2K16 FORD SHELBY GT350

                                     2K16 FORD SHELBY GT350

How do you test a track-focused car — one bearing the name of the great Shelby — when offered just four laps of Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca (including in and out laps)? Ford markets the GT350R as being faster than the monstrously capable Chevrolet Camaro Z/28, and yet our first drive felt as intimate as a handshake.

Ford shouldn’t have kept its light under a bushel basket: the GT350R is truly phenomenal. It’s every bit the car Ford promised it would be, and potentially more.

It’s not hard to grasp the significance of the GT350R versus the Z/28 in the decades-long battle for Detroit muscle car dominance. When Chevy invited us for its first drive event at Barber Motorsports Park last year, we were gifted the keys to the 505 horsepower track-ready muscle car and told we had an entire day to do as we please: “Just let us know if you need more tires,” Chevy said. It also said we could bring along some competition, so we armed ourselves with a Nissan GT-R to compare it against.

Why did Chevy do that? Because it had faith in its creation, and the engineers wanted us to experience it under our own terms. Ford’s few laps, conjoined with some 40 other outlets, left us wondering whether its faith was not as great. But here’s what we did learn:

First, we drove a base GT350 along northern California’s Pacific Highway, a road where the scenery appears plucked from Tolkien’s imagination and giant whales bask just meters off shore. The actual curvature of the road is probably lovely, too, but unfortunately you spend most of your time staring at the Honda Pilot’s tail lamps in front while tourists exercise the art of rubbernecking.

This part of the day wasn’t an exercise in handling. Instead we focused on the changes Ford has made to the base GT, massaging it into the GT350 —a moniker left dormant since 1970, and a car in ’65 and ’66 that perhaps defines Carroll Shelby’s legacy as deeply as his iconic Shelby Cobras. The new Mustang GT finally ditches the solid rear axle in favor of independent suspension, and the GT350 is the first time we’ve seen its potential realized.

Much of the components on the GT350 are bespoke. The front track has been increased versus the GT, while spring rates and bushings stiffened. The ride height has been lowered, and MagneRide features for the first time ever on a Ford, allowing the shocks to adjust to the road’s characteristics every 10 milliseconds. It’s not as pronounced as Chevy’s Magnetic Ride system, but it does ensure the car’s inherent stiffness remains far more livable on the streets. The six-speed manual gearbox — the only gearbox available for both the GT350 and GT350R — is direct and precise, if a tad notchy. And the clutch release is odd, as if it sticks when fully depressed, then releases abruptly to the biting point. This requires precision and a steady foot when launching, lest you embarrassingly stall.

Up to speed and the steering rack is quicker than a base GT; my initial feelings determining it was too fast — you touch the wheel and the car darts, like holding a caffeinated frog. After a while, though, I became accustomed to its speed, and on the track (we’ll talk more about that later) it made absolute sense. And just like in the Mustang GT, the electric steering in the GT350 has wonderful feedback.

The most notable change with the GT350 arrives in the form of a 5.2-liter flat-plane crank V-8, sporting a redline of 8,250 rpm. Flat-plane cranks are common among race cars, and Ferrari use it in all its production V-8s. But by evenly spacing the crank pins at 180-degree intervals versus the rods connecting to the crankshaft at 90-degree intervals, it often produces a roughness (due to the unevenness of the way the pistons fire) most production cars shy away from. In the GT350, it isn’t as smooth as your typical V-8, but then it produces a unique exhaust note that sounds truly menacing — like a cross between a Hellcat, a Ferrari, an F-Type, and a grizzly bear.

Hearing these outlandish muscular acoustics, and yet revving all the way to 8,250 rpm (the main purpose for adopting such a set up), results in an unusual experience. Due to the engine’s sound, I found myself wanting to shift at 4,500 rpm (the torque really only kicks in between 3,500 and 4,500). But you don’t shift. You let it sing for a further 3,750 revs, and at first, max rpm feels as if you’re about to blow the motor into a million tiny aluminum shards — a distinctly odd sensation, almost disconcerting.

Ford’s flat-plane-crank doesn’t spin through the rev range with the velocity of Ferrari’s, rather it gains revs slowly and thunderously like a traditional V-8 muscle car; only you leave it revving for what feels like an eternity. It remains absolutely unique, engaging and wonderfully characterful. Like a fine wine, it takes time to appreciate, but it delivers a whole new driving experience — one that still preserves that muscular flavor buyers demand.

