[ROCK MUSIC PLAYING]
CARLOS LAGO: Good morning.
It's a good morning because I have coffee.
But it's even better because of these guys, right here.
We've come to Las Vegas Motor Speedway.
Ford's invited us here to drive the new Shelby GT 500.
It's going to be a fun day because we get
to play with all these cars.
The color of the car I'm driving in this video may change a lot,
and that's because we're jumping from car to car.
Don't be scared.
We're going to take this thing on the road.
We're going to take this thing on a race track.
And we're going to find out--
at least, what I'm curious about finding out
is how the new dual-clutch automatic works
and how this car can put 760 horsepower
through two rear wheels.
Come with us.
It'll be fun.
Come on.
This is the inside of GT 500.
And guess what?
It looks like a Mustang.
Would you be shocked if it was something different?
Let's run through some of the changes or things that are GT
500-specific, and then maybe some things that aren't.
But I think first and foremost, we've got turn the car on.
That's a nice sound.
One of the more humorous parts about this car
is you have an adjustable exhaust volume toggle.
You can go from normal to sport to track to silent.
Listen to that.
It's nice.
It's a nice thing to have.
It's really funny.
You'll notice no shifter, right here.
Obviously-- it's dual-clutch automatic.
So you have this rotary shifter that's
pretty common across Ford products nowadays.
And then you have the paddle shifters.
Ford's told us that the way that they've
configured these shifters to work, they should work fast.
They don't have to go through all the other vehicle
communication lines in order to actually request a shift
and have the transmission execute that shift.
They go directly to the transmission.
And that's a lot of way to explain
that when you ask for a shift, it just
happens without a delay.
That's nice when you're driving fast.
The toggles down here, neat as they are for the things
they do, they are kind of annoying because they only
go one direction.
If I'm in normal drive mode, for example,
and I want to go to sport, that's easy.
But if I want to go from sport all the way to normal again,
I can't just go down.
I have to go all the way through track and drag and slippery
and then normal.
And that's weird because these look like rockers
and not toggle switches.
And so you would expect it to work up and down.
All that aside, when it comes to driving interface stuff,
microfiber suede-like wrapped steering wheel-- at least
the top 3/4 of it.
And a little marker here for a center,
which is always nice to have if you're doing sideways burnout
stuff.
Which this car presumably can do very well.
Paddle shifters, we talked about.
Very clear view of the digital gauge cluster.
And the digital gauge cluster has a couple
of different modes of display, from one
that has two gauges, which are both sort of--
they're digital, but they look like analog gauges.
And then you can switch into the track mode.
And then it changes to like a bar display for the tach,
specifically.
And then you have a digital speedometer.
It's really nice.
It's really easy to read, even though it
contains a lot of information.
It's fairly customizable.
You can also set a shift-point notification
that appears graphically.
And you can make it so it appears audibly as well.
On top of that, on the windshield,
lights race to meet each other when
you're approaching red lines.
So it really helps if you decide to shift yourself.
If you just leave it in automatic, who cares?
You can just let the transmission do its own thing.
When it comes to outward visibility,
that's always been a Mustang strength versus Camaro,
especially.
In here, it's largely the same.
We're in the track package car, so there is a spoiler splitting
through the rear-view mirror, but it's still
easy to see out of.
And out of the front, the forward visibility
is largely fine.
Yeah, your overhangs are still pretty massive.
There's a lot of car happening out there.
So nosing into a parking lot might be a little more tricky
than a compact sedan.
But you're in a Mustang.
Back into your parking lots.
Show yourself.
Get this thing in orange.
Come on.
And the standard hood couldn't contain that bulging display
of manly horsepowerness.
That's right.
In the back, because we're in a track-package car,
we don't have rear seats.
There's just kind of a space, there, for stuff, like luggage.
And certainly not people.
It's nice because you often hop into a Mustang,
look at the back seats, and go, who would sit there?
And now, you have space for luggage and tools
or whatever you would take to a track or on a trip.
These bucket seats do a good job of holding you in place.
All manual controls on these specific seats.
And I kind of would like some lumbar support,
but that's just me turning into a cranky old man.
You can see by the gray hairs, here.
Otherwise, a very nice, functional interior
that seems to work really well.
And I also like the fact that you can get the GT 500
plaque right here that shows you which chassis number you have.
That's a nice little touch.
Of course, this is a 760-horsepower Mustang.
So the first thing we should talk about,
the most important thing we should talk about,
is on-road comfort, right?
Yes, of course this is a track-oriented car,
be it the race track or the drag strip.
But you still have to drive to either of those locations.
So because of that, on-road comfort,
for lack of a better term, is important.
And how does the GT 500 do?
It's really good.
I've put about 50 miles on the road so far.
And so far, I've been impressed by the driveability
of this car.
Yeah, we're in a carbon fiber track pack
version of the Mustang.
So we're kind of doing it wrong.
You wouldn't spec a car this way, to drive it on the road
all the time.
But from my experience so far, you could.
Now, yes, there is a bit of tram lining.
And that's when the front tires sort of follow
grooves in the road.
