• Long-awaited on-road debut of the most powerful factory Ford Mustang ever – Shelby GT500 – includes a 16-city cross-country tour
• 500 horsepower Mustang draws on Ford heritage, spirit of innovation and performance
• Exemplifies Ford’s new marketing strategy that targets customers based on their attitudes and values

DEARBORN, Mich., June 8, 2006 – The boldest, most powerful factory-built Ford Mustang ever – the eagerly awaited 2007 Shelby GT500 – is taking to the streets of America this summer, making stops in 16 different cities.

The cross-country tour of the Shelby GT500 is a giant step toward winning the hearts and minds of American drivers. Shelby-inspired vehicles have a long history with Ford and the new Shelby GT500 is hitting streets to showcase this ultimate expression of a Bold Move.

"The spirit of the new Shelby GT500 exemplifies our desire to aggressively design vehicles that excite and entice new customers, expand our image and pave our way forward," says Mark Fields, Ford Motor Company Executive Vice President and President of the Americas. "Across our product line, you will see bold vehicles and technologies that will take back the American road."

With a 500-horsepower, 5.4-liter supercharged V-8 engine, the Shelby GT500 is the most powerful factory-built Mustang ever. A modern interpretation of the Shelby Mustang of the 1960s, the new GT500 uses advanced engineering to attain the performance that made the original GT500 the king of the road. True to the original GT500, it will be available both as a coupe and as a convertible when it starts reaching dealer showrooms in July.

The Ford Shelby GT500 starts with Mustang’s solid underpinnings. The Mustang was designed from the beginning with performance derivatives in mind, providing an exceptionally rigid, well-engineered starting point for GT500 chassis engineers, who retuned and upgraded key chassis components.

Named after racing legend Carroll Shelby who collaborated with Ford on this and other storied Mustang models dating back to 1965, the 2007 version is by far the most attainable vehicle in the elite and exclusive 500-horsepower club – the world’s most powerful production cars.

Working with Ford Special Vehicle Team (SVT) engineers, iconic racing legend Carroll Shelby was instrumental in the development of the new GT500. "It’s perfect," says Shelby. "I wouldn’t change a thing. It is everything I expected a modern Shelby Mustang to be."

The GT500 was ranked as the most buzz-worthy new-vehicle nameplate among sporty car considerers in a Kelley Blue Book Marketing Research survey taken a full year before this summer’s introduction. "The two names ‘Mustang’ and ‘Shelby’ are magic to a wide variety of buyers," says Jack R. Nerad, executive editorial director and market analyst for Kelley Blue Book/kbb.com. "There has been a great deal of buzz around the most recent combination of those two names, especially among Hispanics and performance-oriented drivers."

The Shelby GT500 tour kicks off June 8 through 10 in Tulsa, Okla., at the 32nd Annual Mid-America Ford Performance & Shelby Meet. The new Shelby Mustang will then travel to Charlotte, N.C.; Kansas City, MO; Danville, Va.; Tampa, Fla.; Boston; Fort Worth, Texas and Birmingham, Al., among other locations. It will conclude at the end of September in Las Vegas. The schedule for the tour is subject to change and vehicle event availability.

 

NICE

is there a website that we can see dates/cities?

 

Kick *** it's coming to Tampa - can we get a list of dates for the cities?

 

I'm going to Tulsa to see it tonight!

 

Here are the dates, which are tentative and subject to change or cancelation.

• June 8-11, 32nd Annual mid-America Performance and Shelby Meet, Tulsa, OK
• June 15-17, Charlotte, NC
• June 22-24, Kansas City
• June 30 – July 2, Shelby American Automobile Club Weekend, Danville, VA
• July 6-9, Tampa, FL
• July 14-16, Boston, MA
• July 20-22, Chicago, IL
• July 29-30, Tri-State Mustang & All Ford's Show, Cincinnati, OH
• August 3-6, San Antonio, TX
• August 10-12, Shelby American Automobile Club Yellow Rose Classic, Fort Worth, TX
• August 17-19 or August 24-26, Tallahassee, FL
• August 31 – Sept. 3, Mustang Club of America 30th Anniversary Stampede, Birmingham, AL
• Sept. 8-10, Phoenix, AZ
• Sept. 15-17, San Diego, CA
• Sept. 29 – Oct. 1, Bright Lights City Cruise, Las Vegas, NV

 

I will be at the Boston show. Now we just have to hope they arent charging some insane charge over MSRP to see the **** thing Thanks for the info though Brad

 

Where at in Charlottle, NC and the times?

 

Tulsa gets to see it first! Woo hoo!! I'm going to see it tonight also.

