There's horsepower, and then there's dyno-tested, can't-lie-to-your-friends horsepower. If you want to know how much power a car really makes, you've got to strap it to a dyno and spin it to redline. The guys over at 5.0 Mustang & Super Fords are always eager to find the true horsepower of a car, and so when they took delivery of a GT500KR to review they headed straight to the dyno to see how much power the supercharged V8 is putting out. What they found was somewhat surprising -- the KR produced 509 horsepower and 467.7 lb.-ft. torque to the wheels. Adjusting for an estimated driveline loss of 15 percent, the actual output at the flywheel is 589.82 hp and 550.24 lb-ft torque -- nearly 50 more horsepower and 40 more lb-ft than Ford is claiming. Take that Z06!
Sometime around late 2003, I first saw the car that was at that time still known as Condor. Condor was the Ford internal code name for the SVT version of the yet to be publicly shown S197 Mustang. At that time, most everyone outside of Ford was still anticipating that this car would be the new Mustang Cobra. Somewhere along the line to launch, Ford had settled its long standing conflict with Carroll Shelby and Condor ended up wearing one of the other classic Mustang badges from the '60s. The Shelby GT500 eventually started rolling off the Flat Rock, MI assembly line in both coupe and convertible forms for the 2007 model year.
Ford recently dropped off a Grey 2008 GT500 coupe at the Autoblog Garage for a few days, and we just had to share. By coincidence, the GT500 arrived about three weeks after the Mustang Bullitt we reviewed. While the Bullitt was about as understated as a modern Mustang can get, the GT500 is anything but. The Shelby is slathered in stripes, badges, spoilers and driving lights. The GT500 also has a very different powertrain from the Bullitt. Find out how the GT500 compares to the stealth 'Stang after the jump.
When Ford announced the GT500KR's based price of $79,995, many of you thought that it was pretty steep for a Mustang. Even though it's a limited edition Shelby with 540 horsepower, $80,000 can buy a lot of really nice cars. What's even more insane is that we know people will not only buy the KR, but they will pay tens of thousands of dollars over MSRP just to have one. The only question was how much dealers would try and gouge. That question has been answered. Lone Star Ford in Houston, TX has put up a red GT500KR on eBay Motors with a "Buy It Now" price of...$154,991.00. That's nearly double the MSRP. Who knows if anyone will actually buy it at that price, but going off what happened with the standard GT500, then it's quite possible.
Our initial drive of the Shelby GT500KR on public roads revealed that Ford, SVT and Shelby had addressed many of the issues that we had with the standard GT500. The KR's revised suspension is better balanced and more capable of handling the excessive amounts of horsepower and torque that the blown 5.4L generates, and a new short-throw Hurst shifter makes changing gears a joy instead of a chore. To top it all off, a Ford Racing cold air intake, new exhaust system, and 3.73 gears give the KR an extra kick in the pants. The changes were so spot-on that we wondered why Ford didn't build the GT500 this way in the first place.
With a ride like the GT500KR, however, only so much of the car can be experienced on public roads. At 540 horsepower and 510 lb-ft torque, the KR quickly reaches posted speed limits and the car stays well under its limits around corners. Fortunately, Ford let us loose to run hot laps around Miller Motorsports Park. Follow the jump to see how the "King of the Road" fared at the track.
What does it cost to be the King of the Road? Apparently $605,000 (after auction fees). That's how much Ron Pratte, who seems to be buying just about every Shelby at Barrett-Jackson, paid for the right to own the very first 2008 Shelby GT500 KR Glass Roof. That will only last for a while, though, since at least 999 more KR's will be built and are currently being assembled at the Shelby plant in Las Vegas. Numero uno features a black-on-black paint scheme that looks stunning in person, as well as a glass roof option that won't be available for the rest of production. As usual, Carroll Shelby was on hand to send the car off, reminding buyers why they are paying this much money for a Mustang. All the proceeds from the sale went to the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation, so it's all for a good cause.
The 2008 Barrett-Jackson classic car auction is underway, and we will be reporting from Scottsdale to bring you live photos from the auction throughout this evening. The first four days have seen hundreds of vehicles sell for a variety of prices - everything from a 1992 Yamaha dirt bike that went for $2700 to Tony Stewart's Monte Carlo racecar that had a final price of $300,000. The premier vehicles of the event will be going across the block today including the very first 2008 Shelby GT500 KR, 2009 Dodge Challenger SRT8, and 2009 Corvette ZR1 that should all command high prices. Other cars capable of reaching high triple digit figures include two 1960s concept cars, the General Lee Dodge Charger, and Carroll Shelby's personal 1969 GT500 Convertible. The vehicle we are most looking forward to, though, is the car-crunching, fire-breathing Robosaurus.
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