The 450 Horsepower Lifeboat
Posted by Chief Oddball in the morning on March 24th, 2005
Today was a day of opposites. Events mutually exclusive, polarizing in their respective extremity, alternatively joyful to some and dismal to others. Today Ford unleashed its next-generation Super Mustang, the 2007 Shelby Cobra GT-500, upon the world. It was also today that Bob Lutz, CEO of General Motors, warned that GM may be forced to phase out one of its divisions—with Buick and Pontiac topping the list of candidates.
For the muscle and pony car enthusiast, there has never been a better time to jump from the sinking ship of General Motors. As I stated on a Mustang fanboard earlier this evening, “Man the life boats—and hey, there’s a white-on-red, 450 horsepower life boat over thisaway.” Carroll Shelby has returned to the blue oval stable, and the upcoming 2007 Shelby Cobra is going to be the absolute baddest factory Mustang ever produced.
On the outside, the look is totally retro—a complete and utter throwback to the Cobras of 1968, right down to the SHELBY badging on the trunk lid, the dual painted LeMans stripes and the coiled snake emblem on the three-spoke steering wheel. The domed hood includes not ram air scoops, but large functional heat extractors, from which air from the engine bay can be expelled after it enters through the enlarged grille. This is the same type of heat extraction design used on many professional race cars.
And, of course, let’s not forget about the revolutionary power beneath the Cobra’s hood—arguably the highlight of today’s announcement. This bad boy is sporting a 5.4 liter cast iron Triton V8 block with a Whipple twin-screw supercharger that’s good for 8.5 pounds of boost. Heads and other internals are straight from the $100,000+ Ford GT supercar. The powerplant is mated to a Tremec T-56 six-speed manual, the evolution of the same tranny that’s graced such cars as the Dodge Viper, Chevy Corvette and the Pontiac Trans Am. Bottom line? It’s all good for 450 lb-ft of torque, and according to the official Ford documentation, “More than 450 horsepower.” Hau Thai-Tang, chief engineer of the Mustang project, says it’s “actually closer to 500.”
That is one serious ride, folks.
I’m sure after reading those specs, you’re wondering what this car sounds like when you really nail it and light up the tires like a schoolboy. Well, here you go—download this MP3 and find out.
On the inside of the new GT-500, things are just as impressive. Everything is covered in ebony leather. The seats themselves are a throwback to the sixties in their design, sporting ribbed bolsters and featuring red inserts and stitching. There are also red accents throughout the cockpit, right down to the stitching on the steering wheel. Where the IUP-equipped Mustang GT sports aluminum trim, the GT-500 features black leather surfaces—the top of the dashboard, the center console, door panels, and more. The face of the dash itself is a finely-textured material similar to that used on the Lincoln Mark VIII. The chrome bezels on the gauges and vents is replaced with a more sophisticated titanium (or brushed aluminum) appearance. The instrumentation is equipped with Ford’s MyColor™ system that allows you to change the color of the gauges to any one of 125 combinations. Finally, the center of the steering wheel sports the classic Shelby GT-500 logo and coiled Cobra snake. For those into details, the voltmeter at the center of the gauge cluster has been replaced with an analog supercharger boost gauge, scaled to 15 psi. The tachometer has also been moved to the right side of the gauge pod, where it more naturally belongs (and where your arm won’t block it while you’re gripping the wheel at the 12 o’clock position with your left hand).
The entire package is expected to cost less than $40,000 MSRP, according to Thai-Tang, who says the team would like to get the GT-500 priced about 5% higher than the 2003-04 SVT Cobra. That would mean a price in the neighborhood of $38,000. If they succeed, it will be the biggest bang-for-the-buck anyone’s been able to get in a pony car since…well, since the 1998 WS6 Trans Am and Camaro SS.
The natural problem, of course, is that dealers will be wanting to mark these things up like absolute craziness for a good long while after their release. This could, after all, be the last car the aging Carroll Shelby lends his name to—and with the original Shelby Cobras going for more than $100,000, a premium will undoubtedly be expected. If you qualify for Ford employee discounts, count yourself lucky—but even then, you may have to fight for a GT-500, call dealers nationwide until you find one willing to sell you the car on the A-plan or even the X-plan. It was hard enough with the ‘03-’04 Cobra. The trick is to wait until the GT-500 has been available for a while. You go in wanting to buy one the week after production, you can probably expect to pay $50,000. Or worse.
