Ford Turns Up the Heat on the Mustang, Confirms New Shelby GT500

Ford Mustang fans won’t have to settle for 526 horsepower for much longer. That’s currently the model’s headiest output, churned out by the 5.2-liter V8 found under the hood of the Shelby GT350.

In 2019, however, a new snake slithers into Dearborn. Rumored endlessly, the Shelby GT500 will return as “the most powerful street-legal production Ford ever,” the automaker claims.

The previous GT500, which disappeared from the lineup after 2014, made 662 horsepower and 631 lb-ft from its supercharged 5.8-liter V8. Since then, Ford fans without the cash for a GT could only console themselves with the GT350, since eclipsed by the 707-horsepower Dodge Challenger Hellcat and 650-hp Chevrolet Camaro ZL1.

Well, expect a potential Hellcat killer when the new Shelby arrives. Ford projects “more than 700 horsepower” from the reborn model’s supercharged V8. Sadly, there’s no confirmation of what engine we’ll find under this beast’s hood, though documents leaked to the internet a couple of weeks ago suggest it’s a modified version of the GT350’s 5.2-liter V8.

An accompanying video shows close-ups of fire-breathing quad tailpipes, an aggressive front air dam and splitter, a black-surfaced wheel hiding a massive red brake caliper, and a sky-high rear wing. Sadly, the camera’s focus goes soft once the car peels away from the shooter.

Basides this, there’s precious few official words about the model. The automaker claims the “new Mustang is engineered to stand apart on roadways and race tracks, thanks to its new innovative track technologies, performance hardware, plus aggressive and functional track-tuned styling.” As for when we’ll see this model, Ford just says it’s “arriving in 2019.”

Hopefully it’s an early-in-the-year launch.

(Note: a previous version of this story identified the Shelby GT350’s 5.2-liter V8 as supercharged, when it is in fact not. The copy has since been updated to reflect this.)

[Images: Ford Motor Company/YouTube]