Ford Shelby Mustang GT350R
An extensive, track-focused reworking has created the most extreme Mustang yet
Track modifications
To put it politely, the Ford Mustang GT isn’t the first car you’d choose to develop into a stripped-out, no-compromise track machine. For one thing, it’s a sizeable old bus – it’s 30cm longer than the Porsche 911, a rather more obvious candidate, and some 10cm wider – and for another, it weighs the better part of 1800kg.
There wasn’t a great deal that Ford Performance could do about the Mustang’s size, but to give the Shelby GT350R a fighting chance on track, it ditched the rear seats, the stereo, the navigation system and the air conditioning (although the last three of those can be added back in if you want them). The wheels are exotic carbonfibre items, too, saving 6kg at each corner. The total weight loss over the 5.0 GT is 60kg, which is useful, if not exactly transformative.
The chassis has been overhauled with uprated components and a much more track-focused set-up, and a comprehensive aero package promises much more downforce than the regular car generates. Most unusually, though, the warbling V8 engine that powers the conventional Mustang has been swapped for a high-revving 5.2-litre flat-plane-crank V8. That’s something of a departure for an American muscle car. Flat-plane cranks and highrevving V8s have been the preserve of European sports cars, until now.
The new motor revs beyond 8000rpm, whereas the outgoing cross-plane V8 doesn’t reach far beyond 6500rpm. The power and torque figures hint at a revvy V8 rather than a lazy, torque-rich bruiser, too: 526bhp at 7500rpm and 429lb ft at 4750rpm are not typical Mustang numbers. The soundtrack isn’t typical Mustang, either; the rumbling score replaced by highly strung snarls and barks.
The most extreme Mustang to
The zingy new V8 is right at the heart of the driving experience
date, the GT350R goes to lengths that not even the GT350 model would have considered in the pursuit of race track performance. In fact, Ford says it didn’t even concern itself with trying to make the GT350R work on the public road.
The standard car’s plush leather chairs have been swapped for heavily bolstered Recaros and the steering wheel comes wrapped in Alcantara. The sports seats are actually set an inch or two lower than the standard items, and with the steering column at full extension, the seating position is just about perfect.
If Ford wants the GT350R to be assessed as a track car, there are few better places to do just that than Thruxton. The UK’S fastest race track is a stern test of car and driver, mixing ballsy high-speed sequences with tight and technical sections.
The GT350R is more than up to it. Whereas the Mustang GT feels about as adept on circuit as a canal boat would, the stripped-out model feels right at home. The much more aggressive suspension set-up takes away all of the wallow and floatiness of the standard car, replacing it with agility, control and precision. There are sections of Thruxton that demand so many different things from a car all once. Near the start of the lap, for instance, there is a fast left-hand bend with a sharp crest and a heavy braking zone. Many cars would be completely f lummoxed by that sequence, but the GT350R swallows it up without any trouble whatsoever. The steering is ultrasharp and direct, the big Brembo brakes are excellent and the fat Michelin Pilot Sport Cup 2 tyres generate enormous grip and traction.
In the high-speed sections, such as the intimidatingly fast Church corner, the car is incredibly stable, thanks in part to the aero package. There’s so little body roll or dive under braking that you quickly forget just how big and – let’s be honest – heavy the GT350R is.
Chasing an 8000rpm redline in a Mustang is a novel experience. The zingy V8 is right at the heart of the driving experience and it flings the car along at a mighty rate. It’s also so much more responsive than the GT’S cross-plane V8. It takes only a quick stab of the accelerator to bring the revs up during a downshift, whereas you really have to get into the GT’S throttle pedal to awaken the engine.
Given the GT350R’S decidedly road-biased origins, it’s impressive just how capable it is on circuit. Truth be told, though, it takes only a bucket load of power, a stiff chassis set-up and a set of sticky tyres to make any car quick on track. What’s really difficult – and what the likes of Porsche do so well – is making a car perform on circuit while also working on a bumpy road.
We couldn’t find out how the GT350R copes with the ruts and crests of a typical back road on this occasion – the sheer width of those 305mm front tyres hints that there might be a fair amount of tramlining – but we can say for certain that the GT350R is a deeply talented and entertaining track machine.