The good news? While Ford expects to produce about 7,500 GT-500s, that’s not a hard limit—they say they’ll produce as many Shelby Cobras as buyers want. (Or that the Auto Alliance plant’s capacity can withstand, of course.) Still, even at $38,000, this is not a car most people can afford—or would want. That’s a primo price to pay for a car which, on the inside, is still dealing with a $19,000 featureset. There’s another drawback—the Cobra has a solid rear axle. According to Carroll Shelby, engineering an independent rear suspension that could handle the kind of power this car produces would have added $5,000 to the price tag—and 180 pounds to the curb weight. But since a SRA is still the best solution for drag racers, I’d say Ford made the right decision.
Granted, the GT-500 we all saw today at the New York Auto Show is not the production car, but it’s damn close—the engineering team says the show car is 90% production-ready. What will change between now and 2006, when this thing goes on sale? One thing’s certain—the wheels will be reduced from 19” to 18”. (While they’re at it, I hope they widen the tires—the show car only has 255s fitted!) The production Cobra will be a 2007 model, but orders will most likely start being taken as early as late 2005 or early 2006. While no one’s come out and said it, the implication is that this car isn’t a single model year stunt, or a one-time “grab it while you can” vehicle. It’s implied that this is the replacement for the SVT Cobra, which will see production for the next several years.
So while things are definitely looking up in Mustang land, the picture over at GM just looks worse and worse every day. Just days after announcing that their “saving grace” RWD/AWD Zeta platform had been eliminated from its North American operations altogether, GM Vice Chairman Bob Lutz announced today that he was leaving open the possibility that the company would have to phase out another one of its brands, the two most likely candidates being Buick and Pontiac. Much as GM did to Oldsmobile a few years ago, the giant carmaker may look to cut its losses if Buick and Pontiac’s new model lineups don’t stave off the hemorrhaging of customers to other brands. So far, Pontiac’s new G6 has been nowhere near the success GM hoped it would be—it’s not even halfway to meeting the outgoing Grand Am’s sales. I’d say Buick is in the worst shape—they don’t even have a target demographic and don’t seem to know who they are. But only time will tell which axe is next to fall at GM.
All I know is, this is a terrible day for GM enthusiasts—to the point where many die-hards have decided not to call themselves that anymore. The message boards at CamaroZ28.com were abuzz with F-body die-hards jumping from the sinking General Motors ship. I’ve read through it, and suffice it to say I’ve never seen GM die-hards talk like this. “Chalk one more up on the board for the people running out of the Camaro room and straight to the Ford dealership,” says one poster. “There will always be fond memories of my ‘94 Camaro, but I’m not gonna feel bad when I start that Cobra up for the first time.” It’s clear that while many of the posters have been holding onto fleeting hopes—for some years now, in fact—that GM would resurrect the departed Camaro, those hopes have been dashed by GM’s recent Zeta announcement—and again by Ford’s smashing success with its Shelby GT-500. “Anyone hear that sucking sound? That’s the majority of the Camaro holdouts exiting the building,” said one CamaroZ28.com poster grimly.
I never really had much real hope of the Camaro returning, but now even the future of the GTO—the only other domestic car I would consider besides the Mustang—is in serious doubt. For a while, I was considering a GTO instead—the new ‘05s were sporting more power and some decent hood scoops—but then I realized I was just fooling myself. I was having to actually try, and try hard, to like the car. When I look at my Trans Am, I realize I would feel like an ass if I replaced it with a GTO. To me, it’s a step backwards—even though the Goat comes with more power and better handling. I just don’t care, if the car feels soulless and doesn’t excite me the way my Trans Am does. You’re only young once—why drive something boring?
But the new Shelby Cobra…oh, it’s a different story. I’m lusting after it like I haven’t lusted after a car since I saw the first spy shots of the 1998 Trans Am in Pontiac Enthusiast magazine in 1997. I know, even now, that this has got to be the next car that graces the floor of my garage. It’s a feeling, more than a logical decision. Cars like this are all about feelings. They’re all about passion and flash, loud noise and excitement. Oh…excitement. That’s right, isn’t that the stuff Pontiac used to build?
Unless they wise up fast, GM will continue to sink. So slowly as to be almost imperceptible, but sink they will. Meanwhile, free of the emotional baggage of holding up GM’s reputation for them, the only thing I have to worry about now is…
Do I want my GT-500 in red with white stripes, or black with gold?