 

Drats was hoping they'd have a stop in Atlanta... oh well.

 

Hey,whats wrong with Atlanta??? We're people too you know !!

 

that stinks...I'll be running away from it during my honeymoon...I'm going to Ft Myers from July 16-22, and I will have just missed it....even worse...it will be near my home town while I'm in florida....just my luck

 

June 9, 2006
GT500 MEDIA TOUR REPORT: THE SUPER PONY IS OUT OF THE GATE
GT500 rocks Tulsa and puts the entire Ford lineup on a roll
The Ford Shelby GT500 Mustang tour roared into Tulsa yesterday like a rock star to kick off 16-city tour, besieged by reporters, Mustang fans and Tulsans who crowded around it when it stopped for gas or the crew stopped at a restaurant for lunch.
And we’re happy to report that the major media objective of the tour – to use the GT500 to showcase everything great about the Ford brand and what it can do to draw traffic to your showrooms – is working in Tulsa.
"The media are coming out to fawn over the GT500 and ask about its stunning design and its 500 horses, but it’s been a smooth transition in these interviews to talk about and build up excitement for the overall Ford line," reports John Alguire, Ford Performance Marketing Manager, and principal spokesman on the Tulsa stop.
"It’s a natural transition to shift gears in the interviews and start talking about Mustang V6s and GTs, followed by the same great kind of bold designs and powertrains of Fusions and F-150s, and ‘tease’ the upcoming Edge crossover."
The heavy Tulsa media interest has kept the Public Affairs staff on the ground busy juggling interview opportunities. Mustang Marketing Manager Jim Owens and Ford Racing Manager of Ford Racing Performance Parts Jamie are part of the team doing their part to chat up the GT500 and the broader Ford lineup. Yesterday, for instance, while Aguire was making the live television rounds, Allison was in a sports-talk radio studio and Owens was hosting The Tulsa World at the Hallett race course.
After the GT500 leaves Tulsa this weekend, local dealers will still feel the afterglow. "The tour stop has definitely sparked interest in the GT500 and the Mustang in general," says one Tulsa dealer. "Great cars like this always attract attention to a brand – it makes people take another look at the whole lineup and look forward to what’s coming next."

The GT500 tour will include stops in Kansas City, Mo.; Danville, Va.; Tampa, Fla.; Boston, Fort Worth, Texas; and Birmingham, Ala. among other locations.
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"Everywhere I went [in the GT500] people…put their thumbs in the air" – Business Week.
Business Week’s Matt Vella turned some heads too, when he took a New York-to-Ohio jaunt in a GT500. His destination was, fittingly, the Rock ‘n’ Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland.
"Everywhere I went people stared, waved, grinned, honked, cheered, and put their thumbs in the air – men and women, young and old alike," is the way he describes the exhilaration of being behind the wheel of a pop star.
"At one point, I came up alongside a tricked-out Mini Cooper S," he reports in the BusinessWeek.com online edition today. "As we came nose to nose, my comrade rolled down his window and stuck out his fist. In his hand, a just-released auto mag with the GT on its cover. Later, when he caught up to me at a gas station, he told me he was going to trade in his Mini once the GT was sale."
Here are a few selling points from Vella’s review, entitled "American Idol":

• "Greatest American car ever? You’ll sure feel that way behind the wheel of Ford’s indomitable 2007 Shelby GT500."
• "From the front, the car looks even more muscular than last year’s Mustang."
• "Inside, the Mustang is perfect. The cabin really needs to be seen firsthand.
• "…suffice to say that at over 150 miles per hour the V8 feels like it just wants more and the cabin barely jitters."
• "The car hunkers down at high speeds, daring you to go faster."
• "Taking the GT on a road trip is like being a goodwill ambassador from a ‘Best of America’ tour."

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AP’s GT500 experience: "…some onlookers stopped in their tracks as if transfixed…"
Praise from Associated Press’ Ann Job is appearing all over the country in various newspapers:

• "The test coupe got lots of stares, and some onlookers stopped in their tracks as if transfixed by the car’s presence."
• "There’s no slinking quietly through traffic. The Shelby GT500 coupe wears bold LeMans striping and functional hood scoops over an aggressively styled Mustang body."
• "A deep, throaty V8 growl emanates virtually all the time, even at neighborhood speeds."
• "Much of what’s in this latest Shelby creation comes from other Fords."
• "The Shelby GT500 tester galloped down straightaways with wild abandon and swiftly passed legal speed limits if a driver wasn’t aware. And there was never any weakness in the brakes."

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Anybody know where in Chicago and at what time?

 

Man I wish I still lived in Tulsa. Oh well I'll catch it in Fort Worth.