Test Drive: 2010 Ford Shelby GT-500
From SVT USA
Birmingham, AL: It wasn’t all that long ago that a “super-car” had only 350 or 385hp. That was wow stuff a decade ago. There was the Corvette ZR-1 in 1989 with 375hp. That car was $60,000+ over 20 years ago. Then there was the 2000 Cobra R with 385hp, still a priceless commodity. There was the Ferrari F50, which set the world on its ear in the 1990’s with 513hp at a cost of $500,000.
Today we have a pretty good selection of 400, 500 and 600hp premium cars on the market for those who want and can afford them. To that, these modern day super-cars are more affordable than they have ever been and no longer require you to know your mechanic by name. There are several on dealer lots across America from Audi, Mercedes, BMW, and of course Ford.
With the all new 2010 Mustang arriving at dealerships across America this week will come the all new Ford Shelby GT-500 later this spring. The SVT engineered Snake has 540hp coming from the virtually the same 5.4 liter DOHC 32-valve supercharged V8 that powered last year’s GT-500. The extra power comes by way of some of the tricks that the ‘08 GT-500KR model brought to the table. These are namely the open element “cold-air intake” and a more aggressive tune.
The two week test drive for this article started in Phoenix and up to Las Vegas. The GT-500 played the role of pace car for the Mustangs Across America 45th Anniversary Drive, giving this writer a chance to live and breathe the new Shelby for over 2500 miles of Grade A road trip. This entailed a five day trek from Las Vegas to Birmingham for the Mustang’s 45th Anniversary. What a better way to get to know every little detail of the car and what it is really like to live with one.
So what was it like to flog a new 2010 GT-500 from one end of the country to the other? Let it be magically intoxicating while sublimely entertaining. You see the car has barely been seen by anyone that doesn’t live in car mags or automotive internet sites. People came out of their springs everywhere we went. Road construction crews asked us to spin the tires, traffic control officers standing by expecting us to give them a show. We even had three local police officers gather around us in a small New Mexico town who called two more highway patrolmen to come see the car.
