Ford Mustang Shelby GT500 Tipped For Chicago Debut

With the Detroit show now complete, our focus shifts next onto the Chicago Auto Show, set to take place early next month. In preparation, the show organizers have published lists of the vehicles that will be on display – and one of them, it appears, will be the new Ford Mustang Shelby GT500.

The item was picked up on by the fanboys at Mustag6G before it was taken down. And while that could mean it was a mistake, we’re inclined to believe the “mistake” was publishing it before it’s been officially announced for debut – and not that it won’t actually be there.

The highly anticipated new pony car is expected to be powered by a 5.2-liter supercharged V8 – based on the same unit that propels the GT350 and GT350R (pictured), but with a snail boosting output from 526 horsepower to over 700. That’d take the fight straight to the Dodge Challenger SRT Hellcat (with its 707 horsepower) and the Chevy Camaro ZL1 (with 650 hp). Both are similarly powered by supercharged V8s, albeit of larger displacement.

If that output figure proves correct, it’d also make the new GT500 more potent than the Ford GT, whose 3.5-liter twin-turbocharged V6 produces an impressive 647 hp. The GT will still be lighter, of course, but word has it that super-Stang could also top 200 mph.

The last Shelby GT500, offered from 2007 to 2009, packed a 5.4-liter supercharged V8 rated at 500 hp, or 540 hp in the GT500 KR. Mustang6G points out that the division now known as Ford Performance has a long history of Chicago show debuts, stretching all the way back to the Mustang SVT Cobra and F-150 SVT Lightning in the 1990s.