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http://www.caranddriver.com/flipbook/17-reasons-the-2016-mustang-gt350s-chassis-and-bodywork-are-incredible
17 Reasons the 2016 Mustang GT350’s Chassis and Bodywork Are Incredible
Ford just unveiled the new Mustang Shelby GT350, a ferocious-looking, track-focused thing with all-new adaptive dampers, giant brakes, and Ford’s first-ever flat-crank V-8 engine. The company isn't spilling details on things like horsepower, torque, or price quite yet, but we extracted some additional details from the mighty Mustang's designers and engineers. Here’s what we learned:
1) It has a whole new nose.
The Shelby GT350’s front track is widened by 35 millimeters (about 1.4 inches), a tweak that in and of itself disrupts the Mustang's aerodynamics. Chris Svensson, Ford’s design director for the Americas, explains that every body panel ahead of the doors on the GT350 is unique to offset the swollen track. Svensson says the hoodline is lower and “the only thing that’s carried over on the front end are the headlamps. They’re actually set 25 millimeters [about 1 inch] lower.”
2) The fenders have flair.
“The fenders themselves blister quite a lot—they pull out from the wheels,” Svensson explains. “One of the reasons we put the vent in the fenders was to let the hot air extract from the engine bay, but also because we widened the fender and we had to get back to the doors.”
3) The car is hard-nosed in more ways than one.
Ford claims that the front fascia's grille surround, made of injection-molded carbon-fiber composite, actually increases the vehicle’s stiffness.
4) The aero work is effective but subtly executed.
The Shelby GT350 packs some serious aerodynamic tricks, but many aren't visible. “We didn’t want a big spoiler on the rear,” Svensson says, adding that the Mustang “didn’t need it—we had really good aerodynamics on the car. We just needed a little bit of improvement, so we put the little Gurney strip on the rear.” Underneath, an underbelly tray directs airflow through the rear diffuser.
5) The GT350's form truly follows function.
According to Svensson, “With this car, it’s not styled, it’s designed.” He adds: “It’s purely functionally driven design. The engineers came to us and said ‘this is what we want to do,’ and we designed it to meet their demands. So it’s not necessarily an over-the-top styling exercise, it’s purely driven by functionality. Which for me is more purist—there’s nothing on the car I can look at and go ‘that’s a bit superfluous.’ ”
6) It's said to make very Mustang-esque music.
“Everyone was a little worried that [the flat-crank V-8] might sound like a Ferrari, but it doesn’t sound like a Ferrari at all,” swears Svensson. Even though he hadn’t driven the car at the time of its unveiling, Svensson did fire up a preproduction model one late night in the design studio when nobody was around. “It sounds like a Mustang, but it sounds like a Mustang that is eager to go. It’s not that stereotypical lazy American V-8."
7) This pony runs free.
Jamal Hameedi, Ford's chief engineer for global performance vehicles, wouldn’t tell us the Shelby GT350’s top speed, but he did tell us it’s not electronically limited—as befits a performance vehicle designed to attack the track.
8 ) It has an animated suspension.
And then there’s the car's suspension, which features Ford’s first-ever use of the MagneRide continuously adaptive magnetorheological damping system. Like similar systems found on high-performance GM products, Audis, and Ferraris, Ford's MagneRide system keeps tabs on steering angle, lateral acceleration, pitch, and yaw to optimize the damping at each corner in real time. The active suspension is controlled through five performance settings that also tweak the GT350’s throttle response, ABS program, and traction and stability control intervention.
9) You can quantify your performance.
The GT350 will not only thrill drivers with its heroic performance, but also give them data to quantify it, with dashboard readouts showing lap times, acceleration and braking stats, and a g-meter. The performance software also includes launch control, which adjusts engine speed between 3000 and 4500 rpm and holds it there so you can simply drop the clutch and go.
10) You can send the nannies packing.
Oversteer aficionados, fear not: In the most aggressive of the five performance settings, traction and stability control can be fully deactivated with a press-and-hold button sequence. Kerry Baldori, chief functional engineer at Ford’s global performance vehicle division, cautions that the raciest setting is for professionals only. “Most people won’t be able to get to the limits in race mode,” he said. Of course, we look forward to giving it a go. We are professionals, after all.
11) The wheels are darkened with purpose.
The dark finish on the Shelby GT350’s 19-inch aluminum wheels isn’t just for fashion. Hameedi tells us: “The brake pads we use create so much dust, customers just hate it. You drive the car once with plain wheels, and they’re dirty after a short drive. So that’s why we’ve got dark wheels.” We think they look bad-ass, so, uh, bonus?
12) There's plenty of whoa to go with the go.
