FIRST DRIVE I FORD PERFORMANCE SHELBY GT 350
While the thrust of the GT350 update is performance,
the interior did receive some updates that give it a
more polished, comfortable feel. Now featuring a
standard machined-aluminum dash appliqué, it can
also be ordered with an optional exposed carbon fiber
version. Also standard are soft-touch materials and
stitching on the console, which gives your knee a more
comfortable place to rest. Moreover, the door panels
get dark slate Miko suede inserts, and the logos on
the supportive Recaro seats moved down from the
headrest to the seatback.In order to maximize the downforce from “the Swing”
and the grip from the new Pilot Sport Cup 2 FP tires,
Ford Performance engineers brought over the rear
sway bar from the GT350R and reduced the rear
spring rate by 6 percent.56 OCTOBER 2019 WWW.MUSTANG-360.COM
World Endurance Ford GT
and IMSA Mustang GT4,
Billy Johnson became
involved in development
driving several years ago.
His experience in a broad
range of S550s coupled with
his knack for translating a
vehicle’s behavior into words
the engineers can work with,
definitely benefitted the lat-
est Shelby GT350.
Johnson says, “It’s really
special and an honor to play
a small part in the develop-
ment of these cars and to
work with these unsung
heroes and dedicated car
guys. The engineers are pas-sionate about Mustangs, pas-
sionate about performance,
and are just a great group.
It’s really cool to see the
behind-the-scenes workings
of how cars come to market,
and to see the actual tech-
nology transfer from Ford’s
racing to the production
cars that their customers
benefit from. It’s not market-
ing hype. There are a lot of
engineers and people who I
work with in Ford Perfor-
mance who are involved and
consult on the production
car side of things. I guess you
can say that my involve-
ment as a driver is anotherexample, but there is a lot of
people and information that
is shared between racing and
production.”
In the case of the GT350,
its R-model cousin is held
up as the gold standard for
track performance. Johnson
is a fan of its characteristics,
particularly its steering
feel, so he knew just how to
work with the 2019 GT350
engineers to close the per-
formance gap.
He says, “The GT350
and GT350R were Ford’s
first cars to use MagneRide
suspension. Over the years
since then, we have furtherrefined and developed the
programming to make the
2019 GT350’s MagneRide
even better. In addition, a
significant amount of work
went into the ABS calibra-
tions, which by themselves
improved lap times by a
measurable amount. The
new ABS offers better brake
feel, communication, and
performance, and most
significantly improves the
trail-braking performance
of the car. This allows the
driver to brake later, rotate
the car quicker, and get back
to throttle sooner. It also
makes it far easier to initi-A cornerstone of the 2015-2018 GT350 is its carbon-
fiber composite grille opening reinforcement. It joins the
upper and lower framerails to stiffen the front end, and
this version was born from over 50 computer-aided engi-
neering simulations. Built from BASF Ultramid polyamide
thermoplastic resin, of which 20 percent is short carbon
fiber strands, this unit weighs just over 8 pounds and is a
couple of pounds lighter than the base Mustang’s metal
unit. This part is shared with the GT500, which also gets
hoodpins. Interestingly, our GT350 tester featured the
mounts for those GT500 hoodpins.