car auto blaas

If anyone knows more about this, or has read the spring 2011 Shelby American, please drop me an email and add anything you can to this story

Thanks to Chad Lawhorn the story writer from the Lawrence Journal for sending me the link to the original article!

found on http://www.paxtonauto.com/article.php?id=3

Click on the image for the full size to read the writing, but basically it's a publicity-press release shot in the event that the GT 350 S were put into production, like the GT 350 H (Hertz rent a racer program)

http://magneticbrain.blogspot.com

Shelby American, a wholly owned subsidiary of Carroll Shelby International Inc. (CSBI:PK) has released the official performance specs of the supercharged and normally aspirated post title packages for the Shelby GT350, as well as a new higher horsepower option for the 5.0 liter powered car. With up to 624 horsepower on tap via an optional “R” tune, the 2011 Shelby GT350 is one of the most powerful limited production cars in the world.



“Our goal was to build the ultimate small block muscle car,” said John Luft, president of Shelby American. “The results show that the Shelby GT350 takes American performance to an entirely new level. In recent tests, the standard supercharged car hit 60 miles per hour in just 3.7 seconds and ran the quarter in 12 seconds flat at 121.4 mph, all while generating 1.05g of lateral acceleration and stopping from 60 mph in only 107 feet. We believe the ‘R’ tuned GT350 will be even faster.”



The normally aspirated GT350 is available in standard Ford Mustang GT trim for SCCA racing or 430 in the optional tune. The standard supercharged version is rated at 525 horsepower while the “R” tune option delivers 624 horsepower. All versions include Shelby performance suspension, brake, tire/wheel, and interior and exterior styling enhancements that make the GT350 as fast on the curves as it is in the straightaways.



In addition to the optional “R” tune for the supercharger, Shelby American will offer a solid blue painted hood stripes as well as finished rear bumper stripes. A Watts link rear suspension, upgraded stereo, track-oriented brakes and other options are also available on the Shelby.



Standard GT350 package components include:

• Shelby/Ford Racing/Whipple black finish supercharger (supercharged version only)

• Shelby/Ford Racing suspension

• Shelby Caster camber plate kit

• Shelby/Baer 6 piston front brake kit with exclusive nickel anodized finish

• Shelby/Baer ERADISPEED rear rotor and brake pad upgrade

• Front and rear brake duct and cooling kit

• Shelby/Borla unique center exit exhaust

• Shelby/Cragar 19″ alloy wheels shod with Goodyear performance tires

• Front fascia including traditional “running pony” badge

• Rear fascia including exclusive GT350 45th anniversary badge

• Unique tail light trim

• Rear deck lid filler panel

• Side Rockers with functional integrated brake cooling ducts

• Exclusive GT350 Guardsman Blue vinyl over-the-top and side stripes

• “Powered by Ford” fender mounted badges

• Serialized engine plate

• Shelby Engine cap set

• Serialized Dash plate with Shelby GT350 sequential serial number

• A-Pillar mounted gauge package

• Embroidered Carroll Shelby Signature front seat headrests

• Exclusive GT350 45th anniversary embroidered front floor mats

• Shelby GT350 45th Anniversary windbreaker jacket

• Carroll Shelby signed passenger airbag cover (subject to availability)



Optional equipment:

• Polished supercharger

• Shelby/Baer 6 piston rear brake upgrade

• Watts link rear suspension

• Goodyear street race tire package

• Painted over the top and side stripe kit

• Shelby/Kicker premium sound system

• Leather seating surfaces with contrasting stitching and red/white/blue insert on front seats

• Tone on tone embroidered GT350 on seat backs

• Console cover and shift boot

According to an article in Cruisin' Style magazine,

there are 6 known original owner 289 Shelby AC Cobras

We've just gotten off the horn with Ford's SVT performance division, and we've learned that the Blue Oval's hot-rod arm is going to limit production of the 2011 Shelby GT500 to 5,500 units for this model year. According to Ford spokesman Henry Platts, the move is not the result of slow sales, but rather a desire to maintain exclusivity. In fact, sales of Ford's king of the Mustang range have "exceeded expectations," with in excess of 3,300 orders already placed.

The 550-horsepower GT500 has not only been performing surprisingly well in a down economy, it's been going out the door loaded-to-the sills with options. According to Platts, there have been three times as many GT500 coupes ordered with the $1995 glass roof option as compared to the regular Mustang. In the "News That Makes Us Happy" category comes word that a full 68 percent have been spec'd out with the $3,495 performance package (includes 19- and 20-inch painted forged alloys, 3.73 limited-slip, tuned suspension, Gurney flap rear spoiler, etc.), and additionally, 70 percent of all GT500s have been ordered with the $2,340 electronics package (navi, dual-zone HVAC and Sirius/HD radio). With the GT500 starting at an out-the-door price of $49,495 before options, we're guessing that the GT500 is more than carrying its weight for Dearborn's bottom line.

