Strip-O-Gram
Naturally, we couldn't wait for our turn at the strip. In order to get the numbers for this issue, that meant heading to Milan Dragway rather than our usual stomping grounds, Old Bridge Township Raceway Park in New Jersey. The weather was decent (66 degrees F, 46 percent humidity, 29.9 barometric pressure), but nothing killer.
Driving the new GT500 requires a deft touch on the line. The numerically low 3.31 gears and 2.97:1 First gear means if you start spinning the tires off the line, your run is shot. But if you lug it too much, it will bog badly, also killing e.t.
Test-shoe Evan Smith, alias the "T5 Bandit," flew in for this mission, and with a cooking hot car clicked off a 12.74 at 111 mph (it had just made five launches and three consecutive passes without a cooldown). More than acceptable for some folks, better than other magazines will ever achieve, but we were just getting started. On the next pass, he slipped the clutch and the 60-foot time was 2.14. He powershifted Second and the tires spun all the way until Third gear. Going through the traps in Third resulted in a 12.42 at 115.70. Longtime readers will recall that in our July '02 issue, we went 12.67 at 110 in our first '03 Cobra drag test, so we were already ahead of the game.
Smitty decided to try a run where he speed-shifted Second, but that didn't help. "The car didn't like that at all," he reported. The timeslip backed him up. It read 2.13 60-foot and 12.54 at 115.32 mph.
There was some frustration in his voice. "I'm going through the lights in Third gear," he reported. "You're giving up 3-tenths minimum. The first thing I'd do is put in 4.10s or 4.30s. I can feel this is an 11-second car with gears, even on the stock tires. It's a very difficult car to launch."
He decided powershifting Second was the only way to go. And the next run bore this out, a 12.257 at 117.18 (2.11 60-foot), with him pedaling it like John Force in Second. He also shifted into Fourth on this run.
Try as he might, Smith couldn't improve on this time. He ran a 12.37 at 116.52 and a 12.41, but the 12.25 was as good as it got. For the sake of science (and at the request of Ford's Gene Martindale, he tried two runs with the Traction Control activated. The Shelby, we're happy to report, ran quicker than expected, a 12.61 and 12.68.
"The system works really well. It recovers very quickly," Smith noted. "This would be the hot ticket for the average guy who wants to take it track but doesn't have a lot of experience. The traction control doesn't totally kick it down."
So there you have it. The most expensive ($41,950) Mustang ever after the '00 SVT Cobra R (not including those from Roush and Saleen) is the quickest Mustang ever. At 3,920 pounds (minus driver) for the coupe and 4,040 for the convertible, it's also the heaviest, for which we think Ford should be ashamed.
Either way, it's a fantastic automobile, one worthy of the Shelby name, one that should go 10s in the quarter-mile with minimal bolt-ons.