March 23, 2005
New York Auto Show
Ford unveils most powerful Mustang ever
|
New York, New York – The most powerful factory-built Mustang in history hits the streets next year, the result of collaboration between performance car builder Carroll Shelby and the Ford Special Vehicle Team (SVT).
Dubbed the Ford Shelby Cobra GT500, the car is designed in the unmistakable image of 1960s Shelby Mustangs, married to SVT’s modern engineering technology. A production vehicle of the show car will go on sale in 2006 and be the first in a string of specialty Mustangs built with the assistance of SVT.
“The all-new 2005 Ford Mustang is one of the hottest cars in many years,” says Phil Martens, Ford group vice president, Product Creation. “Its chassis was engineered from the beginning to be the basis of a high-performance, world-class sports car from SVT, and the Shelby Cobra GT500 is it.”
The new GT500 contains a supercharged 5.4-litre, 32-valve V8, delivering more than 450 hp and 450 lb-ft of torque. The cast-iron block is force-fed by a screw-type supercharger, and features aluminum cylinder heads, piston rings and bearings. The engine has been further tuned from when it first appeared in the limited-edition 2000 SVT Mustang Cobra R. The engine will mate to a T-56 six-speed manual transmission, and put its power to the ground through 19-inch wheels with cross-drilled Brembo brake rotors.
As a salute to the original Shelby GT500, the show car carries classic Le Mans-style white stripes atop “SVT Red” paint, with its GT500 badge prominent in the lower body side racing stripe. For the first time on any SVT Mustang, a snake replaces the running horse badge; the “Shelby” name is prominently featured across the rear deck. Almost every interior surface on the show car is finished in black leather.
Carroll Shelby first worked with Ford in 1964 when he was asked to build the high-performance GT-350R. He built several versions of Mustang, culminating in the GT-500KR (for “King of the Road”); Shelby Mustang production ended in 1970. The Ford Special Vehicle Team (SVT) began working with Mustang in 1993 and has produced nearly 80,000 high-performance Mustangs.
