The first impressions from today’s 2016 Shelby GT350 media event are in and early indications point to an incredible track time at the Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca.
The Detroit News is reporting that the GT350R laps the 2.2-mile Laguna Seca track in the low 1:30s which puts it right in the mix of the top performance vehicles’ track times at LS, including the Porsche 911 GT3 which confirms what we heard last month during the media ride-alongs.
“With my foot buried at 8,000 RPM and 125 MPH over the crest into Laguna Seca’s blind Turn One, the sound is glorious. This is not the ground-shaking V-8 rumble I’m familiar with from classic 600-RPM V-8s, like the Shelby GT500 drag-racer that Ford has made since 2007. No, this is more like the high-pitched bellow I hear from NASCAR V-8s that belt out 850 horses at 9,000 RPM,” noted Henry Payne of The Detroit News.
Despite combining the best attributes of the raw-powered Shelby GT500 and the handling prowess of the 2012-2013 Boss 302, the 2016 Shelby GT350 is by many accounts extremely composed and surprisingly docile on the street — with this reviewer adding that “the V-8 makes a pleasing rumble at ignition but quietly strode the boulevards of Southern California in under 3000 rpm..”
Read more reviews from today’s GT350 Mustang track event.