Regular Car Reviews: Shelby GT500

It finally happened.  Mr. Regular reviewed a 2013 Shelby GT500.  I'm going to get this video sent to me for days.

Matt Farah

Okay I try to be open minded.  There are different types of people in the world and not everyone is going to mesh well with your kind of thinking.  Some people you just endure.  Matt Farah is one of these people for me.

So just ignore him you say.  Well he (or someone) came up with an interesting concept.  To have normal car people meet him and allow him to aggressively drive their cars (illegally on public roads) and give an opinion of their build.  His opinions are often valid so it's interesting to see what they have crafted.

The part that really rubs me the wrong way is when he bitches about the car not having air conditioned seats or some other luxury accessory.  Air conditioning robs power.  We've had many 90+days and I think I've run the air in my Cobra once since I got it.  Matt just appears to have this air of pompous superiority that bugs the hell me.  This feeling comes exclusively from watching his videos, I mean I don't know the guy.  In them he shares his opinions and to me he represents just the worst type of car guy, the type that never gets his hands dirty, he never turns a wrench, and pays for all work done on his cars.  He just drives and critiques.  Even on his simple fox body Mustang project he had a shop do it all and handed them the cash.  So I guy it boils down to I don't care much for critics that just critique and don't create.

What sparked this post?  Today I watched a new video of his and it started with him asking people to please turn off your ad blocker and whitelist his channel. You know, do him a solid?  Matt why do you think I have an ad blocker??  I don't want to see your damn ads, why do you think you're special?  You own an Aston Martin, a Corvette, a new Focus RS, and others.  Plus you're trying to get a GT350R Mustang.  Seems your channel is doing well.

People say well that is what makes his hard work possible.  People do you think he edits his own videos?  Do you think he sets up the cameras and sound?  Hell no, like i said he just drives.  That's all.  Also I don't know if you noticed but YouTube doesn't exactly have a shortage of car review channels.  If Matt goes away, another will spring up in his place.

I was talking to a coworker about him and he said, "I honestly don't know how he even got into the field."  Neither do I man.

Okay, venting over.

Some Interesting Stats

Everyone is going nuts about the new GT350 and rightly so it's an amazing vehicle.  But is it as amazing as the Shelby from the last generation?  Here are some stats from Car & Driver Magazine.  The GT500 stats in red.

Car & Driver Magazine Issue: Aug. 2012/ Feb. 2016
Vehicle Tested: 2013 GT500/ 2016 GT350
Price as Tested: 63,080/ 56,970
HP: 662hp/ 526hp
Torque: 631 lbs/ 429 lbs
0-60: 3.5 sec/ 4.3 sec
0-100: 7.9 sec/ 8.9 sec
1/4 mi: 11.8 sec/ 12.5 sec
Top Speed: 189 mph/ 175 mph
Braking 70-0: 155 ft./ 171 ft.
300 ft skidpad: 1.0g/ 1.0g
Weight: 3882 lbs/ 3790 lbs
EPA City/Hwy: 15/24 mpg/ 14/21 mpg

Everyone says 2018 is the year of the GT500 but for now perhaps the old king shouldn't be counted out just yet.

Toronto Street Racing Scene

 

For some reason my lead sent me two articles about the Toronto street racing scene.  That is like sending an alcoholic an article about where to find free booze.  I really didn't need to see that.  Street racing is something I have a hard time resisting.  I don't usually go looking for trouble these days but I have an extremely hard time resisting the urge when someone is revving their engine next to me at a stop light.

Frankly there is street racing everywhere you find two or more people that enjoy their fast cars. So I'm not really surprised that there is a "scene" in one of Canada's biggest cities.

Article links below.


Street Racer: Inside the Modified Car Culture of Toronto's Suburbs

Riding Around in Canada's Street Racing Capital

My Old Ride

The car, not the girl.  ;)  Came across a pic my old car on Instagram.  Apparently a friend of my girlfriend snapped a pic as she was leaving.  Not a bad shot.