It was January 16th when Ford first announced that there would be a Shelby Mustang GT500 with more than 700 hp. That's January 16th, 2018. It's been a whole year where all we've known is that there will be an entire ranch of horses. Something we probably didn't need them to tell us to figure out on our own.
Well, now the horses are out of the corral. All 760 of them.
That's right, the 2020 Mustang Shelby GT500 will have 760 hp coming from a 5.2 L hand-built and supercharged V8. Accompanying those horses will be 625 lb-ft of torque.
That's the most powerful street-legal Ford ever. Eclipsing the last GT500's 662 hp (though that GT500 had six more torques) and stampeding past the 647 of the Ford GT.
It's also far more than most of the competition. The 2019 Chevrolet Corvette ZR1 comes close with 755 hp (and 715 lb-ft) from its blown 6.2 L V8. And the supercharged 6.2 L Dodge Challenger Hellcat, which was the first to punch the 700 hp barrier with 707 and this year offers 717 hp looks almost quaint in comparison. Maybe quaint's a bit strong, but in today's power wars that big figure is important. But the SRT Hellcat Redeye version still takes top horsepower prize amongst this bunch, with 797 hp total, and 707 lb-ft of torque.
Ford calls this newest engine the most power and torque-dense supercharged production V8 in the world. Since it manages its ponies with a full litre of displacement deficit to the other two. So that'll make it more frugal on gas when you're cruising, right? We'll have to wait and see.
The GT500 will come with more than just raw power. A seven-speed dual clutch can swap gears in under 100 milliseconds and offers launch control. The 420 mm front brake rotors are the largest on any domestic coupe, Ford says. And there are special tires, magnetic shocks, and a load of new aerodynamic tweaks to make the car more slippery.
The 2020 Ford Mustang Shelby GT500 is set to arrive at dealers this fall.
You may also like
