Today’s embargo lift on the 2020 Shelby GT500 first drive has opened the floodgates to many previously unknown facts about the ultimate Mustang. For example, Ford claims its supercharged monster completes the quarter-mile run in a mere 10.7 seconds, but give it to someone who knows what he’s doing, and that time will drop by nearly a tenth of a second.
9-Second Barrier Already Broken:
At the official media launch Ford organized in Las Vegas for the GT500, REVan Evan did the quarter mile in an already impressive 10.89 seconds at 130 mph (209 kph), but he later had the opportunity to improve his time. In a private test conducted at the Bradenton Motorsports Pack in Florida, he managed to shave off 0.28 seconds compared to his initial run and ended up with a time of 10.61 at 133 mph (214 kph) with a completely stock car.
As the timeslips attached above are showing, the car repeatedly did sub-11-second runs, with the slowest one in 10.97 seconds at 130 mph. How do these numbers stack up against another important American performance car? Well, the mid-engined Corvette did the quarter mile in 11.2 seconds at 122 mph (196 km/h) in a recent Car and Driver test after hitting 60 mph (96 km/h) in 2.8 seconds.
Of course, we must keep in mind that we’re pitting the range-topping version of the ‘Stang against the base ‘Vette, so it’s not exactly a fair fight. Comparing the price tags of the two, the standard GT500 is roughly $10,000 more expensive than the C8 before you start adding options, which in both cases will drive up the final price to a six-figure sum after adding all the bells and whistles.
It's A Pricey Pony Car:
We also had the chance to put the Shelby GT500 through its paces in a quarter-mile run and our best result (out of three attempts) with the launch control activated was clocked in at 11.5 seconds at 130 mph (209 kph).
Source: REVan Evan