Shelby Shifts Gears-('12 and '13 GT500)

[65SC]

New Shelby American president John Luft talks about the future of the Shelby brand in an exclusive Mustang Monthly interview
From the June, 2010 issue of Mustang Monthly
By Donald Farr
Photography by Donald Farr


In April, Carroll Shelby International announced that it had reached the halfway point in reshaping its Shelby American subsidiary to focus on post-title vehicle (http://www.mustangmonthly.com/featuredvehicles/mump_100616_john_luft_shelby_american_president_ex clusive_interview/index.html#) programs and high-performance parts along with a new speed shop business. Another big change came when Shelby announced that long-time company president Amy Boylan had left the company and was being replaced by John Luft from Shelby's licensing division. We recently had the chance to talk with John to learn more about his background and his plans for Shelby American's future.
http://www.mustangmonthly.com/featuredvehicles/mump_100616_john_luft_shelby_american_president_ex clusive_interview/index.html

[Gr8snkbite]

seeing 12 and 13's will be interesting...if it truly unfolds...

[68fastback]

From the context it seemed clear that Ford is doing the GT500 (as in the past) with the perfunctory Shelby fairy-dust sprinkled on as was for 2006, etc. So it sounds like the license agreement will be extended (or has already). So, how long will the 5.4 stay around? Will Ford keep paying Honsel? Will they have Cleveland or Windsor cast it? Will they go to the 5.0 Coyote block? Will the Coyote get spraybore in 2012/13 and therefore be capable of 5.4? :weg: Will it be 5.0 but supercharged -- with TiVCT? :weg: If it was rated at 560-600bHP wouid anyone mind if it was a 5.0 Shelby GT500? ...or a 5.0 Shelby GT500TT? Or a 5.0 Shelby GT500 King Cobra :weg: TiVCT and Turbos do complicate life for the enthusiast/aftermarket but I can't see the present 5.4 'hotrod' architecture lasting long going forward.

Do MC and Stew have the last of the GT500 'hotrods'? :shades:

[HSURB]

From the context it seemed clear that Ford is doing the GT500 (as in the past) with the perfunctory Shelby fairy-dust sprinkled on as was for 2006, etc. So it sounds like the license agreement will be extended (or has already). So, how long will the 5.4 stay around? Will Ford keep paying Honsel? Will they have Cleveland or Windsor cast it? Will they go to the 5.0 Coyote block? Will the Coyote get spraybore in 2012/13 and therefore be capable of 5.4? :weg: Will it be 5.0 but supercharged -- with TiVCT? :weg: If it was rated at 560-600bHP wouid anyone mind if it was a 5.0 Shelby GT500? ...or a 5.0 Shelby GT500TT? Or a 5.0 Shelby GT500 King Cobra :weg: TiVCT and Turbos do complicate life for the enthusiast/aftermarket but I can't see the present 5.4 'hotrod' architecture lasting long going forward.

Do MC and Stew have the last of the GT500 'hotrods'? :shades:

All good points Dan - but as usual you're really bending my mind and am confused now. :haha:

HSURB®

[Stew]

From the context it seemed clear that Ford is doing the GT500 (as in the past) with the perfunctory Shelby fairy-dust sprinkled on as was for 2006, etc. So it sounds like the license agreement will be extended (or has already). So, how long will the 5.4 stay around? Will Ford keep paying Honsel? Will they have Cleveland or Windsor cast it? Will they go to the 5.0 Coyote block? Will the Coyote get spraybore in 2012/13 and therefore be capable of 5.4? :weg: Will it be 5.0 but supercharged -- with TiVCT? :weg: If it was rated at 560-600bHP wouid anyone mind if it was a 5.0 Shelby GT500? ...or a 5.0 Shelby GT500TT? Or a 5.0 Shelby GT500 King Cobra :weg: TiVCT and Turbos do complicate life for the enthusiast/aftermarket but I can't see the present 5.4 'hotrod' architecture lasting long going forward.

