Sitting in the 2016 Ford Shelby Mustang is humbling. Squeezed into the chairs as you are, subdued by the growling engine as you are and, yet, it’s still just a Pony.
A really awesome Pony…
Our first tour was the quickest, shortest route much of which was spent in morning traffic. The rumble of the Shelby was not pleased with traffic.
Powering this beast through the stop-and-go crawl is a 5.2 liter TI-VCT V8 engine creating 526 horsepower connected to one of the best manual gearboxes I’ve had the pleasure to shift.
However, I was chastised for doing so “too early”. See, this engine is a RPM king. You can run that thing up well past 6,000 rpm and it just keeps going. All the way up to a redline of 8,200 rpm.
And while we got few chances to unleash the beast, we did utilize those rpms in full at least once. (Otherwise, we got a true taste of the capability by doing a ride along with the Ford guy. And Holy Cow, that man can drive…)
The inside looks like a fighter cockpit with switches for everything, even the ignition. No push button start, nope, it’s a switch… And we like that.
Metal accent bits were great contrast to the Alcantara covered steering wheel and the extra pomp “Shelby” interior package. We could wax poetic about the interior refinements, but instead, we’ll just say that they enhance the feel of the engine.
Sure, you could use the radio in your Shelby, but then you’d cut off that wonderful symphony. Ignore the calls and texts and just enjoy the Shelby whilst driving it.
That’s what this thing was made for: eating up the road, going the distance, putting on mile… And that’s why we liked it so much.
