2011 Ford Shelby GT500 Review

The 2011 Ford Shelby GT500 grille fairly screams "power". It can back it up.

When you're a professional TireKicker (automotive journalist, car review writer), the keys to the dream machines come at you in random fashion, with no rhyme or reason. My second review vehicle ever, in my second week in the business, was a (then-new) 1998 Chevrolet Corvette. It only took a shade over two years for Rolls-Royce to call and ask "if I'd do them the favor" of reviewing the 2000 Rolls-Royce Corniche convertible (at the time one of only 7 on the North American continent). In less than 5, Bentley put a $430,000 Continental T in my care for a week.

But it's taken until now, three years into TireKicker (our 3rd anniversary is Wednesday, August 24), almost fourteen years of writing car reviews, and 46 years of staring, lusting and imagining, for a set of keys that fit a machine with the word "SHELBY" on it to make their way into my hands.

Good Lord, it was worth waiting for. Every bit as much as the 'Vette and the Bentley (the Rolls, sorry to say, was a disappointment...it drove like my mom's 1970 Mercury Monterey, if the Merc had weighed an extra ton, was dripping in the finest wood, leather and lamb's wool money can buy and had been hand-built on a bad day...gloveboxes should not take two people and ten minutes to open. The good news is that in the intervening eleven years, BMW has taken control and builds a magnificent Rolls-Royce).

The business end of the 2011 Ford Shelby GT500. P255/40R19 tires, 14-inch Brembo vented disc brakes and the silver Cobra poised and ready to strike.

Is it the engine, the howling beast of a 5.4 liter supercharged V8, churning out 148 horsepower and 130 pounds per foot of torque more than the remarkable 2011 Ford Mustang GT?

Well, no question, the engine is incredible, as you would imagine 550 horsepower and a six-speed manual in a 3,820 pound Mustang body would be. But the real story, the big revelation for me, was how much of what's in the Shelby GT500 is dedicated to applying that power to the road,, making sure none of it gets wasted shaking the car and scaring the driver. Hey, it was a Shelby that scared the hell out of Bill Cosby:

But the 2011 Shelby GT500 is brilliantly engineered. A chunk of the $16,000 difference in MSRP between the Mustang GT and the Shelby GT500 is in tightening the Mustang up, sharpening its reflexes, making sure it's not overwhelmed by the horsepower. And it works.

The 2011 Ford Shelby GT500 interior. "Drive", the voice in my head said. He didn't have to ask me twice.



From the moment you slide behind the wheel of the Shelby GT500, you're impressed by how much it improves on the Mustang. The 1965 Shelby GT350 was a more powerful but also much more crude 1965 Ford Mustang. The 2011 Shelby GT500 mixes in brute power with upgrades and refinements. It justifies its $48,645 base price with every corner you take at an ever-higher speed, with each burst of power in which you realize your kidneys aren't taking a beating and your fillings are staying in your teeth.

As you drive it and explore its performance capabilities, you begin to realize that this isn't an expensive Mustang, it's a bargain performance machine.

Incredibly, there are options, of which our tester had two: The Electronics Package (voice-activated navigation with Sirius Traffic and Sirius Travel Link, HD Radio and dual-zone electronic climate control) for $2,340 and the SVT Performance Package (upgrading to P265/40R19 front and P285/35R20 rear tires in place of the stock 19s front and rear, new 19 and 20 inch wheels, a decklid spoiler, a 3.73 limited slip axle, replacing the stock 3.55, side stripe and racing stripe) for $3,495.

Add the $850 for destination and delivery charges and the bottom line is $55,330.  Yeah, that's $18,000 more than a Mustang GT. It's also a chunk less than any other car with its performance capabilities.

EPA estimates (betcha thought I forgot): 15 city/23 highway. Thank the six-speed manual for that. And say hello to the newest entry on the list of TireKicker's Top 10 Cars (so far).

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2011 Ford Mustang GT Premium Review

The 2011 Mustang GT.

Back in the late 1960s and early 1970s, the Ford Mustang came in second to the Chevrolet Camaro and Pontiac Firebird in terms of driving pleasure. The GM cousins hit the market in late '66 as better-handling cars than the original pony car, and when Ford started responding to the challenge, it was to make the Mustang bigger, not better.

Well, it's nice to see that institutional memory has its limits, because as great a car as the current Camaro is, the Mustang is smaller, lighter, more tossable...more of a driver's car.

Regular TireKicker readers will remember how much we liked the V6 Mustang (no slug now that it churns out 305 horsepower)...and now, we've had our week at the wheel of the Mustang GT. The one that comes with Ford's new 5.0 V8...making 402 horsepower (412 if you're running premium fuel).

Rear view of the 2011 Mustang GT. The sloping rear panel with the taillights still says "Celica" instead of "Mustang" to me.

That's serious power for a car this size and weight, and that means most drivers will have this view of the Mustang. Even the Camaro, which has some major power of its own (426 horsepower), has a 136-pound curb weight disadvantage.

Is it really all that fun? Oh, yeah.

