Shelby, the Ford Mustang tuner who quite easily grabbed the spotlight in last year’s New York Auto Show with their insane, asphalt-ripping 800 hp GT500 Super Snake, is all set to repeat the feat with the Shelby 1000.
The 2012 Roush Stage 3 Mustang is now officially available at Ford showrooms in the UAE. If anyone remembers, the Roush Mustang was offered with the cheesy “The Shamal” branding last year, but this year, it will simply go as the “Roush Stage 3” Mustang, with more power for 2012.
Ladies and gentlemen, behold the most powerful series-production Mustang ever – the 2013 Ford Shelby GT500. Supposedly sporting the “world’s most powerful” production V8 engine, the all-new Shelby GT500 is what we have in store for 2013; and with enormous power, the future looks bright.
Those who’ve already put down a deposit for a 2012 Ford Mustang (like we almost did) will be in for a mild shock, as the value-packed muscle-car has received a GT500-inspired facelift for 2013, along with a few mild tweaks.
Ford Middle East hosted a three-day public event dubbed Can-A-Car at the end of July at the Dubai Autodrome. The event was aimed at publicising Ford’s latest American line-up, including the all-new 2012 Ford Explorer. And a fair number of visitors to the event happened to be our regular readers, though all of them showed up at different times on different days.
The 2011 Ford Mustang GT, the 2010 Dodge Challenger and the 2010 Chevrolet Camaro SS all have three things in common. All three are retro-styled Americans, all three are V8-powered muscle cars, and all three have more than 400 horses. Each. This comparo has been a long time coming. Everyone else has already done their armchair evaluations, simply comparing manufacturer figures, snapping a few photos and calling it a day. It took us a spread of six months to be able to drive all three of these direct competitors. We have neither the time nor the resources to pull in all three cars together.
Al Tayer Motors and Premier Motors, the UAE’s Ford dealers, have been appointed the official UAE dealers for ROUSH products, and their first offering is ‘The Shamal’, also known as the 2011 Roush Mustang.
Today’s new cars are, supposedly, much more reliable than before. It is certainly true, to a certain extent. American cars nowadays are much more reliable than the crap they churned out in the 1980s. On the other hand, German cars are actually less reliable now than the rock-solid ones of the 1980s, thanks largely to their excessive reliance on electronics. It’s only the Japanese that have maintained their standards for the last couple of decades. But even they are not immune to problems, as recent recalls have shown. We took a look around the internet and found alleged issues involving the 2010-2011 Nissan Patrol,
Roush unveiled their 5XR tuner sports car, based on the 2011 Ford Mustang GT 5.0, back in October in the United States. And according to Ford’s dealer website in Dubai, the Roush Mustang is already officially on sale in the UAE alongside the regular Mustang GT and the Shelby GT500. The 5XR package, which includes “RoushCharger” engine upgrade components, is seemingly being called the “The Shamal” 500R kit in the GCC.
Forget the 0-100 sprints and the lap times. When it comes down to a muscle car like the 2011 Ford Mustang GT, it needs to be practical to sell. Otherwise, if cars sold solely on its performance credentials, Ford would just build a two-seater with no boot, and no leather, and no radio.