Ford Shelby Mustang GT350 2015 Review

The muscle car isn’t dead yet. On the basis of our drive in the new Ford Shelby Mustang GT350 it’s in rude good health, at least if you’re lucky enough to live in one of the few territories where Ford will be selling it.

The history of tuned Mustangs has featured many failures and few successes. Adding power and speed to a car engineered to provide low-cost thrills has resulted in iterations big on brawn but short on finesse, conspicuously lacking the talent to take on the proper sports-cars they find themselves priced against. The last-gen Shelby GT500 was probably the best example of this genre – a 485kW monster with all the technical sophistication of a barbeque trolley.

The new GT350 gets a far better start, of course, by being based on the new and vastly improved sixth-gen Mustang. Yet it’s far more than set of stripes and a reflashed ECU, rather a comprehensive re-engineering with the star attraction being a new naturally-aspirated powerplant with a zingy appetite for revs.

It’s a V8, of course. Some things are clearly still sacred. Even in a world where Ford puts blown V6s into US pickups, it would be an exceptionally brave decision to do a Shelby ‘Stang with fewer than eight pots.

But the big news is this engine is almost entirely different from the existing 5.0-litre unit that’s fitted to the boggo Mustang GT — despite sharing the same basic block. The 350 has been given what amounts to a full organ transplant in the form of a flat-plane crankshaft which, along with some clever friction reduction, has given 392 kW of peak power at 7500rpm, with the limiter set at a dizzying 8250rpm.

The GT350 has also been given a complete suspension reworking, including aluminium lower links, firmer settings and far more aggressive geometry. The result is a proper performance car, and not one that requires any of the usual “for a Mustang” excuses.

The engine bristles with charisma, firing up with a far harder edged soundtrack which trades the normal US “bubba bubba” idle for a far more aggressive “brabrabrabrabra” that make it sounds like a Can-Am racer warming up in the pits.

Work it hard and it gets better and louder all the way to where the limiter calls time. This is definitely no basement slugger – not the sort of V8 that Billy Bob uses to pull tree stumps in the yard at idle speed.

Revs make it good and it starts to pull hard around the 3500rpm mark. By 6500rpm – where the regular Mustang GT calls time – you have to fight the urge to change up. But you should because the real fury comes at the very top of the rev counter.

In the era where the turbocharged performance car has become ubiquitous it’s a refreshing change. Refreshing like having an ocean poured over your head.

This enthusiasm for revs is the key to the GT350’s appeal. You have to work it hard to get its best but, unlike the current crop of forced-induction rivals, you can apply serious stick without worrying about the sudden arrival of low-down torque creating an unscripted sideways moment. Throttle response is outstanding and, at higher chassis loadings, you can use it to pretty much play tunes with the attitude taken by the back end.

Yes, it will play the smoky hooligan if you want it to, but there’s also a far more subtle finesse to the ease with which you can adjust the cornering line. Don’t laugh, but the strongest dynamic resemblance is probably to the previous generation ‘E92’ BMW M3.

It’s not perfect. The cabin is still lacking in much in the way of premium feel, although the mildly irritating “Ground Speed” legend the boggo Mustang has on its speedometer has been axed.

The steering could benefit from slightly keener gearing. It uses the same electrically assisted rack as the standard Mustang, albeit with unique settings. Revised geometry and a far stiffer front end deliver crisper responses and feedback, but there’s still too much arm twirling in low speed corners.

And although the GT350 has traded the standard GT’s Getrag six-speed manual gearbox for a slightly lighter Tremec unit, the shift action still has a relatively long throw. The gearing is too tall as well, especially given the engine’s limited torque at low speed: sixth pulls just 2000rpm at an indicated 110km/h leaving responses as anaemic as a Romanov prince.

Back to the praise: despite sitting on a far firmer chassis than the regular Mustang the GT350 deals with rough road surfaces far better, with exemplary body control over some of the Michigan’s rougher backroads we drove.

The brakes too are superb; no expensive carbon here, rather vast 395mm vented discs at the front which use an aluminium centre section to reduce mass. Feel through the middle pedal is outstanding, and even the hardest road use didn’t produce a hint of fade.

Switchable dampers are an option on the standard GT350 as part of the $US6500 Track Pack and come as standard on the even-harder-cored GT350R.

We drove this too, although only on road. It costs US$63,495 versus US$49,995 for the stock GT350, and loses its rear seats and pretty much every comfort in the name of weight reduction, while also gaining carbonfibre wheels (made by Geelong Vic based Carbon Revolution) as well as super sticky track grade Pilot Sport Cup tyres.

It’s firmer and even more aggressive, coming across as a real bone-rattler on road; to be honest I’d likely save the difference and stick with the standard car.

Sadly, I can’t. And unless you’re reading this in the USA  – or one of a very select number of other left-hand drive territories – you won’t be able to either.

And that is a crying shame, because this might well be one of the best performance cars that Ford has ever produced.

2015 Ford Mustang GT350 pricing and specification
Price: $US49,995
Engine: 5.2-litre V8
Output: 392kW/ 581Nm
Transmission: Six-speed manual, rear wheel drive.
Fuel: Not tested
CO2: Not tested