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2010 Ford Shelby GT500 squeezes out an extra 2 MPG

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Ford has managed to eke out an extra 2 miles per gallon on the highway from the heavily revised 2010 Shelby GT500, bringing its EPA estimated figures to 14 mpg city and 22 mpg highway. Sure, it seems rather unlikely that buyers considering a muscle car will be all that concerned with fuel economy, but we’ll take what we can get, especially since the fuel economy increase is accompanied by a bump up to 540 horsepower and a stump-pulling 510 lb-ft of torque. Plus, an increase in highway mileage means fewer stops on long trips, and that’s always welcome in our book.

Now, all of this is fine and dandy, but we all know the real reason this car exists is to obliterate its tires on every 4.3-second blast to 60 mph. Fortunately for fans of ridiculous straight-line acceleration, the revisions that make the latest Shelby more fuel efficient also also end up contributing to its ability to accelerate. The biggest change that helps on the highway is numerically lower gearing in the transmission for the fifth and sixth cogs, which, combined with a 3.55:1 axle ratio, allows the baddest ‘Stang to boast improved acceleration in the first four gears to go along with the lowered RPM highway drone made possible by the last two gears.

Ford also points to a refined air intake and a revised twin-disc clutch as reasons that the 2010 Shelby GT500 is a step above its predecessor, and we also took note of the vastly superior interior that’s standard in all new Mustangs when we last looked at the GT500. Click here to read all about it, and click past the break for the mpg-touting press release.

[Source: Ford]

This entry was posted on Wednesday, April 1st, 2009 at 1:59 pm and is filed under Shelby. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.

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