What’s the best sound you heard today? Was it the birds chirping outside your window, or perhaps your favorite song? Was it bacon sizzling in a pan? For us, the clear-cut winner is the ferocious roar of the Shelby GT350R Mustang.
You can hear the GT350R’s fantastic exhaust tone in a new video by Ford Performance, which shows the muscle car galloping around its home turf: the track.
The film gives us some nice glimpses of the car on the move (check out the exhaust pipes at 0:17!), but the biggest takeaway is the sound of the flat-plane crank V8 at 8,250 rpm.
The Mustang’s lightweight 5.2-liter produces an impressive 526 horsepower and 429 pound-feet of torque the natural way, as no turbos or superchargers were required. With 102 hp per liter, the V8 sits atop many lists. Namely, it’s the most ‘power-dense’ engine Ford has made, it’s the strongest naturally aspirated powerplant in the company’s history, and it’s the highest-revving production V8 to ever come out of Dearborn.
“The Shelby GT350 program began with a clear objective — create the most balanced, nimble, and exhilarating production Mustang yet,” said Jamal Hameedi, Ford Performance chief engineer. “Every change we made to this car was driven by the functional requirements of a powerful, responsive powerplant. The high-revving, naturally aspirated 5.2-liter flat-plane V8 delivers on every target we set — high horsepower, broad torque curve, aggressive throttle response and light weight.”
The engine isn’t just stout though; it’s advanced. The unique flat-plane crank design is typically found in high-end European sports cars, and the torque curve has been tuned to deliver 90 percent of power from 3,450 rpm to 7,000 rpm. It also features an aluminum-cased six-speed manual, which was specifically developed to go with this car.
The Shelby GT350R Mustang growls its way into showrooms this fall.
