT500 has it. Surprisingly, it doesn’t come in the form of carbon ceramic rotors. According to Steve Thompson, Lead Chassis Development Engineer for the GT500, “Although it has a lot of benefits in terms of unsprung mass and rotating weight and all the rest of that stuff, the fade performance between … steel and the carbon ceramic really isn’t that big of a difference. Plus the cost to replace the carbon ceramics … is really, really high.” Ford estimates many GT500 owners will track their cars, so steel rotors will keep their fun as fade-free and frugal as possible.
Mica gets a taste of the GT500’s track prowess when he opens it up on the Sin City speedway. There’s no changing its 4,200-pound weight, but the GT500 does manage to feel smaller as its speed increases. Mica’s track experience highlights one of his favorite parts of the car – and more than likely it’s not the one you’re picturing. He says, “Probably my favorite thing about this car, though, by far, is the transmission. It’s just always in the right gear. Combine that with the brakes that just pull your eyes out and you’ve got a hell of a track weapon.”
Unfortunately, there’s one more major thing that the ’67 and ’20 GT500s have in common: price. A running classic version will set you back more than $100,000. The S550 that Mica evaluates in Sin City has an as-tested price of $95,000.
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