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Ford launches the Shelby Cobra GT500, its baddest Mustang yet
WES RAYNAL
Posted Date: 3/23/05

GT500 PHOTOS, NEW YORK COVERAGE

2006 FORD SHELBY COBRA GT500
ON SALE: June 2006
BASE PRICE: $39,000 (est.)
POWERTRAIN: 5.4-liter, 450-plus-hp, 450-plus-lb-ft supercharged V8; rwd,
six-speed manual
CURB WEIGHT: 3600 lbs (est.)
0 to 60 MPH: 4.5 seconds (est.)

Ford celebrated the Mustang's 40th birthday last year by whipping up one of
the wildest Mustangs ever, the GT-R concept displayed at New York 2004 (AW,
April 19, 2004). At the time, we said we hoped the history-obsessed
automaker wouldn't morph the GT-R into some sort of catastrophic new-age
Mustang II Ghia with a landau vinyl half-roof. No such worries: Hank's car
company is following up the GT-R with the Shelby Cobra GT500.

While the GT-R was a showcase for Ford's performance parts biz, this 2005
New York show car is about 90 percent of what we will see when the Shelby
goes on sale next summer, replacing the SVT Cobra. On paper, the GT500-in
development for more than a year and officially approved two months ago-has
enough power and flair to put Chevrolet's base Corvette C6 smack on the
trailer.


Blasphemous? Consider: SVT boss Hau Thai-Tang has stuffed the extraordinary
5.4-liter, dohc, 32-valve supercharged V8 from the Ford GT sports car under
the Mustang's hood. Final horsepower figures are not firm, but Thai-Tang
hints it will be "well over 450 hp, closer to 500." Look for 450-plus lb-ft
of torque too. Whatever the final numbers, Ford says this will be the most
powerful production Mustang ever. Engineer Thai-Tang, who did a stint at
Newman-Haas Racing, sums up the powertrain succinctly: "It's gonna be a
monster."

The engine mates to a Tremec T56 six-speed manual transmission beefed up to
handle the power and torque. Underneath, it turns out those rumors of a live
rear axle in the next-generation Cobra were true: The car will have
basically carryover Mustang GT suspension, with MacPherson struts in front
and the live axle in back, tuned for the 500 with revised shock valving and
higher-rate springs.

Thai-Tang and his team aimed for a better-controlled ride than the GT,
particularly at low and medium speeds, with better body control (included in
Thai-Tang's stable of test cars is a Pontiac GTO-the 400-hp version, as well
as a C6 Corvette and a BMW M3). Front brakes are 14-inch cross-drilled
rotors with 13s in the rear. The car should weigh about 3600 pounds, 200
more than a GT, Thai-Tang says.

By the way, Thai-Tang has a message for those of us bummed out about the
live rear axle: "Drive the car first," he says, "and you'll see it's a
nonissue, because the chassis is dialed in so well."


"I didn't know what to expect before I drove the car," said Carroll Shelby.
"I knew the car looked good. Then I drove it. Wow. It's everything I hoped
it would be."

We'll just have to wait and see.

Like a proud papa, SVT chief designer Doug Gaffka had a gleam in his eye
when he gave us a walk-around of the GT. "We looked most to the '68 GT500
for our inspiration when we started on the car more than a year ago," Gaffka
told AutoWeek. "In fact, the new GT500 design was at the forefront of our
minds since we started the whole Mustang program."

It shows. To the GT's long hood and short rear deck, Gaffka and team added a
sinister-looking new front fascia with a one-inch-bigger grille opening to
force more air to the engine. There are also new headlamps, a
one-inch-higher hood (to accommodate the supercharger), and new rear fascia,
spoiler and diffuser. That spoiler isn't just for show-it provides 80 pounds
of downforce at 120 mph. Wind tunnel testing will continue.

The concept squats on 19-inch wheels; in production the GT500 will use
18-inch Goodyears.


The interior looks like the Mustang GT's but with the quality bar raised:
Instead of waves of hard, shiny, cheap-looking plastic, the 500's dash, door
panels and center console are trimmed in leather. There will also be a new,
thicker three-spoke steering wheel and slightly stiffer seat bolsters, as
well as the SVT logo on the kick plates. The leather upgrades will be
offered across the Mustang range in 2007.

Final prices are not set but the last SVT Cobra cost $35,000. Ford officials
say the goal is to keep this car priced less than $40,000. "You won't be
able to touch this performance for the money," Thai-Tang says. GT500s will
be built at the Ford/Mazda joint-venture plant in Flat Rock alongside
Mustang and Mustang GT. Ford won't commit to a production number, but says
it will build all the 500s drivers demand.

Drivers? Count us in. And bring on the next 40 years.

-----Original Message-----
From: Cevon Mclean [mailto:cmclean@rbhnrc.usda.gov]
Sent: Wednesday, March 23, 2005 9:55 AM
To: shelbymustang@carmemories.com
Subject: Re: New SHELBY Mustang GT 500 , details announced at NY Auto
Show


O MY GOD!,
Great work bill!.

