In honor of today’s National Mustang Day, Ford has announced the hot Shelby GT350 and GT350 Mustangs will be back in the corral for 2018. However, save for new Kona Blue, Lead Foot Gray and Orange Fury exterior colors, these track-focused stallions will carry over unchanged and not receive any of the visual or functional upgrades recently announced for their less-intense 2018 Mustang stablemates.
Set to arrive in showrooms this summer, the Shelby GT350 and its lighter and higher performing GT350R sibling retain the bespoke 5.2-liter naturally aspirated “Voodoo” V8 with its flat-plane crank, 8,250-rpm redline and exhilarating 526 horsepower and 429 lb-ft of torque. The V8 is coupled to a slick-shifting 6-speed manual transmission.
Track Pack equipped
Complementing this formidable drivetrain is the standard Track Pack kit that adds individual coolers for the engine oil, transmission and differential, a front-strut cross brace, functional decklid spoiler and a MagneRide suspension with magnetorheological dampers plus massive Brembo brakes. The GT350R steps things up one more notch with features like carbon fiber wheels and even larger and sticker Michelin Pllot Sport Cup 2 tires in place of the GT350’s merely big, super-sticky Pilot Super Sport rubber.
Also: Class of 2018: The New and Redesigned Cars, Trucks and SUVs
Ford also confirmed that the 2018 Shelby GT350/GT350R Mustangs will again offer the optional Electronics Package that brings Sync3, voice-activated navigation and a 9-speaker audio system. The GT350 has an available Convenience Package that swaps the manual Recaro buckets for 6-way power, heated/cooled sport seats with Miko suede inserts. Pricing for the 2018 Ford Shelby GT350 and GT350 Mustang has not yet been released.
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