It was only recently that we witnessed the 2020 Ford Mustang Shelby GT500 proving its mettle when facing the likes of Ferrari 812 Superfast, Dodge Challenger Hellcat, and Porsche 911 GT3 RS. As it turns out, the GT500 can not only keep up with the Porsche on the track but also avoid making a fool of itself in a straight-line race against the Superfast, obliterating the Hellcat in the process.
And while the amount of performance baked into the stock Shelby GT500 is downright impressive, a smartly-tuned one is capable of even more greatness, such as dispatching the quarter mile in less than ten seconds.
The 2020 Shelby GT500 and Its History of Quarter Mile Runs
The previous GT500 needed just over 11 seconds to complete a quarter-mile run.
When Ford introduced the 2020 GT500, it said the muscle car can pull off sub-11-seconds runs - 10.7 seconds, to be more exact.
During MotorTrend’s testing regimen, however, the GT500 scorched the quarter-mile track in 11.3 seconds at 131.6 miles per hour. Not exactly as Ford promised, but YouTube’s REVan Evan took the bone-stock GT500 on a private track in Bradenton, Florida, where its quickest run came in 10.61 seconds at 133 miles per hour.
Soon enough, the obvious question popped up: how quick can a modded Shelby GT500 go on the quarter mile, then? The answer comes from the same guy, who this time took an Evolution Performance-modded GT500 and ran the quarter-mile in 9.93 seconds at 140 miles per hour.
The particular GT500 is said to send 940 horsepower to the rear wheels. That is 180 horsepower more than a stock car, which ‘only’ relies on 760 horsepower and 625 pound-feet of torque coming from a 5.2-liter, cross-plane V-8. There are a lot of things we don’t know, such as whether torque has gone up or not, or how quick the GT500 can reach 60 miles per hour from a standstill given the oomph infusion.
The regular Shelby GT500 needs around 3.4-3.6 seconds for the 0-60 sprint, so it’s safe to assume that this modded car can do it slightly better. What’s more, it also rides on grippier 20-inch Mickey Thompson Street SS drag radials and is aided by Kong Performance ported factory supercharger and a tweaked suspension setup with drag-specific bushings.
Needless to say, the sub-10-second run time didn’t come without a fight. The team had to approach the run gradually, adjusting their approach on the go. Check them out in action in the video below.
