Photo Extra of the 2016 Shelby GT350 Ford Mustang
Social media exploded yesterday with news of the all-new 2016 Shelby GT350. Information trickled out and enthusiasts salivated at the aggressive looks of the Mustang that carries Carroll Shelby's and continues his legacy of performance. Naturally, we wanted to offer you a Photo Extra of the 2016 Shelby GT350 Ford Mustang. Ford added all new sheet-metal from the firewall forward, the Shelby GT350 sits about two inches lower and has a long nose accentuated with a smartly designed front fascia that promotes downforce, but with reduced drag.
There is an endless list of features that will raise the enthusiasm. It begins at the heart with the all-new 5.2-liter VooDoo powerplant. The engine was treated to a complete makeover, as Ford engineers bumped the displacement and most of the hardware.
There’s a huge 90-plus mm throttle body, a revised composite intake with large runners, and recast cylinder heads with revised valve sizes and valve placement to optimize flow. The cams are larger than the typical Coyote. We hear the flow numbers are unreal, some say these are the best cylinder heads Ford has ever made!
Down below, there’s the flat-plane crankshaft that has garnered much attention in the media (most American V8 engines use a cross-plane crank). Flat-plane cranks are generally lighter so they allow the engine to rev faster than cross-plane cranks, which have larger counter-weights to “balance” the rotating assembly. Traditional V8 engines have the connecting rods attached to the crankshaft at 90-degree intervals. The flat-plane design spaces all crank pins evenly at 180-degree intervals.
This layout permits a cylinder firing order that alternates between cylinder banks, reducing the overlap of exhaust pressure pulses, which leads to improved exhaust scavenging and flow. These enhancements push the envelope of performance and should help the 5.2-liter Ford Mustang VooDoo engine to roughly 520 horsepower, with a torque peak above 400 lb-ft.
The engine is backed with a Tremec 3160 six-speed manual transmission. This was originally seen in the Cadillac ATS, but was revised for the Shelby GT350. According to Ford, it was not necessary to go with the heavier and bulkier Tremec 6060 from the outgoing 2014 Shelby GT500 due to the lower torque output of the VooDoo. All 2016 Shelby GT350 Mustangs will come equipped with a 3.73 and a Torsen differential. We speculate that with drag racers will swap in 4.10-4.56 gears for much improved acceleration. Be sure to check out our Photo Extra of the 2016 Shelby GT350 Ford Mustang. For more great Mustang information, be sure to follow us on Instagram @brothersperformance and on Facebook.
