Jmeo's 2020 Shelby American GT500 SE Wide Body Build (+ "Phase 2")

[Jmeo]

Well, the wife and I fly to Vegas tomorrow morning! I will be attending cars & coffee @ Shelby Saturday morning, then the first 15 event starts at 1700 PST. To say I am excited is an understatement.

 

[Jmeo]

I did not know that. The hood that I tried to buy was about 10 pounds heavier than the dry carbon. If you are after weight savings, its worth the extra coin.

I missed this post, sorry.

Weight savings is not a priority for me, but I know the value to most regarding shedding some post holiday weight. To be honest, I never really knew there were different types of carbon. I am happy that the hood that I am getting on my car is the better quality of the two.

 

[Jmeo]

It’s kinda weird to fly all this way here, and to be staying only 3.5 miles away from my car. Come on Saturday!

View attachment 570503

 

[biminiLX]

Very cool Jaime!
Enjoy the trip!
-J

 

[Stage_3]

Awesome Jaime!
Enjoy your stay.

 

[Jmeo]

Well, I got home three nights ago, but I have been at work pretty much ever since, so here we go with an update.

First, let me start by saying that I have met some really great people from this forum, and this recent experience is no exception. I was given the absolute best experience one could ask for, when it come to visiting Shelby American.

Flash forward to Saturday morning, the wife and I Uber'd to cars & coffee @ Shelby to meet with a friend (Ron) from this forum. He introduced us to the General Sales Manager (Jason) from Bill Pierre Ford, in Seattle. He is the largest Shelby Performance retailer (75%) in the US, and is responsible for financing many Shelby prototypes, such as the Super Snake Sport Truck (he owns PP001). We also were introduced to the West Coast Sales Rep (Eric) for Shelby American, and Tuscany Motors. They then took us inside to meet Chris Ruby, my contact at Shelby. Now the four of them gave us an up close and personal tour of the Shelby facility, and the warehouse that houses the overflow cars. We were able to see every step of the process, and we were completely blown away.

As far as my car, unfortunately the stars did not align, and I did not get to see it. I was able to see at least a half dozen other 2020 GT500 SE cars (among many, many other Shelby builds), in various stages of the process from disassembly, body, suspension, interior... everything.

I was told that the rear quarters of my car have been widened, and the car (along with all associated pieces) has been sent to paint, and that's why it was not in the shop. Just bad timing. The silver lining is that my car has officially started the longest part of the process, which is GREAT! Just yesterday Chris called me to finalize a few things before the stripes were painted, so this means we are rolling now.

I forgot to ask, but I believe once the car comes back from paint, it will go on a lift to get the suspension & engine compartment work done. Somewhere in this process the interior will get done. The final step is when the finishing touches, like badging, get done. I was told probably two month until completion.

Since there have been may pictures of the orange car (CSM001), I did not take pictures of other peoples cars. At this point, we know what the car is going to look like, just not a Ford Performance Blue version........ I did grab some pictures of the suspension, which was the only thing that I did not have any concrete information on.

What you see here is the pallet that holds all the parts for the particular car that was being assembled. Heat exchanger, intercooler, suspension, pulley assembly, engine caps, etc...

This coilover system is the first of its kind in a Mustang. First thing of note is, this system works in conjunction with Magnaride, and retains all suspension modes. I am very happy to hear this, I was worried that the suspension would not be adjustable, and the toggle switch on the dash would be rendered useless. Also, by using the supplied TCU, Vince LaViolette was able to custom tune the suspension to outperform the factory suspension tune.

The front uniquely combines the factory dampener with the adjustable coilover spring.

The rear uses a double spring setup, giving a progressive ride control. There is a smaller (black) spring on the bottom, and a larger (orange) spring on top. Nestled between the two springs is the hight adjustment perch.

Now, the Shelby event was at 5:30 PM that evening. The above mentioned people were nice enough to ask us to come early for an unveiling of some kind. Needless to say, we were extremely grateful, and graciously accepted. It ended up being the one off 2021 "Hope Edition" GT500SE that was commissioned by the non profit Cruise for a Cause. This is an antimatter blue CFTP car that was converted for this cancer fundraiser.

In this photo are Garry Patterson (President of SA), Vince LaViolette (VP), Aaron Shelby (grandson of Carroll Shelby), and Dan Neve (founder of Cruise for a Cause).

