Ford Shelby Mustang GT350R: Driven
A UK blast in the mega Mustang, at Thruxton of all places...
Some cars can put you on edge even before you've been given the key. The Shelby Mustang GT350R is certainly one of them. It looks so tough, with its road-scraping front splitter and its gaping grille open wide like a great white's daggered mouth. It's also rare - the only one in the country - and everything about it, from its suspension settings to its semi-slick tyres, has been developed to work on a sun drenched Californian circuit, not a drizzly old English airfield.
The GT350R is as hardcore and as focused as the Mustang has ever been, more so even than the more road-biased GT350 model. Ford Performance set out to build a Cayman GT4-chaser out of a big old muscle car - which is a bit like trying to make a 110-metre hurdler out of my grandmother - and it's gone to town on the Mustang. Naturally, the springs and dampers are completely reworked while the tyres, Michelin Pilot Sport Cup 2s, are just about as extreme as road-legal tyres get. The rears are so wide at 315mm that they almost meet in the middle, while the fronts, 305mm in width, appear as though they'd require the full strength of Hercules to apply any steering angle to.
Those four fat tyres wrap around carbon fibre wheels. They save almost 6kg of unsprung weight at each corner, which is the sort of weight reduction chassis engineers fantasise about while their spouses are away. Sub-£1m cars just don't use carbon fibre wheels. The rear seats have also been junked to save weight and, if you're really serious about setting PBs and purple sectors, you can do away with the air conditioning and sat-nav. Even so, the GT350R still weighs 1,660kg.
Ford Performance has had a good hard look at the car's aero, too, adding a more prominent front splitter and a bigger rear wing to increase downforce. The vent in the bonnet - it's not a hood - the flat underbody panels, the rear diffuser and the vents in the wheel arches are all there to massage and direct the air over and around the car in the most efficient way possible.
What really demonstrates Ford's ambition for this GT350R, though, is the engine. For as long as there have been stars in the night sky American muscle cars have used big, weighty, relatively lazy cross-plane crank V8s that produce all the torque in the world, while nimble little European sports cars have used fizzy flat-plane crank V8s. They're more compact and they rev higher, which means they're ideal for cars that are going to be driven at the limit and flung through corners.
The GT350R ditches its cross-plane V8 for the flat-plane kind, which really blurs the line between muscle car and sports car. It's a 5.2-litre unit that develops 533hp - at 7,500rpm, in a Mustang! - and 429lb ft. A six-speed manual and Torsen LSD send drive to the rear wheels. Ford quotes a 3.9-second 0-60mph time, which is staggeringly fast for a weighty old thing with a manual 'box.
The GT350R doesn't feel much like any other Mustang inside the cabin. The GT's big, plush, squishy leather chairs have been replaced by heavily-bolstered sports seats, which are also set a little lower. The seating position is just about spot on, although from there the car stills feels rather large. On the plus side, it's finally stopped raining.
What you have to remind yourself when driving the GT350R on track is that, underneath, it's still a Mustang, a car that lives for being driven on track as much as my grandmother lives for the UK's illegal rave scene. (Why am I thinking about my grandmother so much? Must call her). Because whereas the Mustang GT is all at sea on circuit, the GT350R feels right at home. There's a section of track right at the start of the Thruxton lap that includes a fast left hander over an unsighted crest into a heavy braking zone. It would trip up anything that didn't have proper control over its mass, but the GT350R feels completely locked down.
The Cup 2 tyres find lots of grip on the still damp surface, while the steering is sharp and direct. Most tellingly, the car feels 300kg lighter and 10 per cent smaller than it really is, which means you can start flinging it around and flicking it between direction changes like a purpose-built sports car. Ford Performance has engineered most of the muscle car out of the GT350R, and I mean that as a huge compliment.
Church corner - the fastest bend in the UK - is such an unsettling piece of track that at times I wish they'd put a chicane in it. But the Mustang is really composed and settled in there, even well into triple figure speeds. I'm always a bit cynical about the claims manufacturers make about downforce figures on road cars, but in this case, I have to believe the aero devices are doing something.
Against all the odds, the GT350R is a load of fun to drive on circuit. But you know what? If you bolted on a set of sticky tyres and rock solid suspension, then dropped in a 500bhp engine, you could make just about anything this side of an intercity train good to drive on circuit. The difficult thing is making a car that's competent on a smooth, flat track, and also on a bumpy, uneven road.
