There was a time when American muscle cars could do nothing more than accelerate quickly in a straight-line but would fall apart at the slightest sight of a corner. Today, things have changed – and in some cases, dramatically.
The muscle car of the moment is unquestionably the 2020 Ford Mustang Shelby GT500, which not only sprints down the quarter-mile at frightening speeds but, as this video shows, is also heaps of fun to drive on a racetrack.
This GT500 is owned by YouTuber Speed Phenom and was recently taken to Laguna Seca and driven around the challenging circuit in fury. While there are lots of faster cars on sale at the moment than the GT500, few, if any, have a soundtrack to match the Mustang nor are they as competitively priced.
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Under the hood of the GT500 resides a supercharged 5.2-liter V8 that produces 760 hp and 625 lb-ft (847 Nm) of torque and is mated to a seven-speed dual-clutch transmission that sends its power exclusively through the rear wheels. As the YouTuber discovered while lapping the pony car, it loves nothing more than spinning up the tires in second gear if the driver is a little too aggressive with the throttle.
While there are far more efficient ways to get around a racetrack quickly than having 760 hp in a rear-wheel drive car that weighs over 4,000 lbs, there are few cars that provide the theater of the GT500.