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The
2020 Ford Mustang Shelby GT500
is going to be the fastest
ever around a track. A lot of this is attributable to over 700 horsepower from its 5.2-liter supercharged V8, but speed takes a lot more than just pure power.
didn’t worry too much about going left and right fast in the last
with 662 horsepower. This one is different, and we went to one of Ford’s wind tunnels in the Detroit area to find out how.
Unfortunately, Ford still isn’t telling us how much horsepower and torque this thing is going to have beyond the “over 700” figure we were told at the
. Ford engineers
did
tell us it’s running sub-11-second quarter miles, though. So, yes, it’s going to be fast. We know it’s going to be fast around a road course, too, because Ford also told us it’s the “fastest production Mustang left and right.” This suggests the GT500 is going to behave like a more buttoned-down
, except with an extra 200 horsepower.
Breathing intensifies
.
To keep the car under control, Ford revamped the aero package entirely. In full attack settings, the GT500 produces up to 550 pounds of downforce. This figure is more than any Mustang prior, including the GT350R, which Ford claims produces about 300 pounds of downforce. What Ford seems even more proud of is the speed at which it was able to develop the aero package. Through the use of 3D printing and simulations, Ford says it was able to do what used to be two years of work in only six months. Engineers would 3D print version after version of the splitter wickers, hood vent and plenty of other aero elements. No experimentation was necessary for the massive carbon fiber wing sitting on the rear decklid — that behemoth was pulled right off the Mustang GT4 race car. A
was used as a test dummy to fit all of these aero bits during development. Photos of that experiment-of-a-car can be seen in the gallery above.
Matt Titus, a Ford Performance engineer who worked on the aerodynamics of the GT500, said this about the aero package: “We took everything we learned on GT350, and turned it up.”
Vehicles like the last
or
Z06 take a lot of courage and skill to drive fast, but Ford appears to be appealing to a broader audience with this GT500. Said Titus, “We want this car to be available for everyone to drive fast near the limit.” We’ll learn how that effort turned out when we get behind the wheel for the first time.
Cooling was a major concern for Ford now that forced induction and all the extra power is on tap. The front opening for airflow is double what the GT350 offered. Larger coolers (oil, transmission, etc.) and heat exchangers are hidden behind the new front fascia along with a new 600-watt electric fan that’s much larger than before. Ford says the temperatures get so hot that it decided to go to the
parts bin for the thermostat. There are two radiators sitting behind the new metal mesh grille to enhance cooling even more. Large brake ducts start in the front bumper to direct air toward those massive discs, too.
The hood vent is also the largest ever implemented on a Mustang, and it even needs its own rain tray. Ford suggests that you leave the rain tray in if you’re going to park it outside or drive it while it’s raining. Otherwise you risk water entering the engine bay and getting down into areas where it shouldn’t be. This step of rain-proofing your brand-new car is a bit comical, but it’s actually something engineers pushed hard for in order to get optimal cooling from the engine. You can take solace in the fact that your massive hood vents are 100 percent functional, unlike the fake ones shamefully found on many
. We asked what you should do if it started to rain during a track day. The answer is to leave the rain tray out when on the track, but cover those holes back up after coming into the paddock.
This rain tray conundrum is part of the car’s character. There are two settings to drive the GT500 in: track and street. For normal driving the rain tray goes in; the lowest front splitter pieces come off, and the massive wing can be set to its lower downforce position. You’ll get the best
with this low downforce setup, but who cares about fuel economy when there’s over 700 horsepower on tap.
from Autoblog https://ift.tt/2UyzCOL