Is the Ford Mustang Shelby GT500KR a Death Car?
One evening, whilst dining at a Turkish restaurant in Mayfair, I watched my server nearly trip over another waiter’s leg. (The staff member whose appendage had caused the offense was kneeling by the desert cart.) The burly fellow who’d almost lost his balance looked at his compatriot with dagger-filled eyes. Waiter number two stared straight back. “Yes. I am trying to kill you,” he said with deadpan earnestness. Reading Scott Burgess’ review of the Shelby GT500KR, it seems pretty clear that the 540hp ‘Stang is equally intent on eliminating its driver. Which is to say not intentionally, but what difference does that make? “The 2008 Ford Shelby GT500 King of the Road scares me,” Burgess admits from the git-go. “The first ‘incident’ occurred along Gibraltar Road when I started to pass a minivan poking its way up the same straightaway. With no oncoming traffic and the lane open, I dropped the six-speed manual into third and kicked out to the left. The moment I mashed the pedal to the floor and listened to that supercharged whirl come from under the hood, the SVT light on the speedometer lit up and the back end of the KR jumped to the left and shuddered — full power, full torque ripping through the rear axle. ‘Oh, sassafras’ — that’s paraphrased — blurted out of my mouth.” Incident number two after the jump.
“Anyone who likes to go fast knows that one of the best places to test a vehicle is on an entrance ramp. There’s a feeling that there’s a free pass for perhaps going over the speed limit. So, we floor it.
“On one around Detroit, I took the KR and drilled it as I came around a 90 degree corner, expecting to power slide through the turn. Hey, it happens in these cars. Much to my surprise, the KR stuck to the road and I shot out of the corner like a stone from David’s sling.
“Fortunately, there was no one immediately in front of me, as I would have put a Le Mans stripe into their trunk.”
I’ve already called previous super-‘Stangs death cars. I will wait for a drive before issuing my final pronouncement on this one (fancy that). Meanwhile, what’s the opposite of reductio ad absurdum?
More by Robert Farago
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RF, Good point, but while most car regs have made sense (though not nearly as much as they could have), much of the rest hasn't. The bottom line is that people put waaaaay to much faith in the idea that there will not be negative consequences to their own foolishness. While I am not for selling unsafe cars, selling a specialty car that does what I think a car like this is going to likely do when stomped on should be celebrated as a last vestige of freedom and personal responsibility. It is what it is. Respect it or get hurt. You know, like a chainsaw. They still sell those.