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It is no secret that Ford Mustang sales are slipping to the revived Camaro, and even with Boss 302 Mustang production in full thing, the gap is getting ever wider. And then there is the Camaro ZL1, a direct competitor to the Shelby GT500, which has dominated the high-end muscle car market for the past five years or so. How should Ford respond to the 550 horsepower threat of the ZL1? How can the GT500 survive until the next-generation Mustang arrives in 2014?
Car & Driver reports that Ford’s answer is bump the GT500 up to 600 horsepower. But there will be no turbocharger, as many outlets (including us) have speculated after the most recent GT500 spy shots surfaced and clearly showed an intercooler peaking out from behind the front fascia.
Instead, C&D reports that inside sources tell them that the current GT500 is due for a nice horsepower boost, up to 600 ponies, thanks to an improved supercharger system that includes a new intercooler Honestly, that makes a lot more sense than switching from a supercharger to a turbo system two years before an all-new Mustang is due out anyway.
But does Ford really intend to push the GT500 (GT600??) all the way up to such a huge number? What of the supposed Ford GT successor we’ve been hearing about? Where would that leave Ford’s supposed future halo car? We’ve got many more questions than this about the upcoming GT500, but we’ll probably have to wait until 2013 at the earliest to get any real, definitive answers, unfortunately. For now, it’s just more and more speculation. And a 600 horsepower GT500 would be a great send off for the SN197 Mustang lineup.