 Well, Ford mercifully allowed us four laps in a GT350 with the $6,000 track package (stiffer suspension, less tech thus fewer pounds, the way you’d actually option it for the road, given MagneRide ensures it remains perfectly livable) prior to jumping in the R. On track the GT350 excels, in the same way driving a BMW M3 or Cadillac ATS-V makes one happy.

But the R? That’s a different animal.

And it has to be to compete with the carbon-braked Camaro Z/28, its Multimatic suspension and its Trofeo R tires. Boasting the MagneRide shocks, considerably stiffer spring rates than even the GT350, a 130-lb. diet and specifically optimized Michelin Pilot Sport Cup 2 tires (that out performed dedicated Hoosier racing slicks in testing), wrapped around carbon fiber wheels that shed 64 lbs. of unsprung mass, the GT350R is more than up to par.

Two corners in and my first observation was the lack of body motion. It remains effortlessly flat and composed, the cornering g-forces outstanding thanks to the near-race tires, giant rear wing and front splitter. On cold tires, it isn’t intimidating like the Z/28, rather it feels forgiving. Don’t mistake that for less hardcore. It doesn’t understeer (if anything it’s on the neutral side) and it rewards the accomplished driver as much as it does the occasional track day enthusiast; the suspension’s ability to adjust its firmness, corner by corner, offers incredible versatility. (Say you go over rough curbing on a left hander, the corresponding shocks will soften to absorb the bumps while the shocks on the right — the ones remaining on the smoother track surface — stay firm to keep the car’s platform solid.)

The steering — which felt too quick on the road — is sublime. It’s precise, nicely weighted and boasts excellent feel, one of the best electric power steering systems on the market, and a giant leap ahead of the Z/28 (which is that car’s Achilles heel). Where the Z/28 scores over the GT350R, though, is under braking. Ford’s steel brakes boast all new calipers and they’re genuinely excellent; you’d never expect to declare them inferior, but the Z/28’s carbon ceramics are perhaps the best in the business and boast more immediacy to the braking zones.

Inside the cabin it remains much of the same; both cars offer plenty of rough, cheap-looking plastics, but both are forgiven based on these cars’ intended purpose. The Recaro seats in GT350R are the snuggest I’ve felt, boasting race car-like support — perfect for the intensely high g-forces experienced on track.

Ford claims the GT350R is faster than the Z/28 at every racetrack it has tested; it even brought an independent professional driver to Grattan raceway to compare the Ford, the Chevy, and the Porsche 911 GT3. According to Ford, the GT350R was one whole second faster than the Z/28, while matching the time of the 911 GT3 (Ford also claims the GT350R boasts twice the downforce of a GT3). If you told me this a few months back I’d have scoffed: “No way,” I’d say, “the Z/28 is simply too damn good.” But then you look at the weight of both cars — the Z/28 arrives at a portly 3,822 lbs. whereas the GT350R tips the scales at 3,655 lbs. — and the GT350R boasts 21 additional ponies.

Power to weight is everything, and that’s where Ford scores most over Chevy.

Then there’s the price: A base GT350 fetches $47,795 while the R arrives at $63,495 — that’s a whole Harley Davidson less than the $72,305 Z/28. (Before you jump in the comment section proclaiming how a Dodge Challenger Hellcat is cheaper and boasts more POWWEEERRRR, the GT350R and Z/28 will run circles around the Dodge on a racetrack; a Hellcat is a different beast entirely with a different objective.)

Ford spent three years toiling prior to unleashing the GT350/GT350R, and within that time, its engineers have benefitted greatly by utilizing the Z/28 as a benchmark. Of course it’s more powerful, lighter, and (potentially) quicker around a track — they wouldn’t have released it if it wasn’

t. Chevy set the bar so high it required Ford to achieve something many — including myself —deemed impossible. In my years of doing this job, I’ve never driven a high horsepower Ford that has blown me away dynamically. The Camaro ZL1, for example, destroyed the GT500 in an on-track comparison test I did, lapping seven tenths of a second faster, despite boasting 80 fewer horses. Then there’s the Z/28, a true revelation, and a mind-bending example of what exemplary engineering can achieve — a step so far beyond even the marvelous Boss 302 it’s easy to forget how great that car was.

Then the GT350R arrives. And against all odds, it changes everything.

Despite this success, Ford barely allowed us to sample the thing on track, and that’s a damn shame, one I’m still puzzled by. It’s the best, most capable Mustang there has ever been — and that’s including a white ’65 with blue Shelby striping. Traveling to California for four laps is ridiculous.