I haven't tried the GT350R away from Thruxton so I'm not casting any aspersions about how it drives on the road. But it works well out on the public highway will be the difference between the GT350R being a likeable sideshow, and a truly great performance car.
FORD SHELBY MUSTANG GT350R
Engine: 5,163cc, V8
Transmission: 6-speed manual, rear-wheel drive
Power (hp): 533@7,500rpm
Torque (lb ft): 429@4,750rpm
0-60mph: 3.9sec
Top speed: 177mph
Weight: 1,660kg
MPG: 16 (yee-haw, etc.)
CO2: You're joking?
Price: $65,000
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uk launch this year?
Let's just hope Ford market them at a reasonable price - in the States they change hands for ridiculous money.As a footnote, I think there are at least 2 350R's in the UK at the moment, both privately imported.
This fixes things aesthetically for me - I think its looks great and not too ott - If Ford bring them to the UK we better snap them up while we can - There cant be much more than 10-15 years left for cars like this until they are pretty much gone forever.
they won't be coming to the UK I'm currently saving the funds to import one, my uncle has a 2016 one which is just amazing the engine note is off the chain I think it's the only car where I wouldn't even think of playing with the exhaust, take it through a tunnel & the grin is ridiculous they are selling for well over list in the states as Ford are limiting supply.I haven't even got to the best part which is the Voodoo (official name) V8 which is special:
Have a listen:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vtdtGgf1BF0
https://youtu.be/MMNifBdm_o4
Watch how it does against it's peers:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R4f4q52J9qY
A 996 turbo is lighter, quicker, cheaper and will take 4 people (small ones in the back)!
BMW: Crap sounding turbo motors with suspension so stiff they lack traction, though finally the new M4 CS seems to solve the suspension issue, still sounds poo.
Merc: Where did the 6.3l go!
Audi: Dull and more dull, would have to be a used R8 V10 which are superb.
Ford really should bring this car, it has zero competition and they'd sell them all if they bring them. But rumours are its too loud to pass many EU/UK regulations and they simply can still sell everything they product to the American market.
Which is such a shame!
But in saying this, I cannot complain too much, I've got my Mustang GT to a point where it probably offers me 99% of what a regular GT 350 (none-R) would do, as its making 516HP and has same 8000rpm redline and much improved responsivness. KW Clubsports and a load of other suspension tweaks and unsprung mass I saved 8kg per corner by changing the wheels and brakes out, which is more than Ford saved with carbon wheels and the car weighs in at 1640kg.
Still after all this and how lovely mine drives on the road and track, I'd be driving down to Ford right now to place my order for a GT 350 or GT 350 R if they made them available in RHD. I'd probably take the regular 350 as I actually prefer the smaller splitter and smaller wing, plus I'd want the technology and infotainment systems as my Mustang is a daily.
Here is a picture of how mine sits now, they are great cars, just wish Ford would give the UK and other markets more options and more models like the USA gets!
Not done the strip thing or huge spoilers on mine, its aggressive but low key, still gets people taking photos and asking questions nearly on a daily basis though which considering there is thousands now in the UK is still pretty cool.
A 996 turbo is lighter, quicker, cheaper and will take 4 people (small ones in the back)!
Cars have gotten bigger and heavier, even a regular 911 is now around 1500kg, a turbo is over 1600kg. A BMW M4 is around 1650kg, a GTR is around 1700kg. Cars have got heavier, the Mustang is no heavier than any other modern GT car in its class.
A 996 turbo is lighter, quicker, cheaper and will take 4 people (small ones in the back)!
1 - A 996 Turbo is 15 years old
2 - A 996 Turbo is very second hand
3 - A 996 Turbo is 4WD
4 - A tidy 996 Turbo is now about £70k
5 - A Mustang also takes 4 people
6 - A Mustang is a completely different type of car to a 996 Turbo. I'd be surprised if the same kind of person was choosing between one or the other
A 996 turbo is lighter, quicker, cheaper and will take 4 people (small ones in the back)!
This fixes things aesthetically for me - I think its looks great and not too ott - If Ford bring them to the UK we better snap them up while we can - There cant be much more than 10-15 years left for cars like this until they are pretty much gone forever.
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