Muscle CAr - Aftermarket
Looking back at the late 90’s and early 2000’s, you will find a few car cult movies the helped garner attention towards a few past or present models. As the Fast and the Furious franchise catapulted the Supra to stardom, so did Gone in 60 Seconds for the GT500. And it couldn’t hurt that the Mustang was about to receive its best makeover yet, as the new 2005 retro inspired Mustang was on the way. But before that could happen for this model, they needed something more than just the Bullitt model to push it into new avenues. The Mustang needed its Shelby back. The Shelby name has become rather famous with the Mustang over the years and even after moving on to Dodge models, the need for a new Shelby Mustang was there. And as the early 2000’s were all about retro and comebacks, it was just a matter of time before Ford and Shelby would meet again. And meet they did, as the two worked on a few more models before the untimely death of Carroll Shelby in 2012. But even after his death the Shelby name lives on and today it can be seen on this great 2020 Ford Shelby  As the Shelby name lives on through Ford, it seems fitting that an all new GT500 would finally make its way into our showrooms. And made it it has, as the all-new 2020 GT500 is a thoroughbred breed of pony car with the soul of a cobra. But that is not to say that it still retains some of its born free Mustang features. Some of which could have been changed or should not have been added. Moving along the front end, you will find yourself face to face with a menacing cobra logo which takes the place of the standard Mustang logo. This snake adds a bit of evil the front end, giving its competitors something to watch for in their review mirror. Ford has done a wonderful job on the hood exhaust ports, as they can be easily removed for a quick easy access under the hood. If that’s not for you, then the look no further than the standard hood pins. They are a nice feature as these ones have a bit better security to them, but the high use of cheap plastic and poor paint, has made them a poor focal point for the front. As poor goes, the same can be said about the fog lamp covers, as the high gloss finish adds a bit of cheap sheik to the front end of this great ride. The addition of a double tiered front splitter complete with side deflectors, does enhance the look of the front, but the upper splitter could have stopped before reaching the side of the bumper.  Out back everything is what you expect from both Shelby and Ford. Looking up we find ourselves again looking at a menacing snake which is sitting just below the rear deck-lid. Looking further up you find one of the best integrated rear safety lights in the business. And in keeping with safety, Ford made sure that anyone could see this menacing snake when it brakes. They have gone as far as to integrate the band into the upper portion of the roofline, thus adding a sculpted form to the center of the rear window. Moving a bit lower we do find a standard aftermarket wing which could have been better integrated into the rear deck-lid. But hey at least they got one. Although a bit lower we find that Ford has kept the standard Mustang lights, but this time added in a few less features to the light port. Their use of cheap flat black plastic between the tail lights could have been better. The addition of some chrome accents or a louvered affect could have been better that the flat screen they provided us. A bit lower you find a stiff upper lip feature created by the blending of two worlds. This could have been better blended as the rear could have been smoothed out a bit to allow for the bumper to better blend with its surroundings. Of course then you would have to add in some character lines to break up the massive oasis of nothingness. But this could have been easily solved with an oversized wheel well that flows on the rear bumper. Besides that the rest of the back works great and is great to look at.  Along the side we again find ourselves face to face with another snake. And this time its next to our door, so if you’re afraid of snakes you might not want to get near the front wheel. Ford did manage to sculpt a beautiful silhouette and kept all of their body lines flowing beautifully. But they could have added in at least one entry or exit exhaust port. Even a window gill could have made the side profile stand out more from the standard Mustang. So I guess we will just have to contend with the standard character lines which give us the illusion that something is there. Sitting at the bottom of this ride rest the lower splitter and with it again comes the double feature. No were not talking about two movies for the price of one, we are talking about the fact that there are two separate splitters at the rear of the front wheel housing. Guess one wasn’t good enough or someone couldn’t figure out how to add a bit more down force without redesigning the splitter. Ah well I guess it will do, but we will just have to remember not to look that far down. As with most Mustangs, the GT500 does fall into the pony car playground well. It does have its downfalls, but really what car is perfect. All around the new GT500 is a beautifully crafted vehicle which will turn heads for a while, but not as long as you think. Let’s hope that the next model will be as good as the last one, so that the Shelby line can live on a bit longer. Everett J. #AutoLooks, @AutoLooks, AutoLooks.net
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