The New Shelby GT350


GT35065

GT Owner
Mark II Lifetime
Wow, ask for white with blue stripes and there it is. Might as well dish out free crack to an addict. While I'm not a huge fan of the slots or vents in the front fenders, I would buy one of these in a heart beat. R model would be so cool but probably unobtainable to the common man.
 

Sinovac

GT Owner
Mark II Lifetime
Jul 18, 2006
5,832
Largo, Florida
Where are you guys seeing info about an R model?

Those who know (i.e. DBK and Cobrar) can't/won't say. Since I don't know anything, I'm free to speculate. The GT350 just revealed has 10.5"/11" wheels. The leaked parts info indicates 11"/11.5" wheels will be available on a Mustang variant. Hmmm. What could that car be?

image.jpg
 
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Sinovac

GT Owner
Mark II Lifetime
Jul 18, 2006
5,832
Largo, Florida
R model would be so cool but probably unobtainable to the common man.

It's a good thing you are uncommonly manly.
 

DakotaGT

GT Owner
Mark II Lifetime
Dec 9, 2012
1,694
Sioux Falls, South Dakota
Boy, if I ever need a good lawyer, I sure know who I am going to call.

8200 redline? I wonder if I can get back my Hellcat deposit.... (yes, Gary, I did end up ordering one, lol!)
 
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Sinovac

GT Owner
Mark II Lifetime
Jul 18, 2006
5,832
Largo, Florida
8200 redline? I wonder if I can be back my Hellcat deposit.... (yes, Gary, I did end up ordering one, lol!)

That wasn't a hard one to predict Clint. lol

Keep the Hellcat and get the GT350 too. Apples to oranges. A GT350(R) is in my future for sure.
 

DakotaGT

GT Owner
Mark II Lifetime
Dec 9, 2012
1,694
Sioux Falls, South Dakota
That wasn't a hard one to predict Clint. lol

Keep the Hellcat and get the GT350 too. Apples to oranges. A GT350(R) is in my future for sure.

Given your level of interest in this car, I am not surprised either, Paul! Should be incredible. Anxious to hear more about these beasts.
 

Sinovac

GT Owner
Mark II Lifetime
Jul 18, 2006
5,832
Largo, Florida
Given your level of interest in this car, I am not surprised either, Paul!

Not my fault, really. Ever since my wife (then high school girlfriend) took me for a ride in her '86 Mustang GT, I was hooked. It's not often a man can blame his wife for his car addiction.
 

DakotaGT

GT Owner
Mark II Lifetime
Dec 9, 2012
1,694
Sioux Falls, South Dakota
That's a pretty cool and unique introduction to mustangs. My wife and I have been together since high school, too. Her car- a Geo metro.
 

2112

Blue/white 06'
Mark II Lifetime
Those who know (i.e. DBK and Cobrar) can't/won't say. Since I don't know anything, I'm free to speculate. The GT350 just revealed has 10.5"/11" wheels. The leaked parts info indicates 11"/11.5" wheels will be available on a Mustang variant. Hmmm. What could that car be?

How about upgrade wheels for this car for those who always want more rubber underneath? :cool
 

2112

Blue/white 06'
Mark II Lifetime
I wasn't very enthused with the base model but this car is pretty damn hot.
 

Sinovac

GT Owner
Mark II Lifetime
Jul 18, 2006
5,832
Largo, Florida
How about upgrade wheels for this car for those who always want more rubber underneath? :cool

Very true, but if they were merely upgrade wheels, they would be offered solely through Ford Racing. 11" front wheels are ginormous. Only a focused track car would need a wheel like that. I'm guessing 305 front and 315 rear tires. Also, we've seen mules with carbon ceramic brakes. There's been no mention of the availability of these on the just released GT350, so I would think these brakes point to an R.

It's also worth noting that the chances of Ford using the new S550 chassis solely as a Mustang are likely zero. Lincoln has no RWD cars and DESPERATELY needs one. 2+2=some hot new Lincoln.
 
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Cobrar

GT Owner
Mark II Lifetime
Jun 24, 2006
4,017
Metro Detroit
Paul, word has it that Ford was getting concerned that you were never going to warm up to the GT350 - possibly forcing their hand early in the game, introducing the Sinovac Special Edition. ;-))
 
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dbk

The Favor Factory™
Staff member
Le Mans 2010 Supporter
Jul 30, 2005
15,187
Metro Detroit
851d5fb65a85fd2dc7e29869492cc46a.jpg


:lol
 

Cobrar

GT Owner
Mark II Lifetime
Jun 24, 2006
4,017
Metro Detroit

Dave, Sinovac just wants bigger tires and wheels - or - I think that is what he said a few posts ago. :lol
 

Indy GT

Yea, I got one...too
Mark IV Lifetime
Jan 14, 2006
2,526
Greenwood, IN
Video of the presentation at Shelby

Thanks for posting the presentation twobjshelbys! It was good.

Glad to hear Jim Farley say the car will be equiped with a Tremic 6 sp. Thats good news. Perhaps the 400+ ftlbs torque was a bit much for the MT82 we have in our Bosses.

But sorry Joe Henrichs did not include our Ford GT as part of Ford's DNA (??) in his slide even though he indicates he owns a GT...:confused
 

mmlcobra

GT Owner
May 25, 2013
1,215
It's NICE!
 

2112

Blue/white 06'
Mark II Lifetime
Lincoln has no RWD cars and DESPERATELY needs one. 2+2=some hot new Lincoln.

