New GT350 to include better brakes, suspension

Ford Motor Co.’s new Mustang Shelby GT350 will hit dealer lots this fall with better brakes, a lighter and stiffer chassis and new suspension that will help it handle better on both racetracks and roadways.

“Our performance vehicles are legendary,” Dave Pericak, director of Ford Performance, said Tuesday at an event with reporters. “When the 350 was introduced in 1965, it was a wake-up call for the industry. When we took on this project, we took it on with the same mindset that they had back then, which was to develop the ultimate-handling Mustang.”

For the first time in a Mustang, the Shelby GT350 will include MagneRide shocks that are filled with a hydraulic fluid impregnated with iron particles that can react in 7 milliseconds.

Its suspension includes new aluminum front knuckles that help save weight and have better steering.

The brakes were designed in-house with the largest rotors Ford has ever put on a production Mustang. The 394-millimeter front rotors and 380-millimeter rear rotors are a floating type and are pin-driven to its aluminum hats to reduce heat transfer to the bearings. They are clamped by six-piston Brembo calipers.

“It’s the best-stopping brake system we’ve ever had in a Mustang,” Pericak said.

Ford partnered with Michelin to make 19-inch aluminum-alloy wheels — 10.5 inches wide in front, 11 inches wide in the rear — clad in Michelin Pilot Super Sport tires with GT350-specific sidewall construction, tread face and compound. The GT350R will use lightweight carbon-fiber wheels.

Dealers will start taking customer orders for the performance pony car in about a month, Pericak said.

Ford said it will make a hyper-limited amount of 2015 model year GT350s and GT350Rs. It will make 100 GT350s and 37 GT350Rs with a 2015 VIN in honor of the car’s 50th anniversary.

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