Top 5 Likes and Dislikes: 2020 Ford Mustang Shelby GT500
Trust us, we’re only limiting our list of the 2020 Shelby GT500’s best features to the top five for the sake of symmetry.
Anticipation can be dangerous to your emotions. You eagerly await the arrival of something you’ve been wanting and looking forward to. The problem is that the satisfaction you eventually get from that object or experience often doesn’t live up to what you imagined it would be.
Ford ran that risk in taking more than half a decade to release a new Shelby GT500. Fortunately, the 2020 model was worth the wait. I was fortunate enough to spend a week driving one. It was easy for me to list things that make it such a great machine. Coming up with some of the GT500’s downsides was difficult, but I managed to do it. Barely.
TOP 5 GT500 LIKES
1.) Seats
Ford outfitted my $82,255 Rapid Red test car with a mix of cosmetic and functional options, including white stripes and the aero-enhancing Handling Pack. My favorite add-on was the $1,595 Recaro front buckets. They looked racy, but were the perfect size for me and surprisingly comfortable – even after I made the roughly six-hour road trip from Austin to Midlothian, Texas and back for a 2020 Nissan Titan media event.
2.) Comfort
A car as hardcore and performance-focused as the GT500 typically wouldn’t be the first vehicle I think of for such a journey. I resigned myself to the possibility that the GT500 was going to be a brutally stiff, deafening torture chamber all the way to and from the Titan drive. The GT500 ended up pleasantly surprising me. It was truly comfortable in Comfort mode, the 305/30s up front didn’t follow every groove in the pavement and the exhaust never droned or boomed, even when I was bookin’ it in Sport mode.
3.) Steering
I’ve been fortunate enough to test several different V8-powered versions of the S550 Mustang over the past few years. One of the things about them that sticks out to me is just how heavy the steering feels. It fits the image of a burly rear-wheel-drive performance car, but at times it can seem leaden. I didn’t get that sensation from the GT500. Its steering felt a little lighter and more subtle, more organic.
4.) Exhaust
The GT500 is the pinnacle of the Mustang lineup, just as the SRT Hellcat Redeye Widebody is the ultimate Dodge Challenger. Both have supercharged V8s with more than 750 horsepower. But they take different approaches to delivering their distinctive sounds. The Redeye stuffs its cabin with 25 percent high-pitch blower whine and 75 percent exhaust roar. It’s an addictive combo that Ford could’ve easily mimicked in its own way. Instead, it dialed down the supercharger sound and let the active exhaust do most of the talking shouting.
5.) Power Delivery
I’ve been in a few cars where breaking the back tires loose on a dry, warm, straight road was a constant possibility. That’s dramatic fun the first few times, but it can become frustrating. After all, what’s the point of having a comical amount of horsepower if you can’t put it down easily? That was never a problem in the GT500. It amazed me by making 760 horsepower and 625 lb-ft of torque feel so usable and normal.
TOP 5 GT500 DISLIKES
1.) Turning Radius
There was a catch to the GT500’s wonderful steering. I felt how large its turning radius was every time I had to pull into or back out of a parking spot. It looks even bigger on paper. According to Ford, a Mustang GT has a curb-to-curb turning circle as small as 37.8 feet and as large as 40 feet, depending on which wheels it has. A regular GT500 has a figure of 43.8; that goes up to 44.1 with the Carbon Fiber Track Package.
2.) Transmission (Kind Of)
The GT500’s 7-speed dual-clutch gearbox was just as quick as expected, especially when I was clicking off gearchanges with the ribbed shift paddles. In terms of speed and functionality, I had no issue with it. I was more upset thinking about all of the history it leaves behind in pursuit of faster lap times. Some of the fondest memories I’ve had as a car guy have been driving stick in a V8 Mustang, whether it was manhandling the cueball in the 2019 Bullitt or feeling my girlfriend’s hand on top of mine as I upshifted in the 2016 California Special on our way out to a lakeside picnic.
3.) Delayed ETA
If you’re in a hurry to get somewhere and you parked the GT500 within a mile of other car lovers, you’re going to have to push your arrival time out. I learned that at a gas station on the way back from the Titan event – three times in a row – everyone wants to ask you about the new Shelby.
4.) Exhaust (Flip Side)
Ford did a great job of balancing the exhaust’s sonic output with its livability. In my book, they could’ve gotten away with turning up the sound a notch or two.
5.) Little Things
The GT500 is so good that I really had to nitpick to get to this one. There were a few hard plastic areas in the interior and the stripes on the driver-side front fender didn’t perfectly line up with the stripes on the door and rear fender. That’s it.
Perhaps if I’d spent more than a week in the 2020 Shelby GT500 Mustang I would’ve found more things to ding it for. I seriously doubt that, though. The more I drove it, the more I loved it.
Photos for Mustang Forums by Derek Shiekhi
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