Dodge Challenger Forums - Ford Mustang GT500 vs Dodge Challenger

Looks like it will be close competititon based on performance numbers.

AUTO REVIEW
2007 Ford Mustang Shelby GT500
Hot as the man's chili

By Ron Amadon, MarketWatch
Last Update: 7:15 AM ET Sep 9, 2006

DARNESTOWN, MD (MarketWatch) - Car design legend Carroll Shelby and Ford don't seem to be willing to wait for the competition so they have decided to heat up the pony car wars even before they begin.
Chevy has announced that it will build a new Camaro and Dodge the new Challenger. But it will be late 2008 or 2009 before the old foes emerge and the pony car wars of a new generation can begin again.
Performance car buffs can enjoy the limited production Shelby right now. What kind of performance -- you may ask? How about a supercharged 5.4-liter V8 good for an even 500-horsepower (480-lb-ft at 4,500), for a zero to sixty time of about 4.5 seconds. The quarter mile should appear in about 12.9 seconds with a top speed of 155 miles an hour.
And the engine makes all the right growling and muscle stretching sounds that performance car buffs will demand. Our extra cost audio system was just not needed with the unreal sounds coming from under the hood. Not a symphony as in some cars, but this is red, white and blue country music.
Our blue test car with the white (hello police!) stripes was rock solid even on rough back roads -- a surprise. No squeaks, no rattles, no nuthin'.
Since Shelby himself told us that today's pony cars have to have some handling, it was no surprise that our test car did quite well on our favorite twisty back roads. The GT500 simply hangs in there in any kind of sane driving situation.
Even better, the Shelby tolerated slower moving traffic than we would have expected. The shift lever (a 6-speed) and the clutch were a bit heavier than we would have liked, but they were not a burden either.
In short, it was the kind of car that we simply could not wait to take out for one more drive, just one more, please!
The interior of the Shelby was stock Mustang, and we thought for the price tag, $42,975 base suggested retail, Ford could have jazzed it up a bit. However, the leather seats in our test car were all day comfortable. A semi-major quibble came in the dash panel. We thought that in such a high performance car, the tach should have been front and center in the instrument cluster, and not off to the right side. The center of the dash was taken up with auxiliary gages, needlessly we thought. See slide show.
Some will argue that the GT500 should have received some upgrades elsewhere, such an independent rear suspension. Nonsense, says Shelby, who argues that would have added $5,000 on to the price, and not improved the handling one bit. In this case, performance bang for the buck was Job 1.
Not to mention the fact that with its current, well documented troubles, Ford probably wants to put its cash elsewhere. You meanwhile, will be hard pressed to put your cash up for one of these runners. Demand and is hot and heavy for the Shelby and after a week behind the wheel we can see why.
If you are drawn to the idea of a high performance Mustang with that Shelby touch, perhaps it is time to invite your Ford dealer to the club, World Series, or Super Bowl, maybe all the above.
The reward will be the Shelby GT500 and some memorable driving experiences in this somewhat retro, but totally irresistible automobile. It was a quite a week.
Ford performance note: Ford will end production of the GT on Sept. 21 at the Wixom Michigan plant, cranking out just over 4,000 of the LeMans winning performance cars. With that move, the Shelby GT will be Ford's hottest hot rod.