Wheres the pictures!....40K plus a 10K Dealer Markup!...
Lets get together and talk to shelby about buying a "Lot" of say 20
cars for the orginal Shelby owners and make it into a "PR" thing for
FORD!?....We might get them at sticker!...and the first 20 or so
cars!.
Who would like one?...
ME!....

Cevon..
..**Make myne red with white stripes!...thanks!..**

From: "Bill Wells" <wwells249101MI@comcast.net>
To: <shelbymustang@carmemories.com>
Subject: New SHELBY Mustang GT 500 , details announced at NY Auto
Show
Date sent: Wed, 23 Mar 2005 06:32:17 -0500

from the Detroit News :


Clarence Tabb Jr. / The Detroit News;Ford

After testing the new supercharged Ford Shelby Cobra GT500, racing legend
Carroll Shelby was impressed. "This is a street car that you can go to the
race track with," he said.







DEARBORN -- The smile on Carroll Shelby's face was 35 years in the making.

The 82-year-old racing legend had just climbed out from behind the wheel of
a prototype 2006 Ford Shelby Cobra GT500 -- the first Mustang to bear his
name since 1970.

With the tires of the GT500 still warm after his five-hour test drive,
Shelby gave his approval. The Shelby Mustangs of the past were visceral road
rockets. But the GT500 combined power with balance and refinement, he said.

"That's what we wanted back then, but it was impossible with the technology
that we had," Shelby said after the spin at Ford's Dearborn proving grounds.
"What we really built in the first place was a race car that you could drive
on the street. This is a street car that you can go to the race track with."

If the GT500 show car debuting today at the New York auto show is anywhere
near as good as its namesake predicts, it's likely to become an immediate
sensation when it goes into production next year.

The Ford Shelby Cobra GT500 not only marries two of motoring's most revered
names -- Mustang and Shelby -- but also boasts a pavement-shredding,
supercharged 5.4-liter engine that cranks out more than 450 horsepower.

It will be the most powerful factory-built Mustang ever and just the kind of
attention-grabbing sports car Ford was counting four years ago when it
patched up its tattered relationship with Shelby, the icon whose name is
synonymous with high-performance cars.

A dirt-poor, former chicken farmer from Leesburg, Texas, Shelby enjoyed a
superstar career as a race driver in the 1950s. In 1962, he developed the
first Cobra with a $25,000 investment stake from Ford.

Not long after that, he was challenged by Henry Ford II to help Ford Motor
beat Ferrari and win Le Mans, the most prestigious race in Europe. The Ford
chairman summoned Shelby and two associates to his office and handed each a
name tag that read: "Ford Wins Le Mans."

Shelby didn't let him down. On June 20, 1966, a trio of Ford GT-40 Mark IIs
crossed the finish line first, second and third at Le Mans.

The relationship between Ford and Shelby soured in the ensuing years. Shelby
joined Lee Iacocca at Chrysler Corp. and filed a $30 million suit against
Ford for using the GT350 name. It was settled out of court.

In 2001, Edsel B. Ford II, Henry Ford II's son, approached Shelby about
returning to Ford to help produce performance vehicles. Since then, Shelby
has consulted on the $140,000 Ford GT super sports car and Ford Shelby Cobra
concept car.

Ford says the new Shelby Mustang car will bridge the gap between the Ford GT
super sports car and the rest of its lineup.

"We're taking a multitiered approach," said Hau Thai-Tang, Ford's director
of advanced product creation. "We've got the GT that's the top-of-the-line,
race-inspired performance. Then you'll have high-performance cars like the
Shelby GT500 that will be more affordable."

Ford is expected to sell the GT500 for just under $40,000 -- about $15,000
more than the starting price of a base-level, V-8-powered Mustang. Ford
plans to build about 7,000 GT500s a year at its plant in Flat Rock.

Following next year's arrival of the Shelby Cobra GT500, SVT will launch the
Sport Trac Adrenalin -- a sport utility truck based on the next-generation
Explorer. The company has also committed to building a Lightning, based on
the F-150, while Ford designers and engineers are contemplating an SVT
version of the Fusion, Ford's new midsize sedan that will debut this fall.

But it's the GT500 that will grace magazine covers and send fan Web sites
buzzing.

Well aware of the expectations, Shelby wanted to put the prototype through
its paces personally. At Ford's Dearborn test track on a recent Monday, he
effortlessly guided the car through the banked turns and straight-aways,
filling the air with the aroma of burnt rubber.

"Very seldom do you ever, right out of the box, get in a vehicle that feels
as solid as this does and as controllable without a lot of adjustments,"
Shelby said. "There's very few things that need to be done to this car."

The GT500, he said, will be a worthy successor to scorching GT350 fastbacks
and 427 Cobras of the past.

"That was what Shelby vehicles were in the beginning and that's what they
were meant to be," Shelby said


You can reach Eric Mayne at (313) 222-2443 or emayne@detnews.com.