Ford Inadvertently Confirms the GT500's 200 MPH Top Speed, Supercharged V8, and Carbon Ceramic Brakes

Two weeks ago, an image of a supercharger embossed with the iconic Shelby snake made its way onto the internet, followed by another claiming to depict the biggest set of rotors ever affixed to a factory Mustang.

The GT500 rumor mill went ballistic.

Now, we have official — albeit inadvertent — acknowledgment from Ford that a new Shelby GT500 is incoming, courtesy of the company’s OEM service portal, which revealed wiring diagrams and a slew of service procedures which incidentally confirm several details about the upcoming Über Mustang.

The engine shown in the wiring diagrams looks identical to the leaked image of the supercharged 5.2-liter V8, right down to coiled cobra living on the blower, and it also gives us a small taste of what to expect from the GT500 when it does eventually emerge from the depths of Dearborn.

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Like the flat-plane Voodoo engine in the GT350, it would appear the blown 5.2-liter will remain port-injected as there doesn’t seem to be a provision for a high-pressure fuel pump to run direct injection, as seen on Ford’s revised-for-2018 Coyote 5.0-liter V8. Rumor has it the GT500’s supercharger will be a new upside-down Roots-style unit that could displace something in the neighborhood of 2.6 liters, if that’s the case, we could see a force-fed 5.2 kicking out north of 750 horsepower.

Around the back, there also looks to be a flexplate in place of a flywheel, indicating the GT500 will likely be the next recipient of the new 10R90 10-speed automatic Ford co-developed with General Motors, which has already been put to high-speed use in the 2017 Camaro ZL1.

Regardless of final output, the GT500 is going to be obscenely fast, how fast, well at least 200 mph fast if the speedometer verification procedure is any indication. Plus there’s going to be a set of gargantuan carbon-ceramic brakes, which we assume will be standard kit based on the car’s ceramic-brake-wear warning system.

Other details confirmed include the use of damper control, likely in the form of Magnetic Ride Control like the GT350, additionally, the GT500’s powertrain selector will allegedly omit Track and Snow/Wet mode in favor of bespoke Drag Strip setting and Launch Control functions.

Basically, Ford’s building a big bruiser of a Hellcat hunter that should also be capable of cornering when it gets to the bendy bits.

The information portal also clued us into a few of the GT500’s more esoterically nerdy details, like the addition of a new Head-Up Display system, which according to a Network Message Chart, will probably be used primarily as a shift light, along with a new oil-temperature gauge. Thanks to a tachometer troubleshooting procedure, we also know the GT500 will idle at 900 revolutions per minute, compared to the GT’s 800 rpm.

Lastly, Ford’s updated VIN decoder indicates the Mustang will continue to only offer three engine choices. Sadly, the addition of the supercharged GT500 to the repertoire will cost us the flat-plane crank and mellifluous mechanical melody made by the GT350’s naturally aspirated 5.2-liter V8.

It’s unclear when Ford is planning to unveil its next-generation Shelby Mustang, but based on the amount of information readily available and Ford’s planned off-site event at company HQ just prior to the 2018 North American International Auto Show in Detroit, we could be see the GT500 unveiled in only a few short weeks.

[Images: Ford Service Portal]