Loaded 2020 Ford Shelby GT500 Mustang Costs Nearly $100,000

Today, Ford Motor Company finally answered the last critical question pertaining to the 2020 Shelby GT500 Mustang – how much does it cost? I had speculated that GT500 pricing would start slightly north of where the current GT350R tops out, in the low-to-mid $70k range, and I was pretty close.

The 2020 Shelby GT500 variant of the Ford Mustang starts at $73,995, which includes $2,600 worth of Gas Guzzler Tax, but when you add in all of the key option packages, the price quickly jumps up over $90,000.

Detailed Shelby GT500 Pricing
We don’t have the full pricing layout for the 2020 Ford Mustang GT500 just yet, but we know that the base price, with Gas Guzzler Tax and destination fees, is $73,995. The most significant option package is the Carbon Fiber Track package, which adds the unique carbon fiber wheels wrapped in Michelin Pilot Sport Cup 2 tires, an adjustable carbon fiber rear wing, carbon fiber dive planes on the front fascia, Recaro front seats, carbon fiber interior trim and a rear seat delete, with an MSRP of $18,500.

You read that right - $18,500 for wheels, tires, wing, dive planes and a rear seat delete. Of course, the majority of that cost is the unique carbon fiber wheels, which are among the best rollers on the market when it comes to reducing weight without reducing structural rigidity.

Next, the GT500 comes with more reasonably-priced option packages including the $1,500 GT500 Handling Package and the $3,000 Technology Package. The Handling Package adds adjustable strut mounts, removable splitter end plates, and a Gurney flap on the standard rear spoiler. The Technology Package adds a healthier audio system, blind-spot sensors, rain-sensing wipers, navigation and some cool puddle lamps that project the Cobra logo onto the ground next to the doors. Frankly, even if you don’t care about the blind-spot system or the fancy wipers, the bigger audio system, navigation and the trick puddle lamps are all features that most buyers will want, unless they are building a track-purposed car with as little weight as possible.

So, if you get a new 2020 GT500 Mustang with the Carbon Fiber Track package, the MSRP starts around $92,495. If you add in the Technology Package, the price jumps to $95,495 and tacking on the Handling Package brings the price up to $96,995. It doesn’t seem like there will be many other options that alter the vehicle inside or out, but if you get to adding things like stripes, a custom car cover or other add-ons, buyers could end up paying over $100,000 for a new GT500 before any addition dealership markup.

That is a whole lot of money, but we are talking about the greatest-performing Mustang of all time as well as one of the greatest American performance cars of all time.

GT500 Pricing Versus the Competitors
With a starting price of $73,995, the 2020 Ford Mustang GT500 costs $9,300 more than the Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 with the standard manual transmission ($64,695) and $7,305 more than the Camaro with the 10-speed automatic transmission ($66,690). If you select every available option for the ZL1, including pricier paint, stripes, the 1LE package, wheel locks, the battery protection package, a carbon fiber fuel filler door, a car cover, navigation, floor mats, an embroidered center console lid, the Performance Data Recorder, carbon fiber interior trim and a cargo net, the Camaro tops out at $78,460. Based on the few options that we have for the GT500, it tops out around $97,000, so it could price out, loaded, more than $20,000 over the ZL1 1LE.

As for the comparison to the 797-horsepower Dodge Challenger SRT Hellcat Redeye, it is a bit closer, but the Mustang still costs $555 at the starting point and on the top end. The Redeye with the standard-width body starts at $73,440, but if you add every single option, including a sunroof, the premium Harman Kardon sound system, the leather seats and all of the other available interior nicities, the Challenger tops out at $91,040 – around $6,000 less than the loaded-up GT500 with preliminary pricing.

However, if you look at a Redeye Widebody all loaded up, it tops out around $96,370, so it is very comparable to the GT500, although the loaded Hellcat Redeye has far more comfort items than the Shelby Mustang.

So, the bottom line here is that the 2020 Ford Shelby GT500 Mustang starts around $74,000 and tops out up around $100,000, making it the most expensive muscle car/pony car on the market today, but as the greatest Mustang of all time, I am confident that FoMoCo won’t have any troubles selling them.