Ford has released quite a lot of technical information about the 2013 Mustang Shelby GT500. Ford claims that this latest version of the iconic Shelby car is capable of a genuine 320 km/hr owing to lot of advanced engineering that Ford have employed in developing this car. This Shelby Mustang’s earlier incarnations were always a bit under engineered even though they had engines with lot of power and torque. This 2013 version has even more power with the 5.8–litre V8 producing 662 HP and a mind boggling 855.5 Nm of torque. To handle this massive torque, this car gets serious upgrades to the drive train, transmission and aerodynamics. All this makes the car achieve the 320 km/hr target with the stability and safety not compromised.
First a bigger clutch assembly is used, with better friction materials and a bigger clutch plate which is 260 mm in diameter (10 more than last year). Also the clutch pedal assembly gets improvements. This in turn helps handle the massive torque from the engine and prevents damage during high speed driving. Also it improves the feel and driveability for the driver. Next, the whole gear assemble is revised, with different gear ratios and upgrades to the shift linkages. This improves the shift quality and feel of the gear box for road as well as track use.
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The new entry is the drive train which in now a hollow carbon-fibre tube with new joints as well. This reduces the overall weight of the car as well as the inertial weight of the drive train, making it more responsive. Carbon fibre is one of the strongest materials used in cars world over, thus in spite of the light weight, copes with the high torque coming from the engine and transmits it efficiently to the wheels.
The front of the car has received many aerodynamic upgrades. Thus the shape is re-designed resulting in much lower drag at high speeds. This helps achieving higher speeds, keeping the car stable as well as making the car more fuel efficient (claimed figure of 6.3 km/l in city and 10.2 km/l on the highway). Also the design helps in air flow at the front which helps in better cooling of the engine, thus giving better performance. Thus the 2013 Shelby GT 500 definitely becoming a genuine supercar and not just a muscle car. We expect a lot more from it and sure will be one of the most exiting cars to come out of the Ford stable.
