Fire Department Hacks up 2020 Shelby GT500 for Training Purposes
It’s painful to see this 2020 Shelby GT500 hacked up, even for a good cause, but it was headed to the crusher anyway.
It’s nothing unusual for fire departments to use (read: destroy) vehicles in training exercises. These endeavors are quite necessary to teach our brave firefighters how to use equipment to effectively extract people from crashed vehicles, sacrificing the latter to save the former. But while the vehicles used in these exercises are typically nothing special, the world collectively had a heart attack recently when the Dearborn Fire Department posted pictures of them hacking up a 2020 Shelby GT500.
The reactions, predictably, ranged from outright shock to fist-shaking anger. Why would anyone cut up such an expensive, glorious car, they asked. And the reason is, well, this isn’t just some 2020 Shelby GT500 purchased from a Ford dealer. It’s actually a pre-production prototype donated by Ford to the fire department for destruction, as it was headed for the crusher anyway.
We certainly can’t blame the fire department for thinking this opportunity was pretty cool, and subsequently posting pictures of the destruction on their Facebook page. But the backlash that followed was nothing less than titanic, as you can see in the dumpster fire of a comments section. Regardless, as much as it sucks, this car could not be sold to the public and was headed for the crusher anyway, so why not use it for something good?
That fact doesn’t make seeing this GT500 meet its sad fate any easier to swallow, but that’s just a harsh reality in the automotive world. And firefighters have to train for all sorts of vehicle extrications. When there’s a bad wreck and someone’s life is at stake, unfortunately, it doesn’t matter what kind of car they’re driving. The goal is to get its occupants out as quickly and safely as possible.
And if it’s any consolation, this isn’t a “real” GT500, per say, as you can tell from the pictures. Sure, it may look like a production model, but there are quite a few details that are definitely off. Just take the engine bay, for example, which looks little like a production Shelby’s. So perhaps this wasn’t a total waste, after all. But to be fair, couldn’t we have at least saved those expensive (and gorgeous) carbon fiber wheels?
Photos: Dearborn Fire Department/Facebook
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