When Ford told the world that the 2013 Shelby GT500 would make 650 horsepower, shock waves were felt throughout the automotive world. Ford has just laid the smack down on GM, in one fell swoop diminishing the appeal of the upcoming Camaro ZL1 while making more power than the twice-as-expensive Corvette ZR-1.
Some LSx fans were hoping that Ford was just bragging and boasting, that the Shelby was overrated. As it turns out though the opposite is true, as a post on the Team Shelby website declares that the 2013 Shelby GT500 is officially rated at…wait for it…662 horsepower and 630 lb/ft of torque.
Can you say schwing? That’s 12 horsepower, and a whopping 30 more ft-lbs of torque than Ford had initially claimed. For a starting price of around $55,000, around half that of the Corvette ZR-1, the 2013 Shelby GT500 offers 24 more horsepower. Against the similarly-priced Camaro ZL1, the Shelby has a 112 horsepower advantage.
How can GM even hope to compete with those kinds of numbers? While some may mourn the departure of the retro styling that has dominated the last decade of the Mustang, Ford is certainly sending its top-of-the-line Shelby off with a bang.