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Retaliation: Ford Caught Testing Hot Mustang at Nurburgring: Is This The Replacement For The GT500?


Retaliation: Ford Caught Testing Hot Mustang at Nurburgring: Is This The Replacement For The GT500?

Anyone who has been paying attention to the horsepower war lately has been waiting for return fire after Dodge unleashed the Challenger Hellcat on the masses. While Ralph Gilles has been doing burnouts for crowds, Ford has been working on the successor to the Shelby GT500. Unfortunately, even after the car was caught testing at Nurburgring in Germany, there are still a metric ton more questions than answers about it.

Here is what’s known: All of the visual mods that can be seen are near-production ready, including the revised nose, deleted lights and opened face vents, and the rear diffuser. The exhaust curiously looks like the old GT500 system, but the rear bumper cap and diffuser are new. And look at those freaking brakes! Those are carbon ceramic and are suggesting that this thing will be more of a successor to the recent Boss 302 and Boss Laguna Seca models.

2016-Shelby-GT350-SVT-Mustang-Front-Spy-Photo

The questions start with the name. Right now, there seems to be no set consensus as to what the new car will be called, though GT350, GT350-R, and Cobra are being tossed around. There is even a question of if Shelby will still be on the car or if the SVT division will take this Mustang back in-house. The engine is also in question…as of right now, it’s not known if the 5.8 blower motor is still under the hood, or if the rumored flat-plane-crank version of the Coyote is in the engine bay. Horsepower and torque figures are simply unknown at this time, though there is speculation (and fans fueling the fire) that the new ‘Stang will, uh, challenge the Hellcat for top billing.

Stay tuned folks, it’s only starting to get good…

2016-mustang-svt-rendering

Rendering courtesy of AutomotiveAddicts.com

 

(Images courtesy of AutoEvolution. Hat tip to AmericanMuscle.com for the story.)


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7 thoughts on “Retaliation: Ford Caught Testing Hot Mustang at Nurburgring: Is This The Replacement For The GT500?

  1. Patrick U

    It definitely sounds fantastic tearing around the track. I would be willing to bet that this is strictly a Z28 competitor and will be a N/A 5.0 based engine, clipping around the 500 horse mark. I do feel we will see some huge power numbers out of a Mustang to compete with the Dodge.

  2. GuitarSlinger

    All reports are saying this is the GT350R .. normally aspirated Shelby … not the full on GT500 … though honestly looking at the multiple photos I’m kind of wondering myself . But I’ll guess it is the GT350 … to go head to head [ which is to say have it for lunch ] with GM’s pretentious rebadged Canadian built left over parts bin Holden in a Z/28 party dress . With a GT500 to come …. and yeah …. I’ll bet a little something to teach FCA/Dodge a lesson or two as well as who really is the BOSS when it comes to the 21st century Muscle/PonyCar wars 😉

    The real question here though is … Will SVT take over all aspects of the Shelby Mustang range ? Dropping the ‘ Shelby ‘ moniker in the process as well perhaps ? If so …. that’d be kind of a shame in a way . But hey .. who knows … maybe they’ll be even better if they do

  3. 38P

    “Shelby will still be on the car or if the SVT division will take this Mustang back in-house.”

    While Shelby American has tuner versions of the GT500, the OEM Shelby GT500 has always been an “in-house” vehicle. The Shelby name is/was a marketing tactic.

    Hopefully, SVT will see fit to build an EcoBoost V8 with sufficient cubes at some point to trailer the Hellcat. My hope is that they’ll develop a 32-valve DOHC turbo version of the Raptor “Boss” mill.

  4. Craig Ruttwr

    It better be packin well over 700 horses to compete with the Dodge can it do it?Doubt it!

  5. Patrick

    Craig, it only needs to get to the first corner and the Dodge is done! It is getting good now, this is the true golden age of the muscle car performance

  6. Chevy Hatin' Mad Geordie

    Why aye! A rolling Chevy crusher at last!

    This thing will inhale any GM doody within 500 yards and spit it out in flames!

    This proves that FORD stands for First On Race Day – CHEVY stands for Completely Horrible Emetic Vile Yuck!

    Ah the sweet smell of a nitro/nitrous cocktail!

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