While Ford is limiting total output of the GT500 to 5,500 units for 2011, Platts says the automaker has no plans to dictate how that shakes out in the coupe/convertible bodystyle mix. That said, if you've been fence-sitting on whether to pick up a GT500 of your very own this year, might we suggest that you make up your mind... quickly.


[Source: Ford]

Like the 2011 Mustang GT at last month's Detroit Auto Show, the 2011 Shelby was unveiled here at the Chicago Auto Show with little fanfare. In fact, there wasn't an unveiling at all, as the new Shelby was sitting uncovered on the show floor as soon as we arrived. The car looks fantastic in person, especially with the optional Performance Package and its 19-inch forged aluminum wheels, and the thinner stripes look better than we expected.

The best part about the 2011 GT500, however, is underneath the hood. Ford has finally thrown out the heavy iron block in favor of an aluminum unit that contributed to a significant weight savings of 120 pounds. The GT500 still isn't a lightweight at 3,820 pounds, but we fully expect the handling to be improved over the 2010 model with all that weight removed from the nose.

Ever since Ford introduced the modern Shelby GT500 four years ago, almost no one has complained about the prodigious power levels produced by its supercharged 5.4-liter V8. With as much as 540 horsepower and 510 pound-feet of torque in the 2010 model, there was no shortage of grunt. No, the issue was an excess of mass.

Before the contemporary GT500 was born, Ford had a blown aluminum block 5.4-liter V8 in the short lived GT supercar. However, when the engineers at Ford's Special Vehicle Team developed the GT500, they opted to mount the GT's cylinder heads on the cast iron block used in the big F-Series pickup trucks. After debuting a visual refresh for the Mustang a year ago, Ford has spent the last two months announcing fresh new powertrains for the base and GT models. That process has now come full circle with SVT rolling out a heart transplant for the Shelby GT500. The 2011 model finally has the aluminum powerplant we all wanted when it debuted, and the effect is absolutely en-lightening.

The SVT engineers actually had a reason for going with the iron block in the first place. Mustangs like the GT500 and its Cobra ancestors often end up being heavily modified for use at drag strips and race tracks, and the SVT crew wanted to make sure the standard block could stand up to the rigors of those significantly higher outputs. They chose not to use an aluminum block until they had a chance to develop one with the same strength as the iron version, and that time has now come.

We recently had a chance to sit down with GT500 chief nameplate engineer Jamal Hameedi in his office at SVT's headquarters to learn more about what's new for 2011. Switching to an aluminum block was a bit more complicated than simply digging out the casting molds that were used for the GT. The engine in that 200+ mph supercar used a dry sump lubrication system and featured iron cylinder liners. The new GT500 engine is derived from the structural design of the older block but retains the wet sump system used in other Mustangs. The real magic is something that most owners will likely never actually see.



Last June we learned about an award that several Ford researchers had received for a cylinder bore coating system they developed called the Plasma Transferred Wire Arc (PTWA) process. The Ford press release at the time framed the award in terms of fuel efficiency and gave no real hint about what was about to come. It now turns out that the first production Ford to use the PTWA process will be the 2011 GT500.

The heart of the PTWA process involves feeding a steel wire into a device that heats it up to 35,000 degrees Fahrenheit and then sprays it onto the aluminum cylinder bores. Ford is not actually the first company to use a process like this. Similar mechanisms have been used to coat the fan blades in jet engines for a number of years. One of the primary differences is that Ford is using PTWA with a conventional steel alloy rather than some super exotic aerospace material. Ford isn't even the first automaker to use this specific coating process. That honor falls to Nissan, which actually licensed the technology from Ford for use on its V6 engine in the GT-R.

Hameedi believes that Ford has an important advantage over Nissan. Anyone that has ever used a teflon-coated pan is familiar with the problem of the non-stick coating peeling off over time. In the past BMW has also had issues with the nickasil coatings prematurely separating on some of its aluminum blocks. Getting any dissimilar materials to adhere to each other is always a problem, so the initial surface has to be specially prepared in order for the coating to have something to hang on to. Nissan licensed Ford's coating technology but used its own surface preparation process. According to Hameedi, Ford's surface preparation works so well that even after engines have gone through a full durability cycle the bores still look like new.



Using the PTWA process allows the block to have a thinner surface coating – only 150 microns deep – that is just as tough as one with cast or pressed-in iron or steel liners. However, using less material results in lower weight. According to Hameedi, the GT500 block is 8.5 pounds lighter than the sleeved GT version. Overall, the complete engine is 102 pounds lighter than the 2010 cast iron engine. The steel coating has also helped Ford reduce the internal friction of the engine, aiding both efficiency and power production.

