Supercomputers and 3D Printing Are Secrets To All-New Mustang Shelby GT500 High Performance

Dubai, 19 March 2019: The 2020 Shelby GT500 is set to be the quickest-accelerating, most aerodynamically advanced street-legal Mustang ever, thanks to virtual testing in supercomputers and 3D printing.

Borrowing best practices from more than a century of racing, Ford Performance designers, powertrain and aerodynamics engineers functioned as a virtual racing team to test hundreds of designs both digitally and physically. They used state-of-the-art digital and additive manufacturing prototyping tools as part of a mission to make the ultimate, most advanced performance street-legal Mustang of all time.

We created and studied designs among the engineering teams and proved out different strategies long before we built our first prototype cars, said Matt Titus, Ford Performance vehicle engineer. Not only did this improve the effectiveness of the designs, it dramatically reduced the time it took to develop the GT500 and the costs associated with that.

Every millimetre counts for the Mustang Shelby GT500 to deliver on downforce, braking and cooling targets. The team leveraged Fords vast resources of advanced design simulation tools, including the Ford Performance technical centre in Concord, North Carolina, and rapid 3D prototyping systems at its Advanced Manufacturing Centre in Redford, Michigan. To physically validate the improving designs, Fords wind tunnels in Michigan and Windshear rolling wind tunnel in Concord were also used.

Real-world testing still matters, so the Shelby GT500 team ran extended high-speed tests on some of the most notable racetracks across the United States including Virginia International Raceway, NOLA Motorsports Park and GingerMan Raceway to refine the aerodynamic designs and help the all-new Shelby GT500 delivers the fastest track times ever in a production Mustang along with improved driver control for greater confidence behind the wheel.