And that doesn't feel great.
You don't really expect that from most cars.
But that happens in performance cars.
So a fair amount of that is acceptable, here.
I think more impressive, though, is the overall ride quality,
which is very strong, very smooth for this kind of car.
Not feeling a lot of bumps.
But we're also on pretty smooth roads here
in the mountain roads in Las Vegas.
There's not a lot of bumps to upset everything.
But so far, so good.
The real thing I was curious about
was tractability of the engine, of course--
how easy it was to drive.
But the biggest thing was the transmission,
this new dual-clutch transmission.
This is the first Mustang with a dual clutch.
So how it works with the car is very important.
And so far, it's really good.
It's very smooth.
There isn't a lot of shock from the drive train,
when you engage a new gear.
When you roll away from the stop, you roll on the gas,
and it engages in a way that feels natural.
And I'm surprised by how smooth it is going from gear to gear.
I like there's a couple of neat things
you can do with a transmission.
There are these shift paddles, here.
If you hold the downshift lever, for example,
it drops to the lowest possible gear ratio.
And it does so very quickly.
I'm in sixth.
We're going 65 right now.
Now, we're in second.
That's fairly impressive.
That's really impressive tech for a Mustang.
That's stuff that we've seen in more expensive German sports
cars for a long time.
Not that this isn't expensive, but that's something
you don't expect from a Mustang.
On the road, this is a really smooth and easy car to drive.
And that's a hugely important feat because previous
generations of GT 500s weren't.
Oftentimes, they had a lot of engine,
but not a lot of refinement.
And so far, this seems to be way better
than those previous models, as good
as they were for their time.
This is pretty satisfying and pretty--
there's a lot of car here to enjoy.
As there should be for the price.
Tied for centerpiece of the GT 500, let's say,
is this transmission.
It's a seven-speed dual-clutch automatic.
There is no manual availability with the GT 500 currently.
Whether that changes or not the future, who's to say?
This is the transmission you get with a GT 500.
Why is that?
Well, in general, dual-clutch automatics
shift faster and offer greater control
over the vehicle's transmission of power
from the engine to the rear wheels.
And that's what you get here.
They're able to adjust how it reacts and behaves
based on what type of driving you're doing
and what kind of mode you're driving in.
And this is part of the piece that
helps get that incredible 0-60 time and incredible quarter
mile time.
I think 10.7 seconds, that's what they're claiming.
Huge piece of the puzzle, right here.
The second piece, bigger element,
is this big guy, right here.
Supercharger bolted on top of the engine.
Displaces, I want to say, like 2.65 liters or something.
And this is an integral component
to making 760 horsepower.
And when you have that amount of air being compressed and sent
through, you need to do a lot of work
to the engine, which includes the heads.
This is a cylinder head.
And behind us, over here, is the oil pan,
cylinder and connecting rod, and our oil catch
can will run through these briefly.
Oil pan has additional baffling to keep the engine lubricated,
which is hugely important to making this kind of power
and turning sideways.
Because all the oil can get stuck up on to one side.
So you have to have baffles that make sure that the oil can
come back and collect, get picked up,
and get sent back through the engine.
And then you have an oil catch can,
which I believe is optional on the track package.
And that's going to make sure that the whole system
stays lubricated when you're pulling or sustaining
lots of lateral gs, which this car can do.
When it all comes together, minus the transmission,
of course, 5.2-liter V8, quad cam, 1, 1, 1, 1, right?
760 horsepower on 93 octane.
And this is the whole package, altogether.
Not much to say other than looks cool, don't it?
Another neat addition are these optional carbon-fiber wheels.
These come on the carbon-fiber track pack.
And yes, they are carbon fiber.
Ford's been using these for a while on GT, on GT 350.
This is becoming more common in the world of performance
vehicles because they save so much weight.
And they also look pretty rad because you got that really
cool carbon weave in there.
The standard wheel-tire package is this guy, right here.
That's wrapped in a Michelin Pilot Sport 4s.
And this gets a Michelin Pilot Sport Cup 2, I believe.
And both of those tires are specifically
designed for this application, like every other sports car
these days.
So you've got a ton of power.
You've got a way to get it to the rear wheels quickly.
You've got incredible acceleration.
You need a way to slow down, too.
Brakes, of course, aren't responsible for stopping power.
Or the rotors are as much as the tires are.
A brake can't stop more than the tire grip available.
But they certainly help the process
and help dissipate heat, which is hugely important.
You have to think of it as an integrated system.
This is all beyond the point because look
at the size of this front rotor.
That's 16 and 1/2 inches.
I mean, I remember when my Integra, when I was a teenager,
had 16-inch wheels.
Now, we're looking at rotors that are that size.
The real rotors are 14.6 inches.
That's-- I mean, that's just silly.
There's a Brembo rep here who told me
that this caliper, this front caliber for the GT 500,
is among the largest they manufacture for sports cars,
or for any car in particular.
He also walked me through that when
you're applying the brakes, there's
a force that wants to spread the caliper apart just as
much as you want to press in and stop the rotor.
And this structure right here is so massive
relative to what you would find on GT 350, and even
the Ford GT.
