PROS/CONS with your GT500? Any regrets
- Thread starter CashMoneyKC
- Start date
If you need the back seat you are basically looking at the Shelby or the ZL1.
If you don't need the back seat there are other choices.
I love the Shelby, but if I didn't need the back seat I would have bought something different. That being said I have ZERO regrets buying it. I love driving it every day.:rolling:
If you don't need the back seat there are other choices.
I love the Shelby, but if I didn't need the back seat I would have bought something different. That being said I have ZERO regrets buying it. I love driving it every day.:rolling:
Great stereo,
Pros- great power, commands respect at the track and on the street, very comfortable to drive even at 900hp, sounds great, turns decently stock for what it is
Cons - Weight, sloppy shifter, stock aluminum hood & trunk can bubble paint
no regrets
Cons - Weight, sloppy shifter, stock aluminum hood & trunk can bubble paint
no regrets
Pros: power, handling, and mod-friendly
Extra benefits: street ride comfort, even with 20's & track tires.
Cons: shifter is sloppy, even with the best you can buy, an MGW, it's still not great due to the remote nature of the design, but there are other cars out there like this too. MPG can be brutal, and my other car is a Gen4 viper & it's a sipper compared to my GT500.
Note: in pros I put handling, I'm not sure why people post this car handles sloppy or poorly or that handling is a con .. makes me wonder if they've road coursed their car. Even trash mags have recorded 1.01G skidpad pulls with the 2011. Having done many road course open track days in mine, with stock suspension & stock crappy F1's, I've passed everything that was on the track with me, Porsches, Vettes, WRX's, Lotus, Mini's, Ferrari, you name it, nothing has come close to hanging with me, let alone pass me ... except haven't been out with another Viper yet, but we're talking dozens & dozens of performance cars on many different days. Yea, All those drivers could suck, yea, I could be Steve McQueen good, but more probable is that the GT500, urban myths aside, is a dayum nice handling road race car. Just sayin, IMO.
Extra benefits: street ride comfort, even with 20's & track tires.
Cons: shifter is sloppy, even with the best you can buy, an MGW, it's still not great due to the remote nature of the design, but there are other cars out there like this too. MPG can be brutal, and my other car is a Gen4 viper & it's a sipper compared to my GT500.
Note: in pros I put handling, I'm not sure why people post this car handles sloppy or poorly or that handling is a con .. makes me wonder if they've road coursed their car. Even trash mags have recorded 1.01G skidpad pulls with the 2011. Having done many road course open track days in mine, with stock suspension & stock crappy F1's, I've passed everything that was on the track with me, Porsches, Vettes, WRX's, Lotus, Mini's, Ferrari, you name it, nothing has come close to hanging with me, let alone pass me ... except haven't been out with another Viper yet, but we're talking dozens & dozens of performance cars on many different days. Yea, All those drivers could suck, yea, I could be Steve McQueen good, but more probable is that the GT500, urban myths aside, is a dayum nice handling road race car. Just sayin, IMO.
Pros: Handling; it is just shy of 2 tons with a SRA, yet it is confident and solid through the twisties.
Power is great and the car responds very well to mods. Great comfort; car rides very well and is great on long trips.
Looks; I STILL get people staring all the time as I drive through town. The car just looks mean and intimidating.
Build quality; this goes for all the 2011+ Ford vehicles. The 2010 GT500 got this treatment as well. Ford's build quality has really stepped up. The fit and finish is top notch and you can feel it when driving the car.
Cons: Solid Rear Axle; it is antiquated and as well as the car handles, the SRA is limiting how far the handling could go.
Shifter; I haven't had much of the 1-2 grind, but the shift is very notchy and can take some time to learn. You have to be aggressive, but focused on your shifts.
MPG; baby drinks some fuel if you stay deep in the throttle a lot, which is hard not to do...lol.
Overall, IMO the pros far outweigh the cons if the car is a secondary "fun" car. I don't think it is a great DD, though it can be used as a primary vehicle. I can say this; the best mod I have bought for the car so far has been my 2001 Honda Civic EX 4-door, which is my work beater....lmao. After driving that all week, when I get in the Shelby on the weekend it feels fast as hell again!
Power is great and the car responds very well to mods. Great comfort; car rides very well and is great on long trips.
Looks; I STILL get people staring all the time as I drive through town. The car just looks mean and intimidating.
Build quality; this goes for all the 2011+ Ford vehicles. The 2010 GT500 got this treatment as well. Ford's build quality has really stepped up. The fit and finish is top notch and you can feel it when driving the car.
Cons: Solid Rear Axle; it is antiquated and as well as the car handles, the SRA is limiting how far the handling could go.
Shifter; I haven't had much of the 1-2 grind, but the shift is very notchy and can take some time to learn. You have to be aggressive, but focused on your shifts.
MPG; baby drinks some fuel if you stay deep in the throttle a lot, which is hard not to do...lol.
Overall, IMO the pros far outweigh the cons if the car is a secondary "fun" car. I don't think it is a great DD, though it can be used as a primary vehicle. I can say this; the best mod I have bought for the car so far has been my 2001 Honda Civic EX 4-door, which is my work beater....lmao. After driving that all week, when I get in the Shelby on the weekend it feels fast as hell again!
