Car Guy Magazine Car Guy Magazine Issue 1214 | Page 30

The new GT350 builds on Carroll Shelby’s original idea – transforming a great
every-day car into a dominant road racer
– by taking advantage of a dramatically
improved sixth-generation Mustang to
create a truly special driving experience.
Driving enthusiasts behind the wheel of a
Shelby GT350 can expect to be treated to
the most balanced, nimble and exhilarating production Mustang yet.
Ford engineers took an innovative approach with GT350. Rather than develop
individual systems to perform well independently, every component and shape
is optimized to work in concert; balance is
the key. While paying rigorous attention to
detail, the team pushed the envelope with
cutting-edge materials and technologies.
“When we started working on this car,
we wanted to build the best possible Mustang for the places we most love to drive
– challenging back roads with a variety
of corners and elevation changes – and
the track on weekends,” said Raj Nair, Ford
group vice president, Global Product Development. “Every change we made to this
car was driven by the functional requirements of a powerful, responsive powerplant – nimble, precise handling and massive stopping power.”
Early in development of the GT350, it
was decided a high-revving, naturally aspirated V8 engine would best suit a trackfocused Mustang.
“The final product is essentially an allnew powerplant unique to GT350 – and
one that takes true advantage of the new
chassis dynamics of the Mustang platform,” said Jamal Hameedi, chief engineer,
Ford Global Performance Vehicles.
The new 5.2-liter engine is the first-ever
production V8 from Ford with a flat-plane

28 CarGuyMagazine.com