Yea yea friends in high places or whatever. Blow me. Do you wanna know how it drives or not?

The Ford Mustang Shelby GT350 is the reason why the zl1 1le has heater and cooled bucked seats and why the Camaro z28 fell to new ND Miata prices after three years of existing. It’s a track car that actually works on the street.

“Oh but doesn’t that make it compromised on the tr-“ shut up. It revs to 8250 rpm. Shut up, and listen to it, then drive it. This might be one of best US cars from the past 10 years.

Plant your ass down into a familiarly mustang yet unfamiliarly non-ford plastic interior, into a world of carbon trims and alcantara surfaces. It’s a car with a $61,000 base price back in 2016, and it shows that Ford actually gave a shit about more than just lap times, in that not only is it a nice place to be in, but it feels like a nice place to be in.

The z28, back when it was sold a year before the gt350, sold itself in limited numbers touting an LS7, multimatic DSSV dampers, carbon brembos the size of a small nation, and a host of other things to make any track-rat weak at the knees over. And while I promise I’ll get to reviewing that car in depth later, the interior almost looks worse than a base Camaro. It’s got a basic-for-2008 radio, some Alcantara on the dash, big plastic AC vents (which AC was an option for), and the audio quality of a gas station fuel pump trying to tell you what the word of the day is.

All this is to say, while a z28 turns in and stops with the urgency of a Barracuda in a hall full of mirrors and a strobe light, you wouldn’t know that you’re a special limited run car just sitting in it. The Mustang GT350, invites you into a cabin that you could feel comfortable driving to Sebring in, not just put up with at Sebring. You had strong AC, an actual infotainment system that’s been updated, Bluetooth connectivity (GM), the option for heated seats vs racing buckets, and an audio system that you can actually hear, and hear well…. Sometimes…

This is when you actually have fun.

The gt350 has tech! As Ford proudly states on a web page that probably needs to be taken down, it has a magaride dampers that can adjust to be squishier or Willow Springs ready, many levels of traction control, launch control, track driving analysis, oh and a button that does its best to shut the car up a little bit. Not that it helps much, because this the owner of this one went to the savior of every broward county teenage car guy’s existence, GExhuast, and now the car can exhale a bit better (+10 hp). So set the car to race, open the valves, and fuuuck me it revs high. It’s a 5.2L, FlAt PlAnE CrAnK v8, the darling for Ford’s marketing department until someone realized the normal 5.0 could be just as fast in the Mach 1.

(RIP Voodoo engine. You will be missed)

You can read about the engineering of this form a thousand different sources, so we won’t get to it here. It doesn’t sound like a Ferrari or a C8 Z06. It’s a distinct noise, caught somewhere between old American angry and a young Motorsport Powertrain engineer’s wet dream. Rev past 8000 rpm in a mustang of all cars. And the noise, the build up of a anger turned wail as you get thrown into the bucket seat and become a part of a dynamics equation. It’s a car that shouldn’t be on public roads because you’ll break triple digits trying to chase that acoustic high, but then on a race track, you’ll be too focused to enjoy the noise reverberating through the cabin. You get on the gas and expect to shift by 6000, only to realize that there’s another 2200 rpm to play with, and it’s not going to let up on aggression or theater until you hit that mark, and let the show start all over again.

You know that emotional high people talk about with an s2000? It’s like that, except with a v8 and A N G E R. The car will spin its wheels if you let it, obviously, and it’ll hit you like a semi-truck at an intersection with failed brakes the moment you commit to going fast. And then you let off the throttle, and more dirty rumbly noise comes out of the back, just to make sure your ears have been finished off.

Yeah yeah there’s more to the car than it’s engine. Shifter feel is a weighty and precise throw that matches how you’d think a track going muscle car should from the factory. It grips well through the few corners it took. The road feel is great, the car tells you what it wants to do and leaves little room for interpretation. Steering, although it could be quicker, is more than fine for the car, and again, feedback is great. Even the view out of the hood, with aggressive creases and vents, helps to make you aware of the size and proportions, unlike the vague-ness of a normal mustang.

I’m fact, this car is so opposite of an eco-boost convertible, I struggle to believe they share the same name, let alone chassis.

Ok, can I go back to engine now?

It’s a bizarre experience to be behind the wheel of a car who’s power plant blends together so many intoxicating things onto one block. And while this car is more than just a motor, the track day additions nicer cabin space still wind up taking back stage to that stupid Voodoo motor. That extra bit of rpm over what you expect this car to have, paired with the scream makes when you start to play with it. And the car wants you, practically begs to be wrung out like a teenager driving a Civic Type R. It’s sound stays locked in your mind, reverberating off the inside of you head for days.

And Ford killed it.

The GT350 lasted four years, with over 23,000 standard and R models sold in that time, around 20,000 more units than the ZL1 1LE ever could in the same timespan. The GT500 came along, managing to do both stupid straight line speed and corners. And while now every Ford guy at PBOC needs to get the GT500 and “stick it to Porsche owners”, I always saw that as an odd move.

To make sure the Camaro would not go quiet into that good night, 760 supercharged horses bellow out in a sound of old American anger, with all that grunt managed by a 7 speed DCT. While I haven’t driven the gt500, and the outright raw performance might make me shut my ass up, at the moment, I can’t imagine it provides an experience behind the wheel that’s anywhere near as unique.

Anyways, Mustang GT350. Prices are coming down, and if I had $50,000 to spend, I’d probably buy one, and my mass is branded with a Chevy bow-tie. It’s almost unexplainably intoxicating to the point where the government should probably regulate it. I don’t know what more to tell you than drive one for yourself.