Ford's most powerful car can cost nearly $100,000
New York(CNN Business) Ford's new supercharged high-performance Mustang, the Shelby GT500, is the most powerful car Ford has ever produced — and it will have a price to match.
The 760 horsepower car will start at about $74,000, including $1,100 in destination charges and a $2,600 federal "gas guzzler" tax. With all available performance options added on, prices will reach $97,000. Those performance options include a "carbon fiber trim" package that, by itself, will cost $18,500.
The price is similar to that of its rivals, such as the 797 horsepower Dodge Challenger Hellcat Redeye, which costs about $78,000.
It's far more than the price of an entry-level Ford Mustang which, with its 310-horsepower four-cylinder engine, costs about $26,000. The Mustang's extraordinarily wide range of versions and prices is one reason Ford has kept the model in production, even while dropping other cars from its lineup in favor of SUVs and crossovers.
The GT500 will go on sale in the fall. Combined with a seven-speed automatic transmission, its supercharged V8 engine will enable the car to go 0 to 60 in about 3.5 seconds, according to Ford. Manual transmission will not be offered.
The first Shelby Mustangs were created in the 1960s, not long after the Mustang was introduced. Shelby American, a manufacturer of high-performance cars, originally made Shelby Mustangs by customizing Mustangs purchased from Ford. Shelby GT500s from the 1960s can be worth hundreds of thousands of dollars today.
Shelby American still makes such cars, some with even more horsepower than this car. And Ford now makes its own Shelby Mustangs such as the GT500 and the 562 horsepower Shelby GT350.
