The 2010 Ford Shelby GT 500 Mustang was revealed January 1st of 2009 and will be one of Ford’s center pieces at the 2009 North American International Auto Show when it opens to the press in Detroit on January 11, 2009. Chief Designer, Doug Gaffka, says it was a great challenge to top a 45-year legacy, but he thinks the 2010 Mustang has surpassed them all.
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| Cut #1: | “I think this car is better than the last one, I think it's aggressive more modern and just a lot more muscle in this body than the last." :05 sec. |
| According to Gaffka, Carroll Shelby was personally involved in the design and development of this vehicle to make sure the Special Vehicle Team (SVT) built a car that would live up to the Shelby reputation. | |
| Cut #2: | "First of all when you do a Mustang you don't want to disappoint the customer, that's the most important and then its taking the car to another step of modernality and I really want to get off the heritage approach totally and really do a more modern interpretation of where the Mustang is going." :12 sec. |
| And where would that be? | |
| Cut #3: | "I think it's going in a direction we have right now a lot more body form, lot more muscularity and lot more attention to surfaces and I think that sends it to a more modern approach than today's which is a lot more liner and extruded." 11 sec. |
| Both Gaffka and his design team wanted to make a statement with the 2010 Mustang. | |
| Cut #4: | "Well the front end when you see it come up from behind you, you want to have this feeling you better get out of the way cause it's going to go past you one way or the other and that was kind of our goal." :06 sec. |
| As stylish and aggressive the exterior is on the 2010 Mustang, Gaffka says the interior is really the highpoint of the car, in a lot of ways. | |
| Cut #5: | "Because we've taken what was the previous interior which was very good and upgraded everything. The quality is better, the fit and finish is exquisite, the choice of materials is even better. Use of more aluminum, use of more leather and most importantly we have a soft Instrument Panel" :14 sec. |
| As Chief Designer, Gaffka says he worked in concert with Carroll Shelby to be sure it met with his expectations and that they never lost the definitive lines that make a Mustang… a Mustang. | |
| Cut #6: | "I think the front is very Mustang with the corral shaped grill and the placement of the headlamps and the aggressiveness of the hood, but the tail lamps, in particular, the three-bar tail lamps are very Mustang. It'll be a great feature, because the way they've been designed this year, from a hundred yards at night when they're lit, you'll know it's a Mustang, they'll be no mistaking it" :15 sec. |
| The 2010 Shelby GT 500 was engineered by Ford's Special Vehicle Team (SVT) in cooperation with Shelby Automotive. The car will be built in Flat Rock, Michigan and will be available in dealerships spring of 2009. Gaffka's parting words… "this Mustang is Fast, fun and affordable." | |
| Cut #7: | "We worked with Carroll on this car very closely and everything we did on this was approved by him and I think this is the most powerful, coolest Mustang ever done." :08 sec. |
| Volumes are still being finalized, but each Shelby Certified Dealer will receive one GT 500. The rest of the cars will be allocated based on the Shelby dealers' overall Mustang sales. |
