Following its debut last September, the all-new, 2024 Ford Mustang is currently in production, though undergoing quality checks before customer deliveries begin. At the same time, there is one notable omission from the lineup – the Mustang Shelby GT500, which bowed out following the 2022 model year, one year before the rest of the S550-generation model in general. However, it’s seemingly only a matter of time before the mighty GT500 makes a comeback, and this interesting prototype spotted by Ford Authority may signal that such a vehicle is in development right now.
Spotted looking relatively normal up front but wearing camouflage around its deckled and rear spoiler, this very interesting Mustang Shelby GT500 has some other notable yet strange features present, too. That includes the exhaust, where the driver’s side pipes seem to be hanging lower than the passenger side, and there are remnants of bubble camo around the upper portion of the exhaust outlet to boot – which could be heat shielding of some sort. Finally, there is camo on rear glass designed to hide a roll cage that’s mounted inside the cabin, which we can clearly see in one of these shots.
Even more notably, this particular vehicle is in the possession of Roush Performance, which was heavily involved in the development of the S550 generation GT500 – and will also have a hand in developing the next-gen model as well. It’s a bit ironic that Roush is helping to develop a Shelby model in general, but as we can clearly see, the driver of this particular mule is wearing a Roush lanyard.
In any event, this Mustang Shelby GT500 is likely a test bed for components destined to be used in the S650-gen GT500, though the fact that it’s equipped with a roll cage is unusual, regardless. As Ford Authority previously reported, the next-gen GT500 is expected to debut in 2025 for the 2026 model year, so we’ll certainly be seeing more of the range-topping model in the near future.
We’ll have more on the S650 Ford Mustang GT500 soon, so be sure and subscribe to Ford Authority for more Ford Mustang news, Mustang Shelby GT500 news, and comprehensive Ford news coverage.
Comments
The only thing that could make the current GT500 more impressive would be some sort of hybrid system. It is already the king of the hill and it’s two competitors from Detroit are bowing out.
During the testing phase of the S650 Mustang, there was a video of a Mustang driving but with no sound, now at the time there were speculations of a hybrid system but that doesn’t seem to be case when the S650 arrived, my assumptions is that it was the eco boost which made sound very quite and this hard to hear which gave the illusion that it was driving without a sound, but if I am not mistaken, after a while in the video, the sound suddenly appeared
And there were reports of a possible 6.8L V8 for both the F150 and the new Mustang but not sure about the credibility of it, there was a video of a GT350 with a Godzilla engine and ford trademark “Megazilla” if I am not mistaken, oh and keep in mind that the Godzilla engine is a crate engine which can be fitted in most cars even classic mustangs so maybe either the 7.3L V8 or some sort of hybrid V8 (not Godzilla) or maybe the 7.3L V8 but hybrid
I think Ford learned from their mistakes when they only put the auto in the GT500, I think they will also include manual option
I wish they’d just give it the same headlights as the new mustang…
It’s still a prototype, I believe the reason why they didn’t put the refresh headlights on the GT500 was because it affected the front end (don’t remember what exactly) but I think that the next GT500 (if such thing even exists) might be the new S650 Mustang with no borrowed headlights nor taillights from the previous gen, beside, the S650 design is sleeker and might help with aerodynamics and handling
Wharton is the point of pouring in so much horsepower without a 4WD transmission ? I guess they don’t want to bother Audi, Porsche, Mercedes and BMW to much !
If it isn’t twin turbo with all wheel drive, I’ll just keep my 22 GT500.
F turbo lag. Give me supercharger.
Again with the cheap a$$ cop car looking black wheels! Can you not put machined or polished wheels at least on your expensive vehicles so they don’t look like the cheap model after you’ve spent so much money on them? If nothing else, they should at least be a no cost option.
The fact that they are covering up just the back makes me think that this was a test bed for the GTD/maybe future Mustang transaxle, which is by far the most likely option. The other option is that it’s a fan-car test, but that technology has been banned on pretty much everything and is only used on one-off prototypes and 2 seven figure hypercars,