The title of “World’s Most Powerful Production V8” officially goes to the upcoming 2013 Ford Shelby GT500 Mustang. With 650 horsepower and 600 lb-ft of torque from its all-new, 5.8 liter supercharged engine, the Shelby is a gear head’s dream come true and will be able to vanish in a cloud of white tire smoke at any given moment. If its power wasn’t enough to astound, then Ford’s recent announcement that there will be an even better way to hear the mechanical wine and organic roar of the GT500’s V8 might do the trick. All a driver has to do to send shivers down their spine is let the top down on the 2013 Convertible.
“The Shelby GT500 convertible is every bit the performer that the coupe is,” said Kerry Baldori, SVT Global Performance Vehicles chief engineer. Like its hard top brother slated for sale late in 2012, the drop top version has been heavily developed by Ford’s best wrench turners known as the Special Vehicle Team (SVT). The engine is an all-aluminum design featuring dual overhead camshafts, cross drilled block and heads, a TVS Series 2300 supercharger and revised cooling compared to the older, 5.4 liter Shelby block. In order to handle the kind of output previously thought to be found only inside the aftermarket, SVT engineers fitted both the Coupe and Convertible with a carbon fiber driveshaft, hardened clutch and revised gears for the six speed manual transmission. In short, Ford doesn’t want anything breaking when the GT500’s clutch is “dumped”.
When fitted with the optional Performance Package, the GT500 Convertible is noticeably faster in all situations than the previous hot-rod Mustang drop top. The folks at SVT put their car on the bumpy Sebring International Raceway to discover that they had shaved 3.5 seconds of the old car’s lap time. With new Bilstein adjustable dampers, massive Brembo supplied brakes with six piston front calipers and exclusive chassis supports, the Convertible won’t be all show and no go. “All of the significant changes we made in the program were instrumental in delivering a convertible that could really shine on the track but can still be driven on a daily basis,” said Baldori.
Source: Ford