These brake two-piece rotors, measuring 15.5 inches in diameter up front and 15 inches at the rear, are serious bits of hardware and are mounted on aluminum hats via sliding pins for easy replacement. With giant six-piston Brembo front calipers and four-pot rear units, drastic deceleration should be a given. Why no fancy-pants carbon-ceramic brakes like on the Camaro Z/28? Hameedi implies that such a setup would have pushed the GT350’s sticker price too high. “Affordability was a big part of this car,” he insists.
13) This horse has brand-new shoes.
The GT350's 5.2-liter V-8 engine, MagneRide suspension, and enormous brakes all see their work pay off on the pavement thanks to unique Michelin Pilot Super Sport tires. The tread face, sidewall design, and compound were all optimized specifically for the Shelby.
14) The GT350 was educated at the finest tracks.
Want proof that the Shelby GT350 was built to hustle around a road course? Here are just some of the racetracks where Ford honed the car: Grattan, VIR, Calabogie, Sebring, Chuckwalla, and—naturally—the legendary Nürburgring.
15) The car didn't need weight-adding structural bracing.
Despite its racetrack intentions, the GT350 didn’t require any major body stiffening over the regular Mustang. “We didn’t have to add reinforcements or structures or anything like that to make it work,” Baldori says. “It was actually very robust.”
16) Track rats will want the Track Pack.
Buyers wanting more race-ready equipment for their GT350s can check the box for an optional Track Pack, which brings auxiliary coolers for the engine, transmission, and differential. “Cooling was a huge thing we wanted to focus on, just because of the track credibility,” Baldori elaborates.
17) It's built for the track but won't send you to the chiropractor.
Ford wanted the GT350 to have the same dual personality that defines another track-focused street car, the heroic Porsche 911 GT3. “Even though it’s not a direct competitor, [the GT3] was our aspirational competitor,” Baldori told us. “Some people will say the [Camaro] Z/28, but I don’t know if it’s a direct competitor. The Z/28 is probably a little bit more extreme than this car—that’s really a totally purpose-built car. This [Mustang], you have a back seat, a sound package, you can take it on the street or on the strip, or take it out to dinner if you want, and you’ll be comfortable. It’s kind of a Z/28 with a little bit of 911 mixed in. It’s a unique animal.” If it delivers thrills like the last Mustang Boss 302, the GT350 can't lose.
http://www.caranddriver.com/flipbook/17-reasons-the-2016-mustang-gt350s-chassis-and-bodywork-are-incredible
17 Reasons the 2016 Mustang GT350’s Chassis and Bodywork Are Incredible
Ford just unveiled the new Mustang Shelby GT350, a ferocious-looking, track-focused thing with all-new adaptive dampers, giant brakes, and Ford’s first-ever flat-crank V-8 engine. The company isn't spilling details on things like horsepower, torque, or price quite yet, but we extracted some additional details from the mighty Mustang's designers and engineers. Here’s what we learned:
1) It has a whole new nose.
The Shelby GT350’s front track is widened by 35 millimeters (about 1.4 inches), a tweak that in and of itself disrupts the Mustang's aerodynamics. Chris Svensson, Ford’s design director for the Americas, explains that every body panel ahead of the doors on the GT350 is unique to offset the swollen track. Svensson says the hoodline is lower and “the only thing that’s carried over on the front end are the headlamps. They’re actually set 25 millimeters [about 1 inch] lower.”
2) The fenders have flair.
“The fenders themselves blister quite a lot—they pull out from the wheels,” Svensson explains. “One of the reasons we put the vent in the fenders was to let the hot air extract from the engine bay, but also because we widened the fender and we had to get back to the doors.”
3) The car is hard-nosed in more ways than one.
Ford claims that the front fascia's grille surround, made of injection-molded carbon-fiber composite, actually increases the vehicle’s stiffness.
4) The aero work is effective but subtly executed.
The Shelby GT350 packs some serious aerodynamic tricks, but many aren't visible. “We didn’t want a big spoiler on the rear,” Svensson says, adding that the Mustang “didn’t need it—we had really good aerodynamics on the car. We just needed a little bit of improvement, so we put the little Gurney strip on the rear.” Underneath, an underbelly tray directs airflow through the rear diffuser.
5) The GT350's form truly follows function.
According to Svensson, “With this car, it’s not styled, it’s designed.” He adds: “It’s purely functionally driven design. The engineers came to us and said ‘this is what we want to do,’ and we designed it to meet their demands. So it’s not necessarily an over-the-top styling exercise, it’s purely driven by functionality. Which for me is more purist—there’s nothing on the car I can look at and go ‘that’s a bit superfluous.’ ”
6) It's said to make very Mustang-esque music.