After the unveiling, my new friends brought the wife and I behind the ropes, where we spent the next 1.5 hours sitting at a table with everyone from the above photo, along with Ron, Jason & Eric . I could not believe that I was able to sit and talk with each of these really great people. They were all completely down to earth, and very easy to be around. This was an experience that I will NEVER forget! I owe all of this to Ron for taking me under his wing, and introducing me to all them. If it were not for him, none of this would have happened. A very special shout out to Jason & Eric for taking me along for this very special ride. Two of the greatest people in the industry.

Lets just say, new relationships have formed, and I am now (soon enough) the proud owner of the upcoming 2022 Shelby Super Snake F150 (thanks Jason & Eric)! This is a story in itself, that is best left for the F150 forum, lol.

Finally, the "first fifteen" event was a major success as well. More information, tours and food & drink. Just an amazing experience. If life is about making memories, then this has been some of the best memories I will ever make.

I met just about everyone from Shelby American, and they are all amazing people. Matt, Sarah, Jonathan, Scott Black and many more. I highly recommend that you all get there at some point in your life.


Oh, and I got to sign the wall

 

[Jmeo]

I have never seen a right hand drive Mustang before, and this is probably the most beautiful Super Snake I have ever seen. I had to share.

 

[Jmeo]

These are too good NOT to post.

 

[Jmeo]

Yes, I geeked out and got pictures with Gary, Vince & Aaron. Look how tall I am.......

 

[Mach VII]

Jamie, thank you for taking us along 'for the ride' in your incredible experience. If you are ever heading through the Berkshires it would be an honor to get a glimpse of your bad-ass car!

 

[Decible]

Congrats Jamie!!! So is the new suspension coil overs or is the the factory mag shocks with new springs and DSC module with a new tune?

PS- see you should have went White. Everyone knows they are faster!!

 

[HoosierDaddy]

Congrats Jamie!!! So is the new suspension coil overs or is the the factory mag shocks with new springs and DSC module with a new tune?

PS- see you should have went White. Everyone knows they are faster!!

White with blue supersnake stripes? I dunno

 

[Jmeo]

Jamie, thank you for taking us along 'for the ride' in your incredible experience. If you are ever heading through the Berkshires it would be an honor to get a glimpse of your bad-ass car!

Thanks for the kind words. I sure will, and if you ever make it out near me, shoot me a message. I’m 50 and I have been into mustangs since I got my license, and I have never seen a wide body (excluding bolt on kits) in person. They are far from ordinary out here.

 

[Jmeo]

Congrats Jamie!!! So is the new suspension coil overs or is the the factory mag shocks with new springs and DSC module with a new tune?

PS- see you should have went White. Everyone knows they are faster!!

Yes, they are coilovers. What they have done for the front is swap the stock spring for an adjustable coilover spring. This allows the best of both worlds of having the factory Magnarideheight adjustment capabilities.

The rear is a dual spring setup, with the height adjustment perch in between the two springs.

This setup swaps the factory TCU module with an included module, which Shelby loaded a proprietary suspension tune into. Pretty awesome, and one of a kind setup.

I will be sure to post up many better, close up pictures of everything once I get the car home to me.

I love white, hell my 2020 F150 limited is Star White. You may have read that I have ordered a 2022 F150 Super Snake, and it will be white with FPB painted stripes.

But..... as far as Mustangs, FordPerformance Blue is the ONLY color that even has “performance” sprayed in

 

[Decible]

Yes, they are coilovers. What they have done for the front is swap the stock spring for an adjustable coilover spring. This allows the best of both worlds of having the factory Magnarideheight adjustment capabilities.

The rear is a dual spring setup, with the height adjustment perch in between the two springs.

This setup swaps the factory TCU module with an included module, which Shelby loaded a proprietary suspension tune into. Pretty awesome, and one of a kind setup.

I will be sure to post up many better, close up pictures of everything once I get the car home to me.

I love white, hell my 2020 F150 limited is Star White. You may have read that I have ordered a 2022 F150 Super Snake, and it will be white with FPB painted stripes.

But..... as far as Mustangs, FordPerformance Blue is the ONLY color that even has “performance” sprayed in

Awww man….everyone knows we don’t need to call it performance white. It’s been sprayed into every mustang since 1965!

So the suspension then no longer uses “magnaride” then