Ford Shelby GT500

With an impressive combination of tire-shredding performance, fairly agile handling and a compliant ride, the 2011 Ford Shelby GT500 is a winner that also offers classic-era styling and daily-driver livability. This vehicle can be found at our Nebraska Ford dealer, Sid Dillon.

Even after last year’s big changes, the Ford Shelby GT500 receives notable improvements for 2011. A new aluminum engine block replaces the previous iron version, shaving more than 100 pounds off the front end which promotes sharper handling.

Despite making 10 more horsepower, the revised engine is also more fuel-efficient than before, allowing it to avoid the dreaded gas-guzzler tax. A new SVT performance package debuts, as do a couple of new standard features, such as xenon headlights and the MyKey system that allows owners to limit the vehicle’s top speed and the stereo’s volume.

The 2011 Ford Shelby GT500 is proof that some things, such as iconic design and spine-compressing performance, just never go out of style. Back in the late 1960s you could’ve walked into your nearby Ford dealer and drove out, sideways if you so chose, in the scooped and striped Shelby GT500, a modified version of a Mustang fastback that came packing a monster V8.

Today, you can walk into your nearby Ford dealer and do the same. The difference, however, is that while the old warhorse was certainly powerful and quick, it would be left in the dust by the latest Ford Mustang to sport snake emblems on its flanks.

Last year, the Shelby GT500 got a number of tweaks to the suspension and tire fitment that effectively nullified previous gripes about the car’s resistance to going around corners. And for 2011, Ford’s engineers improved things further via the new aluminum block (versus the previous iron) for the big V8.

The reduction of about 100 pounds of weight up front makes the newest Shelby more eager to turn in, and the revised engine manages to be both more powerful (by 10 horsepower for a total of 550) and more fuel-efficient — so much so that it now avoids getting hit with a gas-guzzler tax.

As you’d expect, this is one wickedly fast car. Though we haven’t yet track-tested the 2011 version, last year’s Shelby GT500 charged to 60 mph in just 4.3 seconds and ripped through the quarter-mile in 12.4 seconds.

Sid Dillons Auto Group is a Ford and Chevrolet dealership near Lincoln, NE in Crete, Nebraska. Visit our Sid Dillons Auto Group website at http://www.siddilloncrete.com. Sid Dillons Auto carries new and used cars in Lincoln Nebraska.

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