This is serious, serious hardware.
Because we're on track in kind of a train
with fellow journalists and colleagues,
the trick is to not go too fast on the warm-up lap
to catch up with the person in front of you.
So I'm going to try to not do that this time.
So GT 500, on track, an unfamiliar track,
unfamiliar car.
Basically, the first time.
What I'm interested in exploring,
here, is how this dual-clutch transmission
reacts to track use, how much traction
I can find from the rear end, on top of the usual stuff,
like braking quality, steering quality, and so on.
We are in the car's track mode.
And we're just letting the automatic transmission,
this dual clutch, shift itself to see what
it does, how it acquits itself.
So we're just warming up to pace.
The folks at Ford have left a bunch of cones out here for us
to reference, which is really helpful on a track
that we don't know too well.
Wide-open throttle.
Here we go.
GT 500.
So fourth gear at 115.
We're gonna see 130.
Big on the brakes into turn one.
Good feel in the braking.
Kind of have a lot of bite in there,
and I haven't used all of it, yet.
Good traction out.
So far, with a car with 760 horsepower,
you can feed in that throttle, trust it.
A little bit understeered, there.
Too fast.
And then on it.
Big brakes, here, as we whoa it down
for this decreasing-radius left turn.
Too fast in, so we're getting some understeer power out.
Let's try full throttle.
There we go.
[LAUGHS]
That's pretty strong.
Really good braking response that's
bleeding off speed in a confident and calm manner.
And there's so much power.
Despite the power, how much of it there is,
I can really dig into the gas pedal on corner exit.
And I'm not even challenging the cornering limit to this car,
yet.
Still no problem throwing this thing around.
You know, this is a big, heavy car.
You know, we're talking around 4,000, maybe upwards of that,
with a ton of power.
And I'm not revealing that weight.
I'm not finding a lot of that weight right now.
That doesn't mean this car feels small.
It certainly feels like the big car it is.
That was a much bigger braking moment.
And that felt real good.
And dig.
Full throttle.
Yeah, this thing really puts the power down.
This is very different from previous GT 500s.
Those were all live-axle cars.
Did not have the sophistication in the rear suspension
to deal with the amount of power they had.
This feels way more developed.
Yeah, a lot of tire grip in this car.
Yeah, a little bit of rotation, there.
Not too much.
Trailing throttle.
Braking.
I'm sorry, I actually thought of braking
while you're entering a corner.
You can do that, which is nice.
That's another dimension to handling
that you can use to get the car where you want it to go.
Oh, yeah!
Getting braver, there.
[LAUGHING]
Eating up that chicane.
That is good stuff.
Yeah, you can really lean on these tires.
There's a lot of stick in these Michelins.
And that's gonna give you the confidence
to keep going faster through each corner.
So automatic transmission has been good, too.
I've got to say.
That was our last lap, so we'll whoa it down
and do a bit of a debrief.
How you doing, Charlie?
That was amazing.
So much fun.
Woo!
That is rad.
So let's talk about GT 500.
So the Mustang starts life as an inexpensive car
for a lot of people.
There's even rental car variance of it.
And then the model line stretches all the way up
to this thing, which has 760 horsepower, track-ready brakes,
really sticky tires, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
Considering that breadth, this is incredible,
what you get out of this package.
It's an expensive package, no doubt about that.
Value is going to be a bigger discussion out
of here relative to other sports cars around this money.
But all that aside, you get a lot of capable performance
with this car.
Not only do you have a ton of power--
Shelby GT 500s have never have an issue with horsepower.
But it was how that power was applied to the rear tires
and overall driveability that was always
the shortcoming of that car.
This thing seems to have dialed that in so much better.
You can actually accelerate through corners.
You can put tires on curbing.
You can really ride the braking into the corners
from really high speeds with all the control
that you would hope to have--
that you would, frankly, never expect from a GT 500.
This does the handling thing.
And for the weight and the size of this thing,
that's an incredible accomplishment.
And I'm thoroughly impressed by the capabilities of this car.
When it comes to more of the ethereal stuff-- the sound.
It's loud.
It's authoritative.
Is it pretty?
I kind of prefer the GT 350 sound, if I'm honest.
Although that's more punk rock.
This is a lot more serious in tone.
What's funny is, just for an aside, the GT 350 and the GT
500 kind of have the Porsche 911 GT 3RS and GT 2RS
thing going on, where the cheaper car has the--
let's say a more characterful engine,
and the bigger car is all business.
That said, I've enjoyed driving this.
And I hope we can get more track time.
Although I don't think it's going to happen.
A lot of fun, though.
Yay!
We've put a '67 Shelby GT 500 in the back of this frame
because, well, it's here, and why wouldn't you?
But also we've put it there to illustrate the amount of change
the GT 500 has gone through over the past bunch of decades.
It's because I feel like with this 2020 version,
we're at a new threshold, or we've
crossed a threshold, of GT 500 performance.
We're in a kind of a new world, here, and one
that I'm really excited to explore
as the Mustang continues.
[ROCK MUSIC PLAYING]