Do MC and Stew have the last of the GT500 'hotrods'? :shades:

I sure hope not.

[68fastback]

I sure hope not.

I hope not too, but...

All good points Dan - but as usual you're really bending my mind and am confused now. :haha:

HSURB®

lol ...I'm confused too, Tim. ;-)

...no evidence of the 5.4 being provisioned for TiVCT to reduce impact on the big 2012 CAFE bump and no evidence of Romeo niche having their contract extended on the 5.4. Ford could certainly 'decide' to take the CAFE 'hit' of the 5.4 a bit longer (if politically acceptable to Ford) since it's a relatively low volume build and the 5.0 GT will likely make it lower going forward (2011 GT500 build mix is under 10%) ...but will they? Alternatively, Ford could probably pick up 3 mpg with a Coyote TiVCT-based GT500.

Will be very interesting to see what has been decided since any new 2012 powertrains would already be long developed and well into field testing by now.

[Alloy Dave]

From the context it seemed clear that Ford is doing the GT500 (as in the past) with the perfunctory Shelby fairy-dust sprinkled on as was for 2006, etc. So it sounds like the license agreement will be extended (or has already). So, how long will the 5.4 stay around? Will Ford keep paying Honsel? Will they have Cleveland or Windsor cast it? Will they go to the 5.0 Coyote block? Will the Coyote get spraybore in 2012/13 and therefore be capable of 5.4? :weg: Will it be 5.0 but supercharged -- with TiVCT? :weg: If it was rated at 560-600bHP wouid anyone mind if it was a 5.0 Shelby GT500? ...or a 5.0 Shelby GT500TT? Or a 5.0 Shelby GT500 King Cobra :weg: TiVCT and Turbos do complicate life for the enthusiast/aftermarket but I can't see the present 5.4 'hotrod' architecture lasting long going forward.

Do MC and Stew have the last of the GT500 'hotrods'? :shades:
What is the weight of the 5.0 vs. 5.4? I'd be ok with a 5.0 at same/higher HP/torque. TT doesn't do it for me...I'd opt for a different car.

Dan, I don't know much about the TiVCT, are they mechanically controlled or computer/tunable?

[68fastback]

What is the weight of the 5.0 vs. 5.4? I'd be ok with a 5.0 at same/higher HP/torque. TT doesn't do it for me...I'd opt for a different car.

Dan, I don't know much about the TiVCT, are they mechanically controlled or computer/tunable?

All computer controlled, +/- 25* independent on both I & E.

I think the 5.0 alloy block is roughly comparable in weight to the '11 5.4 Honsel block. 5.0 NA is much lighter than SC 5.4 tho. A TT 5.0 might be +/-175# lighter than alloy ' 5.4 (125# on tt vs SC, 50# headers). Similarly dressed (same SC, cooling, headers, etc) I'd think they'd be similar in weight.

[Alloy Dave]

All computer controlled, +/- 25* independent on both I & E.

I think the 5.0 alloy block is roughly comparable in weight to the '11 5.4 Honsel block. 5.0 NA is much lighter than SC 5.4 tho. A TT 5.0 might be +/-175# lighter than alloy ' 5.4 (125# on tt vs SC, 50# headers). Similarly dressed (same SC, cooling, headers, etc) I'd think they'd be similar in weight.
:tiphat:

[68fastback]

Ford has a bunch of patents on TiVCT too ...an elegant but extraordinarily creative approach. It harnesses existing valvetrain dynamics already acting on the cams in real-time to tortionally index the cams ...the oil essentially hydraulically holds the position (for every instant in time during indexing and when the positon is not changing at all), so no special hi-pressure oiling is needed (which would waste pumping energy 100% of the time) -- i.e. they're essentially simply relying on the non-compressibility of the oil, not oil pressure energy per se. As as result it's a very efficient system than can index full-range in a fraction of a second ...pretty amazing how they can computer control that! Thank goodness Ford abandoned it's earlier approach (R&D 2001ish paper) which was a primitive 3-step servo-hydraulic design ...tho they probably learned from it.