2020 GT500 runs 10.665 stock

[cjshaker]

...but most buyers will be seasoned drivers with 6 figure incomes to qualify.

There's no shortage of videos of those "seasoned" drivers plowing their brand new Shelbys and GT Mustangs into curbs, vehicles and pedestrians. Age and a fat checkbook does not buy a person common sense.

[Falcon67]

Just how many KIDS do you think can go out to the local Ford dealership and buy a $85,000. Shelby, and afford the insurance to drive it? 

Price and Build says it's $78,000.  And from our Friday Night TnTs, I'd say a lot of kids/young adults apparently have that kind of cash laying around.  We have an Air Force base here and there are a lot of $50K up performance cars running around.  Heck, at one time my daughter was hauling around the grandkids in a Hemi Charger.  We have several GT Mustangs/350 and other Shelby cars that show up and beat hell out of the cars.  We do make them wear a helmet.  You know what diesel trucks cost - I work at a university and there are a ton of "kids" driving 50~60K+ trucks with $2000 in wheel/tire combos on them. 

[Joe-JDC]

I guess being retired for several years has left me in the dust about the ability to afford a new Shelby.  After you add the sales tax, it is still over $80K, and unless I am completely out of touch, someone is spending way over their heads to own or drive those cars if they are enlisted in the military.  My granddaughter is married to a Sgt., and they don't have that kind of money to splurge on a $80K car.  I guess some folks are living paycheck to paycheck, and going in debt on credit cards to live that lifestyle.  Maybe that is the reason so many millennials are still living at home, and not getting married and having children.   Joe-JDC

[TomP]

Perhaps that kid is Steve Torrance's brother? Or he makes a fortune off those YouTube videos like the toy tester kid (Ryan?)

It is impressively fast, another of his videos he weighs it and gets 4080. Which not much different than a 69 Cobra Jet Mach 1 with that 90lb intake manifold, iron everything and four people in it.

[mbrunson427]

I assume the guys with flatheads swapped into 32 Fords were saying the same type of things about CobraJet Mustangs when they came out. There always has to be new iron and it always has to out-do the previous stuff. I'd personally rather build my own 60's Fairlane/Galaxie/Mustang and run 13's than buy a brand new one and run mid 10's, but the new stuff is definitely cool and has it's own place.

[allrightmike]

   About the weight of these cars; I'm told that the modern car has in excess of 500lb. of copper in it. Switching to a 24 volt system could realistically cut that weight in half due to smaller conductors and so forth.

Mike.

[427LX]

Yes they are fast but don't have that ol' muscle car soul !  When they idle with a mild burble and sound like an elephant with a bad cold at full throttle!
Plus...the depreciation on that 80,000 buck car will be same as any other after 5 years.

Keep your paid for old hot rod and by some land out in the country with that 80 grand!

[machoneman]

   About the weight of these cars; I'm told that the modern car has in excess of 500lb. of copper in it. Switching to a 24 volt system could realistically cut that weight in half due to smaller conductors and so forth.

Mike.

I don't doubt that. Yet, I'm still amazed at how heavy our modern passenger cars have become, even the slow ones. Here, we all know the benefits of light weight for speed and e.t. yet these new muscle cars are amazingly fast for their chubbyness.

I do remember in Hot Rod I believe a wild test of how much quicker a car was (a Chevy, of course!) at the dragstrip by shedding parts and pieces until they couldn't take off any more parts. Imagine how much quicker that new Mustang would be if it shed say 700 lbs. or so!

[427LX]

As fast as they are it still doesn't compare to  the times when Joe Average could walk in to any dealer and order up a bare bones Mustang with the 428 CJ or later a '71 Grande coupe with SCJ 429 without owning a bank!

[plovett]

Ford needs to do the aluminum body panel change on the Mustang, like they did on the trucks.

I don't know how much it would save, but it would be significant.   300-400 pounds?

ANY "ponycar" that weighs over 4000 lbs. is not a ponycar in my opinion.

paulie

"Clydesdale Car?"

