Photos By Editorial Director Mark Gearhart

For the debut of the GT350 click here

Earlier today we brought you the debut of the 2015 GT350 in Ford’s official press release. We were invited to a press event surrounding the car in Los Angeles with Ford and other members of the media and we had the opportunity to find out more about the GT350 and answer some of the key questions surrounding this car.

The Basics

The GT350 celebrates 50th anniversary of Ford’s partnership with Carroll Shelby. Ford commissioned Shelby to take the Mustang racing, and give it a performance image. It’s a familiar tale, and one that created the legendary Shelby Mustangs of both the first generation cars, and the S197 iterations.

The all new GT350 builds upon that racing heritage with a lightweight, track bred car. This one won’t rely on brute strength like the S197 GT500 did, instead, it will use technology to create a powerful, but nimble car, that is at home on the street or the road course.

Appearance

The GT350 will make use of a new front clip (dog house) with unique front fenders, hood, and nose. The grille surround is constructed using injection molded carbon fiber. A technology that is new to auto manufacturing at this scale, and specifically to Ford.

The hood is lower, and sort of wraps the engine, with a pronounced bulge, the effect is said to improve the aerodynamics of the car. It also features an extractor scoop that not only pulls heat from the engine compartment, but also vents air from the front of the car reducing high speed lift.

Before the GT350 was revealed at the Shelby SoCal facility, there was a mini car show in the parking lot. StangTV represented by bringing out our project Biting the Bullitt

The front fenders have been sculpted to accommodate the car’s wider track. These too feature functional venting that will remove air from the wheel wells of the car, again improving aero. Ford used aluminum for the fenders, and hood. Ford officials were silent as to what specifically is different in this engine verses (aside from the crank) from the standard Coyote.

Additionally the front nose features a unique upper and lower grill opening, as well as provisions to allow for the addition of brake cooling ducts, and to feed air to engine, and transmission oil coolers.

Chassis

According to Jim Farley, track testing was an essential part of GT350 development. The two key tracks he mentioned during the press conference were the Nurburgring, and VIR. The chassis will use MagneRide dampers, which can adjust every 10-milliseconds to changes in the road or track condition. This ultra responsive system should help take the average driver from zero to hero the track, and inspire even more confidence in well trained drivers. “Every part of the suspension has been refined to meet the specific targets that we set for this car,” says Farley.

The suspension spring rates have been returned, and the ride height is lower than a standard Mustang GT. Ford has also revised the bushings.

“The braking system was an extremely critical target for us”, says Farley. The GT350 will use gigantic 15.5-inch rotors with six-pot Brembo calipers on the front, and 15-inch rotors with four-pot calipers on the rear, the GT350 should have some extreme braking capability. Ford chose to use two piece rotors in lieu of Carbon Ceramic brakes to keep the cost of ownership low.

Those huge brakes are tucked nicely behind all new aluminum alloy wheels, which Ford says are high strength. The wheels measure 19-inches in diameter front and rear, and 10.5 inches wide up front, 11-inches wide int he rear. Michelin created a special version of the grippy Pilot Super Sport tires with unique GT350 specific sidewalls, tread face, and compound for this car.

Engine

The only thing we know about the GT350 engine is that it’s a 5.2-liter with a flat plane crankshaft. This is the only sighting of the engine at the reveal. While many have talked about a Coyote that will make power to 8,000+ for the GT350, we know from at least the previous generation Coyote that the stock intake manifold doesn’t support power that high up…unless they have something really special going on inside.

The engine is the real jewel of the GT350. Ford engineers are quoted as saying this is the most extensive engineering exercise the company has ever undertaken. The first ever for Ford, production Flat-Plane crankshaft V8 will be the heart of the GT350. “We feel the naturally aspirated V8 is essential to deliver that real performance feeling,” says Farley.

A flat-plane crank places events 180 degrees apart, rather than the traditional American V8 90 degrees events. This permits the firing order to alternate between each bank of cylinders. This reduces the exhaust overlap that gives most American V8s their lumpy and smooth sound. “The flat-plane crank is something the engineering team really fought for,” says Farley.

This combined with additional advancements in the engine, including new cylinder heads will yield what Ford says is more than 500 hp and at least 400 ft-lbs of torque. The torque curve of this engine is said to be broad and flat, allowing drivers to wring out the car.

We were looking for specific information on the engine, to which Ford representatives commented, that they can’t give the specifics yet. “We will be doing the deep dive on the engine later. There is an interesting story about where this engine came from, where the tech came from, that we’ll share in the future, but not yet,” says a Ford official on the site. We tried to probe further, to get additional information by asking if it was based on the Coyote 5.0, or how many components were shared, the response we received “It’s an all new engine, completely new, the percentage number is so small it’s not even something we’re interested in quoting.”

Drivetrain

The engine is mated to a Tremec transmission, we’re assuming the TR606 which is the same one used in the Shelby GT500. Farley says the transmission is smooth shifting, and able to provide shifts at high RPM.

Out back the IRS rear suspension is outfitted with a Torsen differential. Ford officials say this was a product developed specific for the GT350 in house at Ford with Torsen. They wouldn’t get deeper into the technical specifications during the media event.

We realized after the fact that we got a glimpse of the GT350’s gauge cluster as it was lit up, which clearly shows a rev limiter of about 8,200 rpm. This means to the aftermarket that this engine looks to be 9,000 rpm capable.

Interior

Inside the car aside from the unique Recaro seats, and muted tones that are intended to reduce light reflection, there’s also a bevy of track apps. These apps will control not only the steering, abs, throttle input, and traction control, but also the response of the MagneRide shocks, and even the exhaust note. The track apps will also provide performance data, including G-force, lap times, etc.

One of the things we’re left wondering is will any of these parts be available in the Ford Racing Parts Catalog? In the past various components from the GT500, as well as other SVT models, including the Cobra R, were available for enthusiasts to buy and put in their own cars. This included engines, and engine components, wheels, suspension components, appearance items, and more.  We asked one Ford official, who commented “You would think. It would obviously be a good idea to, but we haven’t gotten that far yet, we don’t have that catalog put together yet.”

Ford isn’t giving us much to go on at this point regarding the GT350. We’ve been told a technical deep dive will be available down the road, and we hope at that time we can fully explore the car and bring you much more about it.