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http://www.caranddriver.com/previews/12692/first-drive-2007-ford-shelby-gt.html
"The best Mustang? Perhaps. But paying $10,530 more than for a stock Mustang GT seems all wrong for $2700 worth of bolt-on parts."

Sort of a mixed review. Paying over ten-big for twenty-seven hundred worth of stuff -- plus some cheap flashy bits (typical fake hood scoop, cheap-looking AL grill, lick 'n stick stripes...), oh, and Shel's sig on the dash or something -- is a bit sobering. Again, like the GT500, I just think Ford is overcharging for these things, but perhaps P.T. Barnum was right after all.

They liked the lowered look, exhaust note and some aspects of the short-throw <st1:city w:st="on"><st1>Hurst</st1></st1:city> shifter, along with the improved handling control, at least on ideal roads.

They didn't like the $10+K for basically $2.7K worth of functional parts. And the handling took a major dive once the going got tough on real world roads.

Perhaps this paragraph best summed up their thoughts:<o></o>The back road handling dissolution as compared to more adept and less expensive contemporary sporting rides is a rolling example of the shortfalls of the lively axle, and perhaps too-hard suspension tuning that gives great test numbers but less shining real world driving. Would have at least hoped for the GT500 brakes for what they're charging.

Basically seemed like a fair-enough assessment calling the Shelby GT for what it is, a loud, flashy quarter-horse that thrives on the strip and stop-light boulevard but doesn't thrive quite so well outside its narrow milieu.

But hey, pick one up for $36K off the dealer floor then hope to find some sucker willing to splurge $50K for it off E-bay, maybe not so bad.

LEO_06GT

I'm not a fan of C&D but I totally agree. It's not worth the extra 10,000 plus however much the dealer decides to tack on to it.

1 COBRA

Expect no subscribtions' renewals and C&D magazines bonfires in the front of Shelby Autos and all the Ford dealers.

The fire departments will be very, very busy.

AFBLUE

The discussion of the FRPP suspension did confirm one of my concerns of it being too stiff for my tastes (I need a break from my current lowered/harsh riding stang. I'm getting too old for bone jarring rides).

1 COBRA

What it also confirms is the balance SVT created in its products.

GTH395

Well, a couple of comments. First the Shelby sticker price is wrong and the price of the parts alone is wrong, but we're talking. When I did the analysis, and factored in shop rates for installation, the price was maybe $4,000 more having Shelby do it and $1K of that is GGT! You can quibble about it but it's not 10K. Additionally an MSRP SGT is about 8K more than an equivalently optioned GT and 10K less than a equivalently optioned GT500.

What could be raised, and perhaps justifiably, is the HP for the price given the above. In that sense it could be argued that the SGT should be at least 350HP, but we can agree to disagree and honestly I'm not loosing any sleep over it.

Now having said that what is appalling is the ridiculous ADM dealers are trying to suck out of this. The car is already on the edge value for the dollar wise and adding a 5-10K ADM is just wrong. This is what is getting around hence the focus on the HP and overall quality.

For the price we shouldn't be hacking up grills with a saw, and I think Ford should count themselves lucky that wasn't again highlighted in the article. Sorry to bring it up again, but this really does bother me. I'm fine with the HP, I hate the fake scoop, but I can get the far cooler C6 hood, yeah, the floor mats are not what we thought, but the sawed up grill is just bad. Especially on a car some people are paying 50K for (poor b@stards).

So, summary, poor research, somewhat correct in some of the conclusions, but for the wrong reasons. Also, lets not forget that when that BMW and Mazda are rusting or long since made into razor blades, a lot of these cars will still be on the road and on display.

1 COBRA

It is over $10.5K due to the $2,140 uplifter package and Shelby's $8,390. Fully and similarly optioned, the GT is in the $31K range, the SGT is $41K, and the GT500 is $45K.

