Super snake: 2020 Ford Mustang Shelby GT500 puts out 760 horsepower
Ford says it's the most power-dense supercharged production V8 in the world.
It's about damn time. After making its debut in Detroit in January, Ford decided to keep just about every major detail of its Mustang Shelby GT500 a secret. Now, half a freakin' year later, the automaker has finally seen fit to tell us how much horsepower it makes. That's one way to keep the hype train on the tracks, I guess.
Ford on Wednesday finally announced the GT500's output. Its 5.2-liter supercharged V8 puts out an impressive 760 horsepower and 625 pound-feet of torque. Not only is it the most powerful street-legal Ford ever built, the automaker says this engine is also the most power- and torque-dense supercharged production V8. Yowza. We've already heard it, so now we know there's plenty of bite to match the bark.
Of course, that much power means the V8 will be generating a heck of a lot of heat, but Ford already planned for that. Earlier this year, we learned that Ford leaned on the help of supercomputers to map airflow around the vehicle and find the optimal amount of cooling for each component. If you made the radiator or intercooler too big, it might starve the transmission cooler or the airflow over the engine itself, so Ford crunched a bunch of numbers to make the airflow as efficient at removing heat as possible.
When the GT500 debuted, Ford told us It would be capable of a 0-to-60-mph run in the mid-3-second range, with quarter-mile times under 11 seconds, and that definitely seems doable in the GT500 now that we know the engine specs. Mated to a mandatory dual-clutch transmission (sorry, stick fans), this car is about one thing and one thing only: dominating the track.
The first examples of the GT500 won't make their way to their lucky owners until the fall, and we're unsure of the cost still, but we already know people are willing to pay big bucks for 'em. In late January, Ford auctioned off GT500 VIN 001, and it crossed the block with a high bid of $1.1 million, all of which went to the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation.