I have to agree with Daffy on this. Im far from an expert but from my experience on the road course, it handles great for the weight/ solid rear. I kept up with a c6Z at homestead, but i believe its partly due to the guys driving. Completly stock i was passing most cars on the track. Everything that gave me an issue was modded including a supercharged 650AWHP audi R8, 500AWHP evo 10, Rx7, S2000, and a modded GT3 Porsche
Agree with previous posts +
Pros: Fun & Easy to Mod into supercar / king of muscle cars. Decent for insurance rates. Exhaust note can be tailored like no other vehicle to your specific liking.
Cons: Stock tires
Pros: Fun & Easy to Mod into supercar / king of muscle cars. Decent for insurance rates. Exhaust note can be tailored like no other vehicle to your specific liking.
Cons: Stock tires
The GT500 can serve just about any purpose you want it to. It can be an incredibly fun, yet comfortable daily driver. Meanwhile, you can take it to either the drag strip or road course, have a ton of fun, and be very impressed in it's "out of the box" configuration. You get all of this at a very reasonable cost.
If you want to tailor it to your own needs, the sky is the limit. People have turned their cars into 9 second realiable street machines and road course terrors. The way the car handles with a SRA is quite impressive, and with a Griggs chassis, you can make it competitive with just about any type of track car out there. The SRA makes the car very versatile. You can pretty much have most benefits of daily driver with a near race car. There's not many cars out there that give you so many fun factor options. None of this accounts for the attention these cars get from the public. Get a GT500....you won't regret it.
If you want to tailor it to your own needs, the sky is the limit. People have turned their cars into 9 second realiable street machines and road course terrors. The way the car handles with a SRA is quite impressive, and with a Griggs chassis, you can make it competitive with just about any type of track car out there. The SRA makes the car very versatile. You can pretty much have most benefits of daily driver with a near race car. There's not many cars out there that give you so many fun factor options. None of this accounts for the attention these cars get from the public. Get a GT500....you won't regret it.
:thumbsup:
Please elaborate. I want to know more about this.
As much as I love my Shelby it is simply no match for a C6Z on a road course. Honestly they can't even keep up with a base C6. To be perfectly honest a vette is a better performance car if you don't need a back seat. I needed one and that is why I bought the Shelby.
Interesting, are speaking from real world personal experience? Not challenging, just curious if you are getting passed out there on the track. This just hasn't been my experience on the road course, have yet to come across a vette thru my windshield that I didn't put in my rearview and then a corner behind within a lap, yes, including C6's and 2 Z's. I had a callaway that put up a good fight for almost a whole lap but the snake had her way. And I'm not picking on the vettes at all, I can say this about every car that's been on-track with my GT500. But I can only speak from my personal track experiences campaigning my GT500 these past 18 mos on two tracks, others may be seeing something different on their track days. I run in the mid-tier groups, not novice, not advanced (I don't have a permanent car number).
And I don't mean to beat this horse, it's just that so many people spread this non-handing rumor (IMO) and even in drivers' meetings on track days people will ask who has the mustang, and are pre-apologetic about how it's so nice looking & powerful but will get dusted by WRXs and Miata's on-track, let alone the Vettes and Porsches. And by the end of the day I have guys asking what I've done to the chassis, to which I say absolutely bone stock, even the tires. It just gets old, but then it is fun passing someone who thought they were going to 'make you feel bad'. OK, I'll let it go now.
I do have track experience, none yet with Shelby as I just picked it up. Not that I am a magazine racer by any means, but just look at several articles comparing the two with lap times from the same driver, it's night and day.
2011 SVTPP
Pros: can daily drive, power, sound, looks, performance, upgraded interior from 07-09, 4 seats
Cons: the amount of plastic interior on doors, cold weather driving.
Handling is awesome in the 2011-12 w/performance package. Big difference with the 2011 and up vs. 07-09
Zero regrets
BTW I have never had shift grind, tried many times to grind it just to make sure, got a good one I guess.
Pros: can daily drive, power, sound, looks, performance, upgraded interior from 07-09, 4 seats
Cons: the amount of plastic interior on doors, cold weather driving.
Handling is awesome in the 2011-12 w/performance package. Big difference with the 2011 and up vs. 07-09
Zero regrets
BTW I have never had shift grind, tried many times to grind it just to make sure, got a good one I guess.
LOVE THE PIC in your signature....quality shot
To all else who replied::: thanks for everyones feedback and help with this !!
OK I hear ya, yea the rag mags alone can make it seem that way. One thing to think of is those same mags rate the C6Z06 at 1.05 lateral G, the 2011 GT500 at 1.01 ... and the vette has significantly better tire setup.
Another Pro I'd add is the electronic pkg, like mentioned earlier. I'm not big on those things in general, but the my sync thing is very nice, nicer than I've had in my BMW's.
Well its hard to say. Id like to say that i was keeping up with him, but i do believe i was driving harder than he was. I was still impressed with my cars performance for the weight. With me (200lb) and the 275lb instructor my car was pushing 4500lbs. The vette driver was solo in the HPDE2 class. His car prob weighed in around 3400lbs with him in it
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