When the 2016 Shelby GT350 came out, it was the most advanced Mustang Ford had ever put out. With its magnetic dampers and flat plane crank 5.2-liter high revving V8, it was an elite track performer. The 2019 version of the Shelby GT350 is now the king, that is of course until the 2020 Shelby GT500 comes out.
Ford decided to not completely makeover the 2019 version of the Shelby Gt350 and went with getting new shoes and a new haircut. For the common Mustang fan, the changes are relatively small, but for the track hungry racers, the changes will be warmly welcomed.
Ford threw out the Pilot Super Sport tires and substituted them with 4 Michelin Pilot Sport Cup 2’s wrapped around an all-new 19-inch wheel design. Ford even broke a first and embossed each tire with an ‘FP’ designation as a nod to Ford Performance. With the new levels of grip, Ford had to retune the chassis to keep the nose level under hard braking. This resulted in a 1.09 g of lateral grip on the skidpad which is almost as good as the original Shelby Gt350R’s mark of 1.10 g.
The next big adjustment Ford implemented was to the brakes. Ford decided to nix the cross drilled rotors and went with smooth-faced rotors and designed the braking system to deliver more clamping force. Which also means they will be less expensive to replace compared to the previous brakes.
The aerodynamics of the car has also been tweaked with the grill and rear spoiler to add some additional downforce. You can even get a beefy Gurney spoiler with the optional $850 handling package.
The interior and under the hood remain mostly unchanged. However, with the additional grip, the 1/4 mile numbers are down to 12.3 seconds at 119mph.
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