“Everyone was a little worried that [the flat-crank V-8] might sound like a Ferrari, but it doesn’t sound like a Ferrari at all,” swears Svensson. Even though he hadn’t driven the car at the time of its unveiling, Svensson did fire up a preproduction model one late night in the design studio when nobody was around. “It sounds like a Mustang, but it sounds like a Mustang that is eager to go. It’s not that stereotypical lazy American V-8."
7) This pony runs free.
Jamal Hameedi, Ford's chief engineer for global performance vehicles, wouldn’t tell us the Shelby GT350’s top speed, but he did tell us it’s not electronically limited—as befits a performance vehicle designed to attack the track.
8 ) It has an animated suspension.
And then there’s the car's suspension, which features Ford’s first-ever use of the MagneRide continuously adaptive magnetorheological damping system. Like similar systems found on high-performance GM products, Audis, and Ferraris, Ford's MagneRide system keeps tabs on steering angle, lateral acceleration, pitch, and yaw to optimize the damping at each corner in real time. The active suspension is controlled through five performance settings that also tweak the GT350’s throttle response, ABS program, and traction and stability control intervention.
9) You can quantify your performance.
The GT350 will not only thrill drivers with its heroic performance, but also give them data to quantify it, with dashboard readouts showing lap times, acceleration and braking stats, and a g-meter. The performance software also includes launch control, which adjusts engine speed between 3000 and 4500 rpm and holds it there so you can simply drop the clutch and go.
10) You can send the nannies packing.
Oversteer aficionados, fear not: In the most aggressive of the five performance settings, traction and stability control can be fully deactivated with a press-and-hold button sequence. Kerry Baldori, chief functional engineer at Ford’s global performance vehicle division, cautions that the raciest setting is for professionals only. “Most people won’t be able to get to the limits in race mode,” he said. Of course, we look forward to giving it a go. We are professionals, after all.
11) The wheels are darkened with purpose.
The dark finish on the Shelby GT350’s 19-inch aluminum wheels isn’t just for fashion. Hameedi tells us: “The brake pads we use create so much dust, customers just hate it. You drive the car once with plain wheels, and they’re dirty after a short drive. So that’s why we’ve got dark wheels.” We think they look bad-ass, so, uh, bonus?
12) There's plenty of whoa to go with the go.
These brake two-piece rotors, measuring 15.5 inches in diameter up front and 15 inches at the rear, are serious bits of hardware and are mounted on aluminum hats via sliding pins for easy replacement. With giant six-piston Brembo front calipers and four-pot rear units, drastic deceleration should be a given. Why no fancy-pants carbon-ceramic brakes like on the Camaro Z/28? Hameedi implies that such a setup would have pushed the GT350’s sticker price too high. “Affordability was a big part of this car,” he insists.
13) This horse has brand-new shoes.
The GT350's 5.2-liter V-8 engine, MagneRide suspension, and enormous brakes all see their work pay off on the pavement thanks to unique Michelin Pilot Super Sport tires. The tread face, sidewall design, and compound were all optimized specifically for the Shelby.
14) The GT350 was educated at the finest tracks.
Want proof that the Shelby GT350 was built to hustle around a road course? Here are just some of the racetracks where Ford honed the car: Grattan, VIR, Calabogie, Sebring, Chuckwalla, and—naturally—the legendary Nürburgring.
15) The car didn't need weight-adding structural bracing.
Despite its racetrack intentions, the GT350 didn’t require any major body stiffening over the regular Mustang. “We didn’t have to add reinforcements or structures or anything like that to make it work,” Baldori says. “It was actually very robust.”
16) Track rats will want the Track Pack.
Buyers wanting more race-ready equipment for their GT350s can check the box for an optional Track Pack, which brings auxiliary coolers for the engine, transmission, and differential. “Cooling was a huge thing we wanted to focus on, just because of the track credibility,” Baldori elaborates.
17) It's built for the track but won't send you to the chiropractor.
Ford wanted the GT350 to have the same dual personality that defines another track-focused street car, the heroic Porsche 911 GT3. “Even though it’s not a direct competitor, [the GT3] was our aspirational competitor,” Baldori told us. “Some people will say the [Camaro] Z/28, but I don’t know if it’s a direct competitor. The Z/28 is probably a little bit more extreme than this car—that’s really a totally purpose-built car. This [Mustang], you have a back seat, a sound package, you can take it on the street or on the strip, or take it out to dinner if you want, and you’ll be comfortable. It’s kind of a Z/28 with a little bit of 911 mixed in. It’s a unique animal.” If it delivers thrills like the last Mustang Boss 302, the GT350 can't lose.
