2020 Ford Mustang Shelby GT500 to use 3D-printed brake parts
High-tech manufacturing process makes the jump to Ford's meanest upcoming Mustang.
The upcoming Ford Mustang Shelby GT500 will make use of two 3D-printed parts in its brakes, developed at its Advanced Manufacturing Centre in Michigan.
Along with the GT500, printed parts will be used in the interior of the F-150 bound for the Chinese market. The company says it has a bank of 23 3D printers at the facility in Redford, Michigan, where around 100 people are employed.
It's worth a whopping US$45 million ($62 million) and focuses on forward-thinking technology, including virtual reality, robotics and digital manufacturing.
When it launches in Detroit, the GT500 will be the "most powerful street-legal production Ford" ever produced, with more than 522kW of power from its supercharged V8 engine.
It won't be a straight-line specialist, with Ford promising a raft of new "innovative track technologies [and] performance hardware" without actually revealing any details.
Ford is clearly taking a swipe at the Chevrolet Camaro ZL1, which makes 485kW from its 6.2-litre supercharged V8 engine. It tops out at 306km/h, and managed a 7:16.04 lap of the Nurburgring Nordschleife.
When it launches, the GT500 is one of 12 new models coming from Ford Performance by 2020. There are no plans to bring it Down Under, according to Ford Australia.
"The recently announced Mustang Shelby GT500 is a US-market model. We have no announcements to make regarding this model for Australia," the company recently told CarAdvice.
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