Shelby GT500 2020

Scope of this guide

This guide is scoped to the Shelby GT500 (2020 to 2022), the supercharged Ford Mustang of the S550 generation that Ford unveiled at the January 2019 North American International Auto Show for the 2020 model year. It is a front-engine, rear-wheel drive coupe with a supercharged 5.2 litre V8 and a seven-speed dual-clutch automatic gearbox. It is not a guide to the 2007 to 2009 GT500 of the previous generation, and it is not a guide to the Shelby American GT500KR or Code Red conversions, which are separate aftermarket programmes built on top of the Ford car.

We have not driven this model for this article. We are an editorial desk that reads sources, and everything below comes from pages we opened: Wikipedia, The Drive, Gear Patrol, two Autoblog articles, CarExpert, MustangSpecs, more-cars.net, Automotive Addicts and Motor1. We have not owned, inspected or tested a car, and this page is for research, not a buying recommendation.

The figures at a glance

• Engine: 5.2L supercharged V8, 5,163 cc, a cross-plane crank unit with an aluminium block and heads and a 2.65 litre Eaton roots-type supercharger (Wikipedia and MustangSpecs), mounted front-engine.
• Drivetrain: rear-wheel drive with a Tremec seven-speed dual-clutch automatic. The Drive notes that the sister GT350 was manual only, and MustangSpecs says no manual gearbox was offered on the GT500.
• Power: 760 bhp. Ford and nearly every outlet print 760 horsepower, and Wikipedia gives 567 kW. Converting 567 kW at 1.34102 gives about 760.3 bhp, so the metric and imperial figures agree and we use 760 bhp throughout. Wikipedia puts the peak at 7,300 rpm and MustangSpecs at 7,000 rpm.
• Torque: 847 Nm. Ford and the outlets print 625 lb ft, and multiplying by 1.35582 gives about 847.4 Nm. Wikipedia and more-cars.net both print 847 Nm directly, with the peak at 5,000 rpm.
• 0-100 km/h: no figure shown. The only acceleration claims we found are for 0-60 mph, and a 0-60 mph time is not a 0-100 km/h time, so we have not relabelled it.
• Top speed: 290 km/h. The figure is an electronic limit of 180 mph, and 180 multiplied by 1.60934 is about 289.7 km/h.
• Years: 2020 to 2022.
• Production: no figure shown for an exact total. One page gives a rough estimate that we explain below.

History and what changed

Ford announced the power in June 2019. The Drive and Gear Patrol both report 760 horsepower and 625 lb ft, with Gear Patrol noting the figure is SAE-certified and that Ford had not yet given a 0-60 mph or quarter-mile time. Ford called the engine the most power- and torque-dense supercharged production V8 in the world, as The Drive quotes. Gear Patrol points out that the torque is 25 lb ft lower than the Dodge Challenger Hellcat's.

The chassis is the larger story. CarExpert's review says the lightest version, the Carbon Fibre Track Pack car, is about 150 kg heavier than the GT350R. CarExpert also reports that the Magneride dampers smooth out road irregularities, that the supercharger is nearly silent at cruising speeds, and that the reviewer finds the car more practical every day than the GT350.

Across the three model years the pages we read describe these changes:

• 2020: launch year. Wikipedia describes a Carbon Fiber Track Pack that adds 20 inch carbon fibre wheels, aero changes and Michelin Pilot Sport Cup 2 tyres.
• 2021: MustangSpecs says the Carbon Fiber Handling Package became available to order, with the 2021 performance figures virtually identical to 2020.
• 2022: Motor1 says there were no significant changes, with a new Heritage Edition honouring the first GT500 of 1967 and a new Code Orange paint colour. It also says the Carbon Fiber Handling Package was no longer available. Wikipedia says Ford ended GT500 production in 2022, which is why we show 2020 to 2022.

Which figures we chose, and why

Power and torque

These are the easy figures. Every page that prints an output agrees on 760 hp and 625 lb ft, and the converted values match the kilowatt and newton metre figures that Wikipedia and more-cars.net print. US horsepower can be quoted on different bases, but Gear Patrol calls the 760 figure SAE-certified, and we treat it as equal to 760 bhp for this page. The only disagreement is the rev point of the power peak, 7,300 rpm on Wikipedia against 7,000 rpm on MustangSpecs, so we quote neither as settled.

Acceleration

Acceleration is where the sources start to differ, and none of them gives a 0-100 km/h time we can trust.

• Autoblog reports that Ford officially claims 3.3 seconds to 60 mph, in ideal conditions, with a 10.7 second quarter mile. Wikipedia also prints 3.3 seconds for 0-60 mph.
• Before the official claim, Gear Patrol noted that Ford had not yet revealed a 0-60 mph time or quarter-mile figure.
• MustangSpecs prints 3.6 seconds to 60 mph, 6.7 seconds to 100 mph and 11.4 seconds for the quarter mile for the 2021 car, which is slower than Ford's claim and may reflect an independent test, though the page does not say.
• more-cars.net prints 3.5 under a heading of 0-100 time with no unit. It does not say whether that is km/h, mph or something else, so we do not use it.
• Autoblog also reports a YouTuber's drag run of 10.614 seconds for the quarter mile at 133.21 mph, which shows how much conditions, tyres and launch matter.

Because the only clearly stated times are 0-60 mph, there is no figure shown for 0-100 km/h on this page.

