No Stick For 2020 Shelby GT500

Ford has finally revealed the 2020 Shelby GT500, and it’s a big one. At over 700 horsepower, this will be the most powerful production Ford car ever. There’s no doubt this car was designed to take on the likes of the Hellcats and ZL1. Those competitors can be had with a stick shift, but the new Shelby GT500 cannot. That’s disappointed quite a few Ford fans.

This of course is angering quite a few enthusiasts. According to Ford, the reason why a manual transmission won’t be available for the GT500 is the automaker doesn’t have one that can handle all that power.

There’s a simple solution, Ford: make a stick shift that can endure the 700-plus ponies. After years of this car being in development, you’d think the engineering team would’ve made such a thing. Maybe it did but Ford brass decided it was too costly. There’s a lot of that going on in Ford lately.

Anyone who plunks down their cold hard cash will have to make do with the Tremec 7-speed dual-clutch transmission in the Shelby GT500. Another reason for using this setup is that it’s faster than if you let a human do the shifting. Somehow I doubt many fans will care about that, but sure. But you really can’t argue with a sub 11-second quarter mile and a mid-3-second range for 0-60 acceleration.