[Heo]

   About the weight of these cars; I'm told that the modern car has in excess of 500lb. of copper in it. Switching to a 24 volt system could realistically cut that weight in half due to smaller conductors and so forth.

Mike.

I don't doubt that. Yet, I'm still amazed at how heavy our modern passenger cars have become, even the slow ones. Here, we all know the benefits of light weight for speed and e.t. yet these new muscle cars are amazingly fast for their chubbyness.

I do remember in Hot Rod I believe a wild test of how much quicker a car was (a Chevy, of course!) at the dragstrip by shedding parts and pieces until they couldn't take off any more parts. Imagine how much quicker that new Mustang would be if it shed say 700 lbs. or so!

 It was a Cadillac with a 472 or a 500 don't remember how much lighter it become but 13.55 was the final E.T
with 2.70 isch reargear

[aj]

Interesting article about the new Gt500 tranny in latest Hot Rod magazine.  They devoted several pages to the tranny which they emphatically states it is a manual transmission complete with dual clutch set up.  But the shifting of the manual tranny is automated. 

As far as rich kids,  hard to ignore the rich Asian kids that are becoming conspicuous on some college campuses.  My son was attending CSU in Ft Collins. 

My boy, who is a car guy, got great amusement sending me photos of an Asian kids McClaren that was his daily driver and by looking at how it was typically parked in the door ding zone  and covered with filth...he wasn’t much of a car guy.

There was a small group of these Asian students at the school with 80k plus cars.  Another had a new yellow Z06 with a rear wing that just mighta been off an Airbus. 

And I didn’t realize there were $1000.00 tennis shoes until my son sent me a  link (and accompanying photo of course)

[chilly460]

As stated, typical musclecars were in the $3800 range back in the day, which would be $26k in today's money.  Granted, content is MUCH higher in today's vehicles so it's not at all an apples to apples comparison....but you sure aren't buying these cars for $26k anymore.  Last time I was in a Ford dealer, most of the Mustang GTs on the lot were in the low 40s. 

[TomP]

McLaren's aren't $80,000 cars! The typical Vancouver high school has several Chinese students driving $300,000+ McLaren's, Lambos and Ferraris.
The rest either can't afford a car or aren't even interested in getting a drivers license until they are 30.
Yesterday at Costco there was a new Rolls Royce parked there with the window down, nobody in it and pouring rain... a half million sitting there and they still shop the cheap warehouse stores!

But as for the what if you got rid of that 500 lb wiring... that's called the Cobra Jet … high 7's at 180mph.

[CV355]

Just how many KIDS do you think can go out to the local Ford dealership and buy a $85,000. Shelby, and afford the insurance to drive it?  Sure there are a select few parents who will foot the bill, but most buyers will be seasoned drivers with 6 figure incomes to qualify.  A fully loaded Shelby will be expensive with dealer mark-ups and unless we have a downturn in the economy, there will be some price gouging in the real world of daily sales.  Joe-JDC

Youtube front page shows there are plenty of spoiled trust-fund kids getting cars they didn't, and will never, earn.

Kills me when I work hard, save, make smart decisions, and take years to earn something when some Youtuber kid gets it handed to him for his 15th birthday along and loses interest in it in a month.  The other scenario which is far too common is younger people putting themselves in serious debt because the "monthly payment looked affordable."  On another forum, about 10 years ago, I remember reading a story about a member who made $15/hr along with his wife, and they got approved to get an 08/09 GT500 at 20%APR on a 96 month loan.  Ouch. 

Funny story though, when I bought my '14 GT500, it almost slipped through my fingers.  Some 16 year old kid was sitting in the sales office with his mother, about to sign for the car for his 16th birthday.  Apparently the father showed up, made a scene, and cancelled the sale, so I got it... 

When I was 15, my father handed me two newspaper clippings- both private car ads.  One for a 4cyl Mustang and the other for a 305 Camaro.  "I'll go for the V8!" I said.  He crumpled it up, handed me the 2.3l ad, said "you failed the test," and two years worth of after-school work pay were sunk into that rust bucket before I knew what hit me.