Hameedi explained that some drag racers complained of power drop off on humid summer days, which was attributed to reduced heat transfer efficiency. SVT addressed this with a larger intercooler that helps the engine deliver more consistent power over its entire operating range as well as under different environmental conditions. Hameedi tells Autoblog that the new aluminum block engine should be able to survive "at least" as much maximum power in modified form as the iron block equivalent. Also aiding breathing is a larger exhaust system with 2.75 inch header pipes like those on the new 5.0-liter in the Mustang GT. Out of the box, the new powerplant delivers 10 more horsepower bringing the tally up to 550 hp with the same peak torque of 510 pound-feet. Eighty percent of that torque is available everywhere between 1,750 rpm and 6,250 rpm.



For 2011, Hameedi tells us "We're at the top of the power heap, we're the fastest accelerating vehicle, so this really wasn't about going any faster in a straight line. This was about improving the weight distribution and handling of the vehicle." The new engine contributed to a 120 pound overall weight reduction with most of that coming off the front axle. Most of the rest of the weight loss came from new lighter weight wheels that are part of the SVT Performance Package. The front wheels that come with the Performance Package remain 19 inches in diameter but are 4.7 pounds lighter. The rears grow to 20 inches but are still 2.8 pounds lighter. Cutting unsprung mass is never a bad thing when it comes to both ride quality and handling. Along with the extra rear grip provided by the larger Performance Package wheels and tires, SVT has added a 3.73:1 rear axle ratio.

Like other 2011 Mustangs, the GT500 gets a new electric power assist steering (EPAS) system that Hameedi describes as "extremely precise." At parking lot speeds, he describes the steering effort as Lincoln-like but it rapidly builds up as you drive more aggressively and it supposedly has excellent on-center feel, something that is often tough to achieve with EPAS. We'll have to wait a few more months to find out just how precise that is since we won't get to drive the car until Spring.

Getting any high-powered car to accelerate, stop or turn is highly dependent on the adhesion between the tire and the road surface, especially when it's wet. SVT has adopted the latest generation Goodyear F1 supercar tires for the 2011 GT500, which Hameedi says are "a major step" beyond the previous version in both wet and dry grip. With the reduced mass on the front axle, SVT has also modified the spring and damper rates on both base and Performance Package models. The latter version gets 20.5-percent stiffer front springs and 9.5-percent tighter rears that also bring the front end 11 millimeters closer to the road and the rear 8 mm lower.



One of the main criticisms of the Mustang convertible ever since the S197 debuted for 2005 (actually ever since pretty much forever) is a lack of structural integrity. Because of that flexibility, the 2010 model GT500 convertible was actually considered more of a cruiser model and was thus tuned more for ride comfort than handling. Thus the old convertible was only available with 18-inch wheels. For 2011, SVT took the lead on developing an upgraded body structure for the convertibles that should help keep the corners of the car from moving relative to each other. The effort was successful enough that the changes are being implemented across the board on all 2011 Mustang convertibles. The 2011 GT500 convertible also gets bumped up to the 19-inch wheels and offers handling that is supposedly much closer to the coupe without degrading the ride comfort.

For those who want the sun to shine but still want the extra stiffness of the coupe, the GT500 is now available with the glass roof that has been available on regular Mustangs for the past two years.



Regardless of the roof type, Hameedi tells us that the GT500 has "a very different driving experience driving an '11 from a '10, they're much more nimble, they feel more alive, the steering is quicker." The straight-line acceleration was improved by about 1/10th of second, but overall drivability and handling are said to be vastly improved. The upgrades are far more apparent on a road course than they are at the drag strip. According to SVT spokesman Patrick Hespen, the 2011 GT500 model is three seconds a lap faster than the 2010 around a certain un-named 2.3-mile-long, northern California racetrack that happens to play host to a big historic racing event every August. Closer to home at Grattan raceway in west Michigan, the 2011 GT500 is also about 2.5-3 seconds a lap faster. Given the relatively modest power increase, those are some big numbers.

The Performance Package also gets some modest visual differentiators including narrower racing stripes down the center of the body along with the new wheel design. Inside the car, the shift knob on the Performance Package model lacks the stripes found on the base model.



While most GT500 drivers are unlikely to be too concerned about fuel efficiency, it is a political and commercial reality that Ford does have to deal with. The EPA rated the 2010 GT500 at 14 mpg city and 22 mpg highway and slapped a $1,000 gas guzzler tax on the hood. The addition of EPAS, reduced mass and reduced friction all helped to improve the 2011 GT500's EPA numbers to 15 and 23 mpg and cleared the GT500 of the dreaded guzzler label.

[Source: Autoblog]