Mighty Shelby GT500 Falls at the Hands of Naturally-aspirated Mustang
GT500 transmission is to blame for this loss, but the naturally aspirated V8 will put up a bigger fight than you might think.
The TR6060 manual transmission equipped on the facelift S197 Mustang GT500 is known for its issues. Many of them struggle when shifting quickly from first to second gear. This isn’t unique to the GT500, because many cars come with this transmission and have similar issues. Included in that list are Corvettes, Camaros, and various Dodge vehicles.
We witness this unfortunate shortcoming first hand in a recent video by YouTuber StangMode. In a drag race against his own Mustang he calls “Black Mamba,” the GT500 falls behind rapidly.
From an inside view of the GT500, you can see the driver misses the gear as the rev limiter screams. Reasonably, he seems pretty upset.
“I was here Friday for an open test and tune. I did five passes, didn’t miss one shift, so I think you made me nervous man,” says Larry Davis, the GT500 driver.
After resetting and restaging, they decided to rerun them. Sadly, the result turns out identical. The GT500 smashes off the limiter and refuses to let Davis shift it into second in a high RPM setting.
Interestingly enough, one might be surprised to see an S550 GT pulling away from the venom-spitting Shelby. Assuming second gear would cooperate, the GT500 should ferociously take out the naturally-aspirated Coyote, right?
Wrong! With only headers, intake, suspension and a tune the ‘Black Mamba’ runs 10s. In fact, in this very video, StangMode puts down his best run to date. 10.97 Seconds at 125.18 miles per hour.
How does that compare to the GT500? Early on in the video, Davis said that it makes 677 wheel horsepower. Additionally, he responds to those questioning his driving skills.
“I’m not even gonna trip over the negative comments the masses are leaving cause unless you own or have owned a GT500 and have experienced this very common issue with the TR6060 for yourself then they are speaking out of their ASSES and have no clue. So say what you want!! Car runs and has run 10.7 with a 1.6-second 60-ft,” said Davis from his own Youtube channel in the comments section.
It seems he is planning to situate the transmission, so perhaps we will see another run soon.