I wish. Ford have shown the new Shelby Mustang GT350 ahead of its official debut later this month at the Los Angeles Motor Show. While technical details are kept on the low-down, we do know that it will have more than 500bhp and 540NM of torque from an “essentially all-new” naturally-aspirated 5.2-litre V8. That, according to Ford, makes it the most powerful naturally aspirated engine its ever made!
Exciting and it’ll be interesting to see the official stats when they’re released. What’s even better is Ford have said the Shelby GT350 will be sending its power to the rear wheels via a 6-speed manual transmission. There’s also a limited-slip diff for extra hooliganism. As if a manual rear-wheel drive V8 coupe wasn’t hooligan enough. Ford is pitching the GT350 to have the perfect balance between track and road performance, which means it comes with some clever tech to help make it do that most un-American of things – go around corners.
Debuting in the new GT350 is Ford’s MagneRide adaptive system. It’s so intelligent it can make changes every 10 milliseconds to give the best handling. MagneRide isn’t a groundbreaking system, we’ve seen similar magnetic damping systems in the likes of the Ferrari 599, Audi R8 and Chevrolet Camaro. The MagneRide system can be adjusted via a driver control system which has five modes adjusting throttle, steering, traction, stability, and ABS. It should stop as well as it goes too thanks to 394mm discs up front with six-piston Brembo calipers and 380mm discs at the rear.
In the meantime we can drool at the photos Ford have released. The GT350 gets bespoke bodywork from the windscreen forward. The GT350 comes with a deeper and more aggressive bumper with a low splitter. There’s wider flared arches too, which is always a sign of great things. An obligatory power bulge on the bonnet and side vents also make an appearance on this GT350. Round the back there’s quad-exhausts, the true marker of a perfomance machine. Suffice to say this is going to be one wild stallion. Oh and did I mention the racing stripes? Yes stripes, plural. There’s a pair of them and it looks spectacular.
Ford has made sure the interior is just as racy as the exterior too. There’s a flat-bottomed steering wheel, Recaro sports seats, and bespoke gauges. However, it’s no stripped out racer in there though. You can still have it with creature comforts such as a Shaker audio system, an 8-inch MyFord LCD touchscreen, and dual zone climate control.
Go on Ford, bring it down here!
