2016 Mustang Shelby GT350R review – Roadshow

The Good Performance and sound unlike any Mustang that has come before.

The Bad The look won’t be for everybody, and this is not exactly an affordable machine.

The Bottom Line The most purposeful road-going Mustang yet, and a truly great car to drive.

Ford’s Shelby GT350R isn’t your average Mustang, and it only takes a glance to figure that out. Whether it’s the huge splitter up front, the giant scoop of a wing hanging off the rear bumper or the imposing black wheels that do little to hide the massive Brembo brakes beneath, you can immediately tell this is something special.

Fire it up and any lingering doubts about normalcy are immediately shattered. The 5.2-liter V8 here sounds like no Mustang you’ve heard before. And it truly isn’t like those before. In fact, it’s more than twice as expensive as a base model. This is the $62,000 Shelby GT350R, current king of the modern pony cars. And, unlike many Shelbys that have come before, this one can dominate the track in every form.

Mustang Shelby GT350R lounging on the…
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That motor

The base Mustang is a very solid car. Redesigned for the 2015 model year to make it lighter, lower, meaner and quicker around the track, today’s pony car is a quantum leap forward over the old. For less than $25,000, you can get a 300 horsepower model. $26,000 gets you the the 310-horsepower EcoBoost model and $opens the door to the 5.0-liter GT model, with a 435-horespower V8 and a series of other upgrades that make it an overall more serious contender.

But none of the above really compare to this, the GT350R. Under the hood here is a 5.2-liter V8, barely bigger than the GT yet a much more exotic bird. It’s been built with a flat-plane-crank configuration, meaning it not only delivers a whopping 526-horsepower and 429 pound-feet but it revs up to a remarkable 8,250 RPM. This changes up the firing order of the engine, giving it characteristics much more like a proper race motor than anything you’d typically find idling in the next lane over at a stoplight.

Meaty strut-tower bar? Very necessary.

Nick Miotke/Roadshow

And when I say “race” I don’t mean dragstrip. This is a motor designed for the track, and it delivers its power appropriately. While most Mustangs are all about the launch, oodles of torque delivered down low to swat you off the line and kick you in the rear with every power-shift, the GT350R wants you to rev it, coming alive toward the termination of its big, analog tachometer and screaming encouragement as you flirt with the redline.

This is the kind of lump that shines on a racetrack, and I’m very glad to report that the rest of the car was designed with a similar goal in mind.

The rest of the package

You won’t have to worry about anyone catching you on the track, because you won’t be able to see them through that wing.

Nick Miotke/Roadshow

Mustangs have had plenty of successes on the racetrack in the past, but it’s safe to say that wasn’t exactly their native environment. The GT350R, however, feels completely at home pushing at (or beyond) the limit through apexes early and late and anywhere in between.

Helping that is a full set of MagneRide adaptive dampers, which adjust and adapt dynamically not just based on where you set the suspension knob in the cockpit, but also based on driving mode and conditions. The delta here between comfort and track isn’t as broad as many other modern cars I’ve been lucky enough to drive, but then this is a rather focused beast.

The brakes are seriously up-rated over the base car’s, squeezing massive, floating, cross-drilled rotors. Wrapped around those are 19-inch wheels wearing Michelin Pilot Sport Cup 2 tires, carbon fiber wheels that weigh a whopping 13 pounds lighter each than those fond on the “base” Shelby 350.

All this, plus over 100 pounds worth of weight savings, puts the GT350R on another plane of existence when it’s time to hit the track.

All this, plus over 100 pounds’ worth of weight savings compared with the base Mustang, puts the GT350R on another plane of existence when it’s time to hit the track. The car will understeer or oversteer appropriately depending on how you get the corner wrong, but is so responsive to corrections that you’re never left wallowing for long in either state.

If there’s one disappointment on the track, it’s the steering. It’s quick and light, which I actually like, but there’s a distinct lack of feel here, muted feedback that can make it a bit difficult to know what’s going on up front. The lack of feel is curious given the 350R’s front suspension setup, which relies on ball joints rather than bushings to provide a more direct connection. Sadly, that hasn’t resulted in a more direct feel.