2011 Shelby GT500

[Ferrer]

Not retro, but the Mustang has a market because it's a simple, cheap, rear wheel drive sporty car. It's fine if Ford wants to make somthing else, but it wouldn't be a Mustang.

[cmcpokey]

hence the Ford Probe

[Ferrer]

hence the Ford Probe

How did it do in the the US? Because here, and the later Cougar, did quite poorly. Altough by the time the Cougar came the market for mid-size coupes didn't exist anymore I guess.

[cmcpokey]

it did alright, packing respectable performance in to an attractive body shell, but it had reliability issues... you never see them around anymore, nor their MX-6 sister.

The cougar on the other hand was a complete flop.

[Rasmus]

An interesting bit of info that doesn't get mentioned most places, is that Ford has decided to brand the '11 GT500 with more SVT logos. On the '07-'09 GT500's you would be hard pressed to find a single one, as they were banking on the Shelby name. Ah, SAI, how I loathe thee.

And Ford has had aluminum 5.0 and 5.4 liter blocks out for a while now. They've just been too expensive for most people; $3k opposed to $700 for a steel one.

[cargirl1990]

Cougars, compared with the beautiful '60's version is quite ugly so I can see why its such a flop. They were a flop here as well. I have seen some Probes but they were ricefied.

[Ferrer]

it did alright, packing respectable performance in to an attractive body shell, but it had reliability issues... you never see them around anymore, nor their MX-6 sister.

The cougar on the other hand was a complete flop.

It's funny because we actually had an MX-6. But not a popular car here either.

[LeonOfTheDead]

The first time I saw a Probe I thought it was an imported car, or something.

I'm not sure if enough people know the Mustang and could be fine with paying so much for a large and so different Ford. Surely not with these engines and size.

[roosterjuicer]

An interesting bit of info that doesn't get mentioned most places, is that Ford has decided to brand the '11 GT500 with more SVT logos. On the '07-'09 GT500's you would be hard pressed to find a single one, as they were banking on the Shelby name.

I think this is a good move. The Shelby name isn't as meaningful as it once was among the current generation of the mustangs target audience (my generation). The average person who automatically equates "shelby" with kickass is looking for corvettes, not mustangs.

My generation grew up with ford making several great "SVT" cars starting with the Lightning pickup which took the world by storm for a few years and then with the SVT focus, contour, and to a lesser extent, mustang Cobra. These cars were some of the better affordable performance cars of their day in their respective classes and besides the mustang cobra, they were known by the SVT monikers.

[Rasmus]

I concur. Ford got burned by SAI on more than once occasion last year -- vehicles depreciating like mad at dealers, and that crashed KR debacle.

Also part of the reason why the new GT350 is a base GT purchased from a dealer, that is then transported to a Shelby for the conversion.

[ThisBlood147]

I think that within the next couple of years you will see Ford pull away from Shelby, and the GT500 will once again be known as the SVT Cobra. SAI will likely carry on with its own aftermarket tuning models, joining the likes of Roush, Saleen, and Steeda.

Also, I'm wondering if those new narrow racing stripes will be an across the board change......or just a styling feature of the new SVT performance package. I'm not really liking them right now.

[Rasmus]

It's only part of the SVT package. I don't particularly like them either.

[fpv_gtho]

I think that within the next couple of years you will see Ford pull away from Shelby, and the GT500 will once again be known as the SVT Cobra. SAI will likely carry on with its own aftermarket tuning models, joining the likes of Roush, Saleen, and Steeda.

With SVT more or less merging with TeamRS for future applications, thats a fair assumption.