Agreed, but with 2 doors MAX!
 

twobjshelbys

GT Owner
Jul 26, 2010
6,053
Las Vegas, NV
Hasn't the ford racing parts purpose built car (Cobra Jet/FR500, whatever the most recent one is) been retired? I'd wager that the "R" GT350 will return as a non-street legal car from the parts department.
 

Sinovac

GT Owner
Mark II Lifetime
Jul 18, 2006
5,832
Largo, Florida
I think you guys are just making fun of me now.

Useless factoid: my son's former girlfriend lives in Billy Mays' former home (where many of his commercials were filmed), which is about a mile or so from my house. The house came with a millenium's worth of Oxiclean when her parents bought it from him.
 

dbk

The Favor Factory™
Staff member
Le Mans 2010 Supporter
Jul 30, 2005
15,187
Metro Detroit
Q & A Transcript:

PRODUCTION:

Q: Do you expect it to be a limited production?
A: It will be about the same as a GT500.

Q: Will there be as many built as customers want?
A: …Up to a point.


WEIGHT:

Q: Is the GT350 lighter than the base GT?
A: Yea, we’re not really talking curb weight today, but there was a lot of light-weighting. Much of it went to offset all the mass that we added in terms of power, brakes, etc., but we also went beyond that too.

Q: So you’re optimistic that…
A: Yea, I’m not going to tell you. [laughs]


ENGINE:

Q: Is it dry sump?
A: It’s not dry sump.

Q: Is it direct injection?
A: No.

Q: Where do you get the extra 0.2 liter displacement
A: It’s all bore. It’s got plasma sprayed bore lining. Same lining coating as the 2013 GT500.

Q: Better breathing with flat planes?
A: It’s the rotational inertia that it reduces and also from an exhaust standpoint because you’re going side to side, you’re never disturbing the next cylinder’s firing.

Q: And mass reduction on the crank right?
A: Right.

Q: Where is the crank made?
A. It’s mostly in-house.

Q: You guys forge the crank and machine it yourselves?
A: Yea, there’s bits that are forged…

Q: This is a pretty big motor for a flat plane crank (big displacement). What have you done in terms of crankshaft damping?
A: There’s almost 30 things we did (outside the block) to compensate for it. It’s going to be a whole other story on how we did that.

Q: Challenges with emissions compliance with a flat plane crank?
A: It was harder than usual.

Q: Tell us about the variable loading exhaust valve?
A: It’s got an electric valve. So the valve, depending on what driver mode you’re in, the valve will either be open all the time (track mode) or it will open under certain conditions.

Q: Is it dependent on RPM or back pressure?
A: It’s electronically controlled so there’s algorithms in there that turn valve on in the right point in time.

Q: How much were you able to share with the 5.0L?
A: There are little common parts (i.e. things in the valve train), but it’s pretty much an all-new engine: new heads, new casting, new intake, new crank, new pistons, new rods, new halfshafts.

Q: There were rumors this engine was nicknamed Voodoo, is that the name it’s going by?
A: That was its nickname, yes.

Q: Any chance of seeing this engine in anything else?
A: Right now it’s just in this car. Which we’ve always done, just like the Trinity engine in the GT500. The GT500 was the only place you got the 5.8L.

Q: So it’s exclusive for now at least?
A: Yea.

Q: Is factory top speed software-limited?
A: No, it is drag-limited.

Q: How high does it go?
A: We’re not talking numbers today.


BENCHMARKS:

Q: What were your benchmarks for this car?
A: We had four cars that we bought. One was a 911 Carrera S — that was our main one. But we also bought a Ferrari California and that was mostly for NVH benchmarking. That’s the only flat plane crank front-engine car really out there. And then we bought a C7 corvette and also a Z28.

Q: Relative lap times compared to a Boss 302 around a race track?
A: Not really comparable. Way faster.. an order of magnitude faster.


SUSPENSION:

Q: What is the percentage of stiffness difference on the bushing between the GT350 and the standard GT?
A: Not that much. The bushings are different. The rate, the springs, the swaybars are different.

Q: Is the bushing changes primarily a handling thing or is it for NVH?
A: All for responsiveness and handling.


TRANSMISSION:

Q: Tell us a little about the transmission.
A: It’s a Tremec 3160 transmission that’s been modified fairly significantly to cope with the demands of the flat plane crank engine.

Q: What about the fly wheel and the clutch?
A: It’s got a low inertial dual mass flywheel and two 15-mm dual disc clutch.


WHEELS/BRAKES:

Q: Why black wheels?
A: Actually there’s a reason for that. The brake pads we use, they create so much dust and customers just hate it. You drive the car once with clean wheels and they are dirty after a short drive. So that’s why we got dark wheels.

Q: Why no carbon ceramic brakes?
A: I think you’ll find out later that affordability was a big part of this car.

Q: So keeping price down was a big part of that?
A: Yes. That was a priority with this car.


MISC:

Q: Is it meant to be a Boss 302 replacement or a GT500 replacement? Where is it positioned in the lineup?
A: It is its own beast. Just because the whole flat plane crank is so different than anything we’ve done and anything that’s out there.

Q: In terms of the body panels, how much does it share with the GT and how much of it is new?
A: From the A-pillar forward it’s all new. The whole rear diffuser is new. Rear quarter panels are the same.

Q: Will this be a platform for the GT500?
A: The car has got really good bones so…

Q: How much fun was it working on this?
A: It was awesome. I don’t want to stop.