The four pillars of Ford's SVT division are Performance, Exclusivity, Substance and Volume. No one is expecting the 2010 Shelby GT500 to have any problem with the last three – it's the first one that means everything. Ford told us the five tenets of the new car all start with the word "better" and end with horsepower, torque, handling, interior and fuel economy. Sent to Northern California for two days to drive it, we had only one question – whether all of those other "betters" truly equated to substantially improved performance than the previous car. The first day covered miles and miles of oceanside and backcountry roads. The second day covered figure-eights, the drag strip and the road course at Sonoma's Infineon Raceway. Follow the jump to see how the latest fanged horse does its thing.

Skipping ahead a bit, we were told that the point of the GT500 is to be a great GT. When SVT began working on the car, they took the previous GT500 as one of their obvious standards. They were also thinking about the muscle car competition that they expected – 2.5 years ago Ford planned on a factory-built 500+ horsepower supercharged Chevrolet Camaro and Dodge Challenger as competition. So Ford went the extra quarter-mile on its car, figuring the others would have the 2010 GT500 as their benchmark.

The polestar of the GT500 is the supercharged and intercooled 5.4-liter V8. This eight-chambered heart with dual overhead cams puts out 540 hp (at 6,200 rpm) and 510 ft-lb (at 4,500 rpm) with a 6,250 rpm redline. That gives it 40 more Shetlands and 30 additional foot-pounds than the previous model, with the additional torque delivery coming in at 3,000 rpm. No delay is always a good thing.

The engine was then tweaked using another benchmark: the 40th anniversary Shelby GT500KR. The GT500 gets the KR's cold-air induction system with an open-air conical filter element and snorkel lying on the right side of the engine bay (that's why the Cobra badge had to move to the left side of the grille). The open-air system increases airflow, and a sealed enclosure keeps the air going where it should. The package also benefits from revised calibration with a dual-knock sensor, revised throttle and an intake resonator to reduce noise.

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First Drive: 2010 Ford Shelby GT500, Part 1 - Living on the (live axle) limit

 

 

Wow the color and interior look great.

 

3/4 front and rear finally look really good. That rear end swoop over the rear wheel really completes the car. The previous models were missing it...

Overall, its a great looking car. Little bit of a drop, and good suspension... that thing could be even more badass.

 

Cant wait to get to drive it, my friend is expecting to pick one up.

 

+1!