Search Engine Leaks About the Next Ford Mustang GT500 Seem to Have Been Plugged
If they have their way, the folks at Ford will be the first people to tell you about the newest Mustang, whatever it may be. They’ll even announce which colors for it are the most popular and which engine has the highest take rate in a particular country. However, Ford does that on its own schedule.
Lately, Google searches have turned up links to Ford pages related to a new Mustang Shelby GT500. Our friends at Motor Authority report that last week, using the search term “‘GT00’ in Google would result in ‘2017 Ford Mustang Shelby GT 500 | The Cobra of Performance Cars’ as an item on Ford Motor Company’s [NYSE:F] website. Clicking through the link would take you to the 2017 Mustang landing page, albeit with ‘shelbygt500’ in the URL.” Unfortunately, Ford caught on and has since made sure that that particular page doesn’t appear in the Google search results for the term “GT500.”
The blue oval did the same thing with the Google search term “GT500 convertible.” At one time, that produced a link to a Ford page with this as the heading: “2017 Ford Mustang Shelby GT 500 Convertible | Amazing…“ Clicking that link took you to the 2017 Mustang page on the Ford site, with “shelbygt500convertible” in the URL. Not anymore. This is what we got when we Google-d “GT500 convertible”:
However, when we searched through Bing using the term “site:ford.com ford gt500,” one of the results that turned up was:
Bing-ing the droptop version resulted in this:
Don’t bother clicking the links, though. They just lead to the general 2017 Mustang page on the Ford site.
There are a variety of reasons why anything at all turns up on a search engine for the 2017 GT500. One is that the top-of-the-line Shelby Mustang is going to be a 2017 model instead of a 2018. That would explain why Ford has scrubbed info off of Google for now, although it’s odd that it’s left some sort of GT500 presence on Bing (Ford does know that people use Bing, too, right?) If that’s the case, we’re fine with the idea of the S550 GT500 coming sooner than expected. We’ll be the first ones to tell you that.
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.
