2011 Ford Shelby GT 500
On February 8th, Ford Motor Company released details on the 2011 Shelby GT500 Mustang. Ford Special Vehicles Team (STV) made several significant changes to the Shelby GT500, showing their determination to improve upon an already impressive car. For starters, the Shelby GT500 gets 10 horsepower increase, upping the number from 540 to 550. This power increase comes from the new all-aluminum engine manufactured for the Shelby GT500. Not only does the new engine boost performance, it also helps the Shelby GT500 shed some weight. 102 pounds are lost by using aluminum instead of cast iron for the engine block. The power increase plus the weight loss signals that STV are trying to get as much improvement in performance as possible.
Ford released a couple of other important numbers in terms of performance: the Shelby GT500 delivers 23 mpg on the highway and 15 mpg in the city. While these numbers are only a 1 mpg improvement over the 2010 Shelby GT500, they give the car a combined mpg that allows it to avoid the gas guzzler tax ($1000 for the 2010 Shelby GT500). Ford clearly considered all of the numbers while building the 2011 Shelby GT500, and make no mistake they improved on some big ones.