Twin-Screw Voodoo
Riding shotgun in the first Whipple-boosted 2016 Shelby GT350
By Steve Turner
A push of the red button and the Voodoo 5.2 comes alive. The exhaust burbles and rumbles through fully opened mufflers. It’s not until we pull away with some more generous application of the throttle that the true nature of Lethal Performance’s latest project reveals itself. Yes, this is a 2016 Shelby GT350, but as its free-flowing pipes expel the burnt E85 there is just a hint of something else under the hood—a 2.9-liter Whipple supercharger.
Regular readers know that Lethal recently became the first outfit to supercharge the new Shelby’s Flat-Plane-Crank 5.2-liter V-8. This was not without trepidation, as many postulated that this high-winding engine could never survive having something added to its carefully balanced front engine accessory drive, much less being boosted. As we now know, the Lethal GT350 readily accepted over 11 pounds of boost and produced over 800 horsepower at the rear wheels.
As Lethal’s Jared Rosen drives us around in the supercharged Shelby, the car proves amazingly docile. He reports that the car’s calibration is still a work in progress, but the GT350 doesn’t seem to mind having a supercharger atop its engine. In fact, it seems to revel in it. To learn how this boosted GT350 compares with previous Lethal projects and more, watch our in-car interview right here…
[video=youtube;-w7Hj9hTM0Y]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-w7Hj9hTM0Y[/video]
There are few places on a crisp, overcast afternoon in South Florida that provide the space to indulge in what a Whipplecharged GT350 has to offer, but when presented with a piece of open highway, Jared puts his foot to the floor. The experience is both familiar and fresh. Whether it’s the gearing or the characteristics of this highly developed machine, the torque hit is a swell rather than a brute-force punch of a Whipple GT500. However, as the rpm climbs we are pinned in the seat like a passenger on a rocket. There isn’t room to reach the top of the tach, but this combo just wants to keep pulling.
Along the way we made a pit stop to fill the tank with more of those sweet corn squeezings, the E85 smells like horsepower and we can’t help put reflect on how great the supercharged Shelby feels. Having that kind of pull under your right foot is as intoxicating as a barrel full of E85. However, to really get the full experience, you’d need a long stretch of open asphalt.
The next stop for the Lethal GT350 is, of course, the drag strip. If the 5.2-liter engine will continue to accept 11 pounds of boost and the clutch will hang on during Jeremy Martorella’s power-shifts, the hot shoe fully expects the car to dip into the 9-second range. We shall soon see…
Lethal Performance continues to push the envelope of Ford performance with its project cars and we took a ride with one of its principals, Jared Rosen, to see what a Whipple-supercharged Shelby GT350 feels like.
While many purists seem to find it sacrilegious to boost a road course-oriented car like the latest GT350, one ride in Lethal Performance’s Whipple-supercharged Shelby might just change their opinions.
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