Top speed

Autoblog says the car is electronically limited to 180 mph, which Ford called the sweet spot between straight-line speed and cornering. That is 290 km/h, and Wikipedia and more-cars.net both print 290 km/h. MustangSpecs prints 186 mph for the 2021 car. It does not say whether that is a measured speed, and it is not tied to any package, so we treat 180 mph as the official limit.

You might expect the Handling Package to change the top speed, and the question is worth asking. Autoblog explains that the base car carries only the standard spoiler and cannot take extra aero parts, so it should be the quickest in a straight line. With the Handling Package and its Gurney flap, it says rear downforce is about 379 pounds at 180 mph, and with the Carbon Fiber Track Package, which swaps in the rear wing from the Mustang GT4 race car, about 550 pounds. None of the pages we read gives a separate top speed for the cars with and without the Handling Package. They only quote the 180 mph limit, so we do not invent a split.

Production

Wikipedia gives no total for the standard GT500. It lists limits for Shelby American's own upgrade programmes, up to 100 GT500 SE, 60 GT500 KR and 10 Code Red conversions per model year, which are not factory totals. MustangSpecs shows the unit count as to be determined. Automotive Addicts, in an article dated October 2023, says approximately 9,000 units were produced across the generation, with about 1,000 of them carrying the Carbon Fiber Track Package. The article links that figure to a forum thread without reproducing the thread, so we could not verify it, and we treat it as an unconfirmed estimate and not as a production total.

Prices and options

Prices come from the pages we read, and they mix model years, so treat them as a guide to how the car was positioned and not as a valuation.

• CarExpert and MustangSpecs give a starting price of $72,900. Motor1 gives a 2022 price of $74,555 before fees, up $4,255 from 2021, with a $2600 gas guzzler tax on top. That arithmetic makes the 2021 price $70,300, which with the same tax equals $72,900, so we read $72,900 as a price that included the tax.
• Motor1 puts the 2022 total with destination at a minimum of $78,350 and says it was the first base-price increase since the generation launched.
• MustangSpecs lists options for 2021: Handling Package $1,750, Technology Package $3,000, Carbon Fiber Handling Package $10,000, Carbon Fiber Track Package $18,500, Recaro seats $1,650, vinyl stripes $1,000 and painted stripes $10,000. CarExpert gives the Track Package as $18,000 in one place and $18,500 in another, and says the car with the Carbon Fibre Track Pack reaches $93,595.
• The Drive reported that pricing had not yet been released at its time of writing.

We found no auction results or used-market values for a 2020 to 2022 car on pages we could open, so we give none.

Running costs and ownership notes

MustangSpecs lists fuel economy of 12 mpg city, 18 mpg highway and 14 mpg combined, and a 16 gallon tank, while CarExpert, using metric units, notes that its fuel tank of about 60 litres limits long trips. MustangSpecs also lists a 70 to 0 mph braking distance of 142 ft for the 2021 car. CarExpert says the rear stays controlled when it steps out on track, and the reviewer prefers the paddle-shifted dual-clutch to a manual at track speeds. Autoblog, quoting Road and Track, adds that the software engineers sped up the paddle response so that the shift command is sent at the start of the paddle stroke.

What to check before buying

None of the pages we could open gave a specific inspection list, a known fault list or a recall summary for the 2020 to 2022 car, so we are not going to invent one. Based only on what the pages say, a buyer should check the following, and take it as a research prompt and not an inspection scheme.

• Which package the car has. The Handling Package, the Carbon Fiber Handling Package and the Carbon Fiber Track Package differ in price and aero parts, and MustangSpecs lists the Carbon Fiber Handling Package as new for 2021 while Motor1 says it was gone for 2022.
• Which tyres are fitted. Autoblog, quoting Car and Driver, says the Michelin Pilot Sport 4S and Pilot Sport Cup 2 have similar straight-line grip, with the Cup 2 clearly stronger in cornering.
• Recall status by VIN. We did not read a reliable recall list for this generation, so use the maker's own recall lookup for the car in question.
• Whether the car is a factory GT500 or a Shelby American upgrade, since those programmes are separate and carry different power claims.

A specialist inspection is the sensible step for any car like this.

What we could not find

• No exact production total. The roughly 9,000 estimate is unverified, as explained above.
• No 0-100 km/h time, so there is no figure shown for it.
• No separate top speed for cars with and without the Handling Package.
• Car and Driver, Motor Trend and Road and Track were blocked to our reader, and Hagerty, Edmunds, Motor Authority, Ford Authority, Yahoo and CJ Pony Parts refused access. We did not work around any of them.
• No maker press release on a Ford page. Ford's wording reaches us through The Drive and Gear Patrol.
• No recall list, fault list or used values specific to the 2020 to 2022 car.

About the photograph

The page uses the catalogue photograph for this model, and its credit is listed on the credits page.

Verdict

The 2020 to 2022 Shelby GT500 is, on the pages we read, a 760 bhp, 847 Nm supercharged V8 with a dual-clutch gearbox, an electronic limit of 290 km/h and a chassis that CarExpert found more usable than the GT350. Ford claimed 3.3 seconds to 60 mph, and outside tests were slower, which is why we show no figure for 0-100 km/h. The production total is unconfirmed, the options matter a great deal to what you are looking at, and we have not driven the car. Use this page to prepare questions, and have any car you consider inspected by a specialist.