Driver72

a friend of mine said when I told him the 2013 GT500 will have
650 hp!!

He went on to say, "650 hp" in a car that will be able to be bought by young people with good jobs and no real experience driving a car of that much power. And worse, as he pointed out, rich parents will buy their inexperienced spoiled kids in their late teens and early 20's this car (he's probably right since many bonehead rich parents have bought their teenage and early 20's kids BMW M3's in the past and the 2013 GT500 and the BMW M3 have similar MSRP's).
These same bonehead parents probably won't know the power of the car, and if they do, may not care.

As I guessed before, this car will probably knock off
11.7's @ 123+ mph 1/4 times.
That's a full second and nearly 10 mph faster than a current M3.
That's a huge power increase in the hands of someone who is not qualified or experienced with that much power.

It may in fact cause problems even for highly experienced and very good drivers who have never owned a car over 350 hp before, but now feel they want a 650 hp car because it's an "affordable" 650 hp car to many people.

Guess we will see, but considering this country is completely lame and literally just GIVES driver's licenses out to anybody who can study a pamphlet and drive decently around a block at under 35 mph, it is kind of scary.
Add to that the probable age group of people who text and drive the most are teens and early 20's crowd who pretty much have never known what it's like to drive without having a phone in hand, and they all LIVE and DIE by their phones, my buddy may in fact be right with his "I see dead people" statement.
Anybody seen the videos of Corvette ZR-1 crashes from people thinking they can handle that power and sliding sideways as the back end fish tails under heavy throttle? We may have to get ready for a bunch of these youtube videos of GT500's in the coming years.


What do you think, is my buddy right?

kjacobson351

Yeah because when it was only 500hp it was pretty tame.

This car as we know it has been too powerful for inexperienced drivers since it was released in 2007, I doubt an extra hundred or so horsepower is going to get young kids/bad drivers in anymore trouble than the original 500 would.

Mustang_Man

I have to admit to getting a kick out of spoiled rich kids wiping out expensive sports cars that daddy bought them.

Flagstang

550hp is the current so an extra 100hp isnt going to be the straw on the camels back.

I also get a kick out of dumb people getting a wake up call.

Automagically

When in high school I drove a Chevy half ton with a V6. Even that was arguably too much for a kid but I'd been driving for a while with my family in the country. I did plenty of stuff in that truck and it didn't even top 200hp until I had the engine rebuilt. But was better than the then 305.

Truth is that almost anything north of a Geo Metro has too much power in the wrong hands. The older 300hp Cobra was a lot if not taught how to respect that power. So I think this will just be another one on the list of cars that can be chalked up to "too much car for its own good" for a lot of drivers. But I've seen 30 year old idiots in Ferraris here so I am not so sure age has as much to do with it as maturity.

exchallenger

I guess I live in a depressed area because I never see kids in brand new $60,000 sports or muscle cars. Very rarely do I see an under-20 kid in a late model BMW and such, the best is a late model Mustang. And you know the parents bought the kid the car as it would take a kid 100 years to afford it IF he even had a job.
We'll see what the demographics say in a year or so but kids buying GT500s? It just ain't happening.

Glenn

as stated above it doesn't take hp to kill yourself in a car its takes stupidity and pushing your driving limits and the cars limits to far to soon. Oh hey my 1975 chrysler Cordoba can take this turn at 70 no problem lol I tried to spend a lot of time with my kids teaching them how to drive and also some time showing them what ever crashes showed up in the news, as well as discussing how those crashes might have happened. I think it helped them allot.
Please do the same with your kids when the time comes along.

Mustang_Man

OK, all jokes aside, I drove a '71 Mustang w/351C @ 17 and a built '69 GTO @18 that ran high-12's. In 1979, this was a violently fast street car. Used to bring the front wheels off the ground by double-pumping the gas - that was bad-***. Never hit anything, though sadly the 'Stang was destroyed by a ******* who t-boned it after running a stop sign. I drove my dads car a ton on a permit, drove (deserted) hot-boxes in the parking lot behind my apt. and took drivers ed so I could get my license @ 16 1/2. As stated above, give the kids as much experience and advice before setting them behind the wheel of a car - of any power level.

Ninjak

Have to say I do not think this will make a difference. Here in S. FLA I see kids on bikes getting peeled off 95, and the ones in JDM* Honda's and 350 Z's getting unwrapped from telephone poles.

Bad drivers and dumb drivers will always do dumb thing...the HP in the car will not make a difference.

Sax1031

16 years old I was driving a 10 second fox body to school.

19 years old I bought a GSXR1000.

It is honestly amazing I am here to type this today.

houtex

A base Fiesta can be wrapped around a telephone pole at 90MPH just as easily as any other car.

Might as well replace any 'gun' argument with 'car', as the same stupidness on both sides apply.

/Cars kill people!
//No, people with cars kill people!
///I use my cars for protection.
////I use my cars for hunting food.
/////Wait a second...

GT1000

Any gt500 can be upgraded to 800hp for only 9k any kid could get a used one for 35-40k add a whipple and far exceed 650hp I don't see the point. After all a pulley swap and a flash tune could get a stock gt500 to almost 650hp.

speedrx

Have you seen the number of "ricers" out there since Fast and Furious? Modified Honda's, Toyota's, Mazda's, etc - kids are much more likely to have one of these than a $60K Mustang.

bt4

No doubt about it, 650-HP in the hands of someone that does not respect that power is an accident waiting to happen. And I'm sure it will. (For some reason I can almost hear Jeff Foxworthy's voice, explaining you might be a red-neck if any of your family members ever died right after saying, "Hey, y'all watch this!")

But any vehicle can be lethal when misused or abused. It has little to do with horsepower. The Suzuki Samurai was named in over 200 fatalities and over 8,000 roll-over related injuries. Horsepower? 63. The seemingly limitless methods of mutilation, bodily mayhem, and destruction people manage to inflict upon themselves (and others) never ceases to amaze me.

944withnos

I learned to drive in a 3cyl 5spd Geo Metro! I think it was rated at 55hp! Multiply that by ten now!

Anyways, my gt500 could easily bite me! It is all about respecting the power. Before this car If I wanted to pass someone I'd just change lanes and hammer down... with this car I gotta be real careful and feather on the power. Not pushing the throttle all the way down in a situation like that is kinda hard to get used too. I'd assume you have to be careful with ~400hp GT as well...

I think the mustang has like 5 star crash rating. That isn't why I bought my car but maybe it'll convince the rich guy to buy one for his kid!!

Wander

I'm running with about 425 HP and I have to be real careful when passing also. And it is hard not to. But it can get sideways in a hurry, even at speed.

harristotle

I test drove a GT500 back to back with a Shelby GT, and that was one of the big reasons I went with the SGT. You could rotate the car going in a straight line if you're not too careful. I like to hammer it through the corners and the GT500 was just too easy to rotate for my taste. My goal now is to build up my SGT to 350-400 HP... which IMO will be plenty of power. I'll leave the earth shattering, frightening power levels for when I buy my Shelby Cobra some day...

Tob*

Natural Selection doesn't discriminate on the basis of horsepower.

Stang4US

The older GT500's have alot of upgrade capability and are in an affordable price range for the younger crowd.

06TUNGVERTGT

X2