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Which Would You Have: A Shelby GT350, Or A Ford F-150 Raptor?

Lucky for all of us, Ford Performance is coming out with some truly great machinery of late.

At the lower end of the price (and performance) spectrum, there’s the Fiesta ST, Focus ST, and new Focus RS with its sophisticated all-wheel-drive system and 350 horsepower. At the top end, there’s the forthcoming Ford GT supercar. And somewhere in the middle are the Ford Shelby GT350 Mustang, and the Ford F-150 Raptor.

It’s those last two that we’re mostly interested in right now. With a starting price of $56,495 including destination, a 2017 Shelby GT350 will run just several thousand more than a base F-150 Raptor ($49,520), yet their respective uses could hardly be more disparate. While both are high-performance passenger vehicles, the Shelby GT350 is most at-home is on the smooth, well-paved corners of a race track. The Ford F-150 Raptor, meanwhile, begs to be thrashed along on unpaved desert paths and subjected to suspension-torturing rock crawls.

And perhaps that will turn out to be the deciding factor for people considering each of these high-performance vehicles. It could be said that the F-150 Raptor, although newer, less-expensive, and arguably niftier than the track-focused Shelby GT350, requires that the owner have access to some decent trails if he or she is to make full use of the truck. The Mustang can likely be used to a fuller extent on good old public roads.

At any rate, we want to know: which of these high-performance machines would you rather spend over $50k on? Would you have the most track-capable Mustang ever built, or the desert-racing-bred F-150 Raptor?

Aaron Brzozowski is a writer and motoring enthusiast from Detroit with an affinity for '80s German steel. He is not active on the Twitter these days, but you may send him a courier pigeon.

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Comments

  1. I voted for the Raptor only because I would use it as my work truck and earn the $ to by the GT 350 why 1 when you can have both . my thoughts. Ryan Torrey From Torrey Do It All

    Reply
  2. News flash the wheel has never been reinvented !
    Sales process needs
    Reinvented, Not home, or dealer. Rather ( every family has
    Vehicle. Life style Need,) Discovery that is an art! From discovery on phone…in ATL.
    Caller wanted triple black Town
    Car. Mr. Bradley vehicle has
    Loan leveling feature. Yrs, I’m
    Disabled Police Officer. Tell you
    What 13 other dealers tell you
    Anything. I’ll drive the exact.vehicle your drive way (200miles) away fly home. A-ok? Yes..I was marketing consultant.678.313.7426 Richard M Royal all best!

    Reply
  3. How bout an all new Ranchero stand alone model on the Mustang chassis. The Torino based 1975, 460 engine Ranchero was a big hit. Sports truck. Kinda like a Mustang for adults . Aussie UTE. Fun and practical.

    Reply

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