AFBLUE

I'd built a spreadsheet comparing the GT premium, GT/CS, SGT, and GT 500.

Some of the #s might be slightly off (especially the GT 500, where I also might have GT 500 GGT incorrect) but it's in the ball park. Here's the MSRP#s for these cars equipped with the following:

Front Seat Air Bags: $380 (standard on SGT)
3.55 gears $100 (standard on SGT)
Chrome exhaust: $125 (standard on SGT and GT/CS)
18" wheels: $925 (standard on SGT and GT/CS)
Incentives/gas tax ($1K incentive on manual GT and $1K GGT on SGT)
Shipping: $745


Premium GT: $28,150
GT/CS: $28,995
Shelby GT: $38,785
GT 500: $42,975

hi5.0

Shelby sticker price be darned! What matters is most of the dealers' sticker price - slap another 10K+ on top of the MSRP and there you go... When it comes to these cars and others like it, getting one at XXX mag's "as-tested" price or MSRP is the exception, not the rule.

AFBLUE

Based on the #s in my previous post, it may make more sense to compare the GT/CS to the Shelby GT as they both share the same front and rear bumpers (Plus you get 2 tones seats with the GT/CS)

With current incentives the GT/CS MSRP's for $9790 less than a comparably equipped SGT (this doesn't even consider that most folks can get the GT/CS with a X-plan pin, which makes it $11,840 less than the Shelby GT, before ADM).

tifo

The low HP rating is largely due to the conservative Ford Racing pro-cal tune...not the performance parts.

With the same Shelby GT equipment, pick up an SCT Xcal II and load up a mail order tune from Doug at Bamachips or Brentspeed; you would easily get 340 HP out of a Shelby GT.

I know you Shelby GT guys are scared of mods because you want your Shelby GT to retain it's authenticity, however, when it takes 90 seconds to load a tune from an SCT hand-held device and you get another 20 HP out of your Shelby GT with the same equipment you already have installed...why not?

Look at my signature: you will see my mods include the same exact equipment that comes on a Shelby GT (minus my 4.10 gears and headers which make no extra horsepower gains anyway).

After I had all the Ford Racing Equipment installed, I dynoed my car on a dynojet with the Ford Racing procal-tune loaded and got 275 RWHP. The funny thing is that my car pulled 270 RWHP STOCK before I added any equipment at all. I only gained 5 RWHP! Don't believe what Ford Racing says about gaining 20HP at the wheels...it's a lie. The sad fact is that everyone thinks a stock Mustang GT only has 300HP, the truth is that if you take a stock Mustang GT to the dyno you would know that isn't true.

Several people on this board with a (manual trans) STOCK Mustang GT have dynoed their car and got approx 270RWHP. At the standard 15% loss to the wheels...a stock mustang is actually 317HP at the flywheel. The fact is that Shelby GTs are not gaining 19 extra HP, they're actually gaining 5 HP at the wheels which is about 6-7 extra horsepower at the flywheel (look at my dyno results comparing my car stock to the all the equipment installed with the Ford Racing pro-cal tune loaded).

----> With a mail order custom tune loaded into my car, I went back to the dyno and ran 288.75 RWHP and 306 torque with the same exact equipment. At 15% parastalic loss to the wheels, I'm getting about 340HP at the flywheel. Not bad for the $399 it cost for the SCT XCal and the custom tune.

These Shelby GTs have nice equipment upgrades, they just need the right tune to wake them up.

~Ray

Paris MkVI

The more I hear about stuff like this, the more I like my bone-stock GT.

pville piper

+1... Leo says it all.

pville piper

One of the Mustang Mags did an install of the Drag Pack I think... It turned out to be pig rich and losing power because of it. It was a lot like your setup. It didn't improve much in 1/4 mile either. They never did come back and lean it out to show what you could get with this system. That and the fact that Ford doesn't like to give you much below 3000 rpm makes it a waste of money to buy the Power Packs.