Ours was the Race Red you see here. And it was the GT Premium. Starting price was $32,845 (the non-premium GT begins at $29,310). That buys the 5.0, a six-speed manual transmission, auto headlamps, LED sequential taillamps (still one of our favorite gimmicks, but then we remember the mid-60s T-Birds and Cougars), stainless steel dual exhausts, variable interval wipers, electric power assist steering, 2 power points, AdvanceTrac with electronic stability control, and SOS post-crash alert system.

The 2011 Mustang GT cockpit. Slide in, choose a color for the gauges, and take off.

There's also leather-trimmed sport seats (8-way power adjustable for the driver, manual 2-way adjustable for the front passenger), a center console with armrest, ambient lighting, a leather-wrapped steering wheel, and the Shaker 500 AM/FM/CD/mp3 audio system with SiriusXM and SYNC.

You could stop right there and be perfectly happy for $32,845 plus $850 delivery. But Ford's press fleet office added some options. Some I'd go for, some might take some selling.

First is Rapid Spec Group 401A. It's the Premier Trim with color accent package. And it makes a nice interior (Ford really upped its game on the Mustang this year) even nicer. And it's only $395. Sold.

Next is the Electronics Package. $2,340 for voice-activated navigation with Sirius Traffic and Sirius Travel Link, plus HD Radio and dual-zone automatic temperature control. Hmm. I usually say no to nav (my cell phone does that and most if not all of what Sirius Traffic and Travel Link do).

Dual-zone climate control is nice, but in a cockpit as small as this one, I wonder if my being set at 70 and my passenger at 74 is really going to make a difference.

And then there's HD Radio. Depending on where you live, there might be two or three dozen radio stations you don't hear unless you have HD radio (they're carried on sidebands of the AM and FM stations you get on normal radios). Some of them have interesting programming with music you don't hear on the motherships and very few commercials (because very few people can hear them). It's added variety in listening, but if I don't care about the nav and climate control, I'm spending $2,340 for HD Radio. And that's crazy. Pass.

After that, the Security Package. $395 for an active anti-theft system and wheel-locking kit. Cheap insurance for a car that inspires this kind of lust. Deal.

Another $395 for the 3.73 ratio limited-slip axle. That's putting money into performance, and that's what this car's all about. A keeper.

$525 for HID headlamps? Seems a little steep, but you don't want to out-run your lights...and they are good. Okay.

$1,695 for the Brembo brake package, which includes an upgrade to 19 inch painted aluminum wheels. Well worth it.

And finally, $240 for a rear-view video camera. The slope of the rear window is such, that this is a very good idea. In fact, it's hard to think of a car that doesn't benefit from one of these.

So I'm only passing on one option, as it turns out, and lowering the as-tested price from $39,680 to $37,340...and for this level of performance, fun and desirability it's a more than fair price.

Is the 2011 Mustang GT the best Mustang ever? No doubt. And the fact that you can buy a 400-plus horsepower car with an EPA rating of 17 city/26 highway is a pretty wonderful thing, too.

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Ford Mustang GT Review

Okay, throw the old script away. You know, the one where Mustang invents the pony car, but after a couple of hot new kids named Challenger and Camaro come to town, rapidly loses its edge.

That was so 40 years ago. Literally.

One thing is immediately clear after an afternoon...much less a week...in the 2010 Mustang GT:

Ford is serious.

The new 'Stang ought to be just a mid-cycle refresher...but it goes a big step further...it's slightly smaller, a bit lighter, handles and rides a ton better than last year's...and the interior is now a much nicer place to do business. We're talking a jump of two or three grades of materials and workmanship. And it's lighter and airier than the Challenger and Camaro, both of which tend to sit you low and cloak you in darkness.

The GT comes with those big fog lamps in the grille, leather trim sports seats, a power 6-way driver's seat, air, ambient lighting, the Shaker 500 audio system, SYNC, and a leather-wrapped steering wheel standard.

Oh, yeah...and a 325 horsepower 4.6 liter V8, which logic says ought to be mincemeat for the V8 Challenger and Camaro, but ends up being very competitive...partly due to the weight and size savings I mentioned earlier.

All that for a base price of $30,995. Sure, a six-speed manual would be better than a five, but the five shifts smoother and easier than ever before.

The one I had for a week (up until this very morning, in fact) had the premier trim with color accent (see photo above) for $395, a Security Package (another $395), a Comfort Package with heated seats ($595), and the 3.73 rear axle ($495). With destination and delivery ($850), the total tab was $33,725...a couple grand less than the Challenger.

Gas mileage? 16 city/24 highway, according to the EPA. Again, a six-speed would be nice.

A lot of the goodness in the new Mustang GT comes from last year's Bullitt package, right down to the throaty exhaust note and the chrome cue-ball shifter. Here's hoping they're not done with that franchise and that there will be a new Bullitt to raise the bar further still.

I took it to the local cruise night this past weekend...the Ford guys were all over it...and the GM and Mopar guys expressed admiration too. They talked about the styling, the interior upgrades, the engine note.

But the thing everyone dug most?



Yep...gotta love the sequential turn signals. Tells the guys in lesser cars where to follow.

Write this down...if pony cars survive at all, Mustang's here to stay.

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