Why does the Shelby have to be such a pig?

[Ron Earp]

I saw one of the new Shelby Mustangs the other day on the highway and I thought, that is a good looking car. I'd seen it in the magazines, but it was better in person.

But, why does that damn car have to weigh 4000 lbs???????? What a pig, that isn't going to be fun on track at all, and clearly it'd have much better performance if the weight were somewhat more reasonable, like maybe 3200 lbs?

The motor specs are good:

POWERTRAIN
5.4-liter, DOHC, 32-valve, 90-degree V-8
500 horsepower, 480 lb.-ft. of torque (SAE certified)
Roots-type Eaton supercharger and air-to-water intercooler
Iron block, Ford GT aluminum heads, dual exhaust
Tremec TR6060 6-speed manual transmission
Rear-wheel drive, 3.31:1 axle ratio; Traction Control

CHASSIS
Wheelbase:107.1 in.
Height:54.5 in. (Coupe) / 55.7 (Convertible)
Length:187.6 in.
Width:73.9 in.
Weight:approx. 3,920 lbs. (Coupe)

And I have been kicking around on SVTPerformance.com to see what the cars are doing with modifications. There are some there that are running in the 11s WITHOUT increasing the boost. One is at 11.7 @ 125mph in the quarter, stout. Increasing the boost results in phenominal gains and it appears the bottom end is good to about 650 rear wheel hp, very nice.

But it is just too heavy. My truck only weighs in at about 600lbs more!!

Really too bad I think, good looking car with some good specs, until you get to the weight part. While the weight above is estimated, the real weights people are getting at the track are naturally higher with fuel and driver.

Ford Vehicles: 2007 Ford Shelby GT500

Back to that motor - those mod motors I feel were a bad decision for Ford. The undersquare design 3.55" x 4.17" doesn't want RPM. So why have overhead cams that lend themselves to higher RPM useage? A 5.4L DOHC V8 should be able to make serious power without the blower, but, it is well known in the Ford community that about the only way to make one produce is with a blower, and Ford seems to realize that too. Poking and stroking is severely limited. I wonder how much just the engine weighs in this thing?

[JCoop]

Simply put, maybe the marketing Gurus just felt that more potential buyers would rather buy one that jumps from the stoplight, rev to 4000 and then brake...repeatedly. And then, should that driver end up in a fenderbender, have enough heft in the surrounding sheetmetal to walk away with not even a neckache.

[Jac Mac]

Look at it this way, those cars will probably depreciate quite quickly so that in 3 or 4 years time you will feel good about buying one, throw out the truck engine up front & replace it with an alloy Windsor, at least then you would be able to fit a set of headers without having dismantle half the car. That alone would probably pull about 200lb out the car.

The only other car Ford have designed of late that I liked was the GR-1, but that was apparently done with no consideration of Drivetrain physical size etc.

Jac Mac

[I LOVE GT40- Paolo]

Ron,
I suspect Ford has just tryed to offer the market something so similar in numbers to one of the best seller of the last 10 yrs, the M5 by BMW.
Look at the numbers...they are honestly too similar (similar weight..for similar horse power).
Bmw has dramatically increased sales in US and even they decided to change also the design of all the 3 main series to satisfy the "american taste" (Chris Bangle's disasters are considered in Europe only done to satisfy that market).
Being Ford the bigger producer of the world will be obvious they wanted to do something (proudly american)at the level of the only real muscle car made in Germany.
...and at a quarter of the price...

Unless BMW made the E60 series..featuring 507 hp,but thats another story..

Think this is probably the real reason to produce such (nice 4 me anyway) Mustang.
Real sportscar as all we wellknow are only the mix between weight and RIGHT power...if they become pigs..they never will be able to make a turn in safety (and really hope the Pig shelby will never have the same ugly brake problems the e39 m5 had...)

Paolo

[Ron Earp]

Originally Posted by jac mac

Look at it this way, those cars will probably depreciate quite quickly so that in 3 or 4 years time you will feel good about buying one, throw out the truck engine up front & replace it with an alloy Windsor, at least then you would be able to fit a set of headers without having dismantle half the car.

Exactly. People are crazy paying like $20k over sticker now, but I bet in 3-4 years they'll be $30k, and quite a bargain.

I like the mod motor for a truck, it is great. Revs to 5200 RPM, makes a lot of power. I'd love a 4 valve version even more, in my truck.

Still, it is a performance bargain at $45k - 11s for that money and 10s possible? Damn.

R

[Rob]

Ron,
Haven't driven one myself, but know a guy who has one. Was talking with him last weekend...he says it's "illegal kinds of fun". He is seriously afraid he is going to get a ticket or worse every time he drives is because zero to serious fast happens before he is even aware of it happening. Sounds like a fun car, but for what people are paying....rather have a 40 :-)

[Ron Earp]

They are blazing fast in a straight line, and, according to a couple tests pretty decent on the track in so much as you remember you are driving around in 4000lbs of car. Brakes hold up, etc., but it'd be a lot better with 900lbs lobbed off!!!!

They sort of get short changed in the car magazines because those folks don't push them hard in the 1/4 mile, and the times are high 12s, even a low 13 I saw. Car is much faster than that with real world folks pulling some mid/low 12s out of the box on street tires.

On www.svtperformance.com there are lots of them putting down some fairly boggling numbers with little cash investment - couple hundred bucks for a quickchange pulley and tune, bam, over 600 rwhp and basically equal amount of rear wheel torque.

Did your buddy end up paying over sticker? I've seen some folks on Club Cobra that paid quite a bit, as well as on svtperformance.com. I imagine they will be far less expensive as Jac Mac pointed out in a year or two. They have some good colors though in that lineup......maybe my folks need one for their upcoming 50th Wedding Anniversary..........maybe????

R

[Gary L]

Another name for these Mustangs is "donor car".

[Neal]

Co-worker picked one up for $3k over MSRP. I have to admit, it is a blast to drive even with the extra weight. He started talking smack about the extra HP he has over my 40 and I reminded him that I have a 1500lb weight advantage. Pony cars are fine but sports cars rule!

[Sandy]

I thought this thread was about the Man

I was just looking the other day at the 4 valve motors and weight on the Ford Perf site and for the all alum version of the motor it seems very heavy vs. the old sbf, and iron block version... likely very heavy. Add the blower, IC, accessories, 600 page instruction manual and warning pamphlets and numerous visor warnings and gets heavy!

While at Monterey this year one of the new Shelby's came up for auction and the son of the owner at Galpin Ford (Bo) picked it up for over sticker (+ auction fees). As he said he could unload it well over what he paid. So yes, load of folks will pay crazy $$ for having it now.

I think I saw a Yahoo! search stat that said it was the number 1 or 2 searched car on their site (had a list but can't remember the rest).

Sandy

[Mike Dozier]

Now with Chevy and Chrysler bringing out their retro ponycars,
we should see some good old fashioned one-upmanship by the factories...
shades of 1970 all over again...except a lot more expensive !

MikeD

[Ron Earp]

Thing is, Chebby and Chrysler will do it right with all aluminum pushrod V8s, a la new Chevy Z06. Got to hand it to them for that motor, 500hp and emission legal while using modern electronics and modern drivability.

Ford can't get any more displacement out of the mod motors except via grafting on additional cylinders as in the 6.8L V10. And, it is still stuck with a bad (IMHO) bore/stroke ratio.

I liked the looks of that Challenger.

[Doug Sainlar]

As much as I dislike Chebbies, I must admit that the new Camaro design looks great, too!

Doug