2011 Ford Shelby GT500

2011 Ford Shelby Mustang GT500 – Click above for high-res image gallery The 2011 Ford Shelby GT500 is so good we don't even want to associate the word "Mustang" with it anymore. Not that there's anything wrong with the Mustang – particularly the revised 2011 model. But as a sports car, the word "Mustang" conjures images of something much less than refined. If a Porsche is a scalpel, a 'roided up 'Stang is the Jaws of Life: it'll get the job done, but it ain't gonna be pretty. However, if a Mustang is a mauling maw, the Shelby GT500 is a defibrillator. Perhaps not pinpoint precise, but it hides a sting, a little bit of burn and you can put it right where you want. And once you're there, you can use it to deliver a glorious shock to the system. Follow the jump to find out why. %Gallery-93787% Photos by Jonathon Ramsey / Copyright ©2010 Weblogs, Inc. Indulge us for a moment while we play with the superficial numbers. If you chart the gap between the most basic version of a sports car and the most hallowed version, the ground the Shelby GT500 covers – and the way it covers it – is nothing short of phenomenal. Start with a base 2011 Mustang V6. By the time you get to the 2011 GT500 you've added 245 horsepower and 230 pound-feet of torque. And in the process you've dropped the 0-to-60 time by 1.1 seconds. Now let's compare that to some Olympians of sportscar-dom: Chevrolet Corvette (base coupe to ZR1), Porsche (Carrera to GT2 RS), BMW (328i Coupe to M3), and we'll throw Mercedes (C-Class to C63 AMG) in for good measure. The Shelby's 245 horsepower beats them all except for the GT2 RS, which is a 275-hp leap over the base 911. If you go with the 911 Turbo instead of the limited-edition GT2 RS, the Shelby beats that, too: there's only a 185-hp jump from the Carrera to the Turbo. And the Shelby's 230 lb-ft increase beats all of them. Zero-to-sixty times present a more dispersed picture. The M3 is 1.5 seconds better to 60 miles per hour than the 328i Coupe, but it and the C63 AMG remain slower than the GT500. That's to be expected – you need a big gun to take down 550 hp. The GT2 RS and the ZR1 both get to 60 in 3.4 seconds (the Turbo PDK in 3.1), gains of 1.3 and 0.8 seconds over their respective base versions. "Aha!" you say – but wait! It's time for the first bit of magic. The price differential between the base, $49,880 Corvette and bombastic, $109,130 ZR1 is $59,250. The difference between the $77,800 Carrera and $245,000 GT2 RS is $167,200. The M3 and C63 AMG each best their melba-toast-and-butter counterparts by around $23,000, a much more palatable difference. But a base Mustang V6 is $22,945, and you'll only need $26,550 to quantum-leap your way to the $49,495 Shelby GT500. And …
Hide Full Review