Curious: So who's going to swap their GT350 for an 2018 Twin Turbo Voodoo GT500

Some points.

1) I'll wait until Ford actually releases the car. The rest is speculation and for the life of me, I don't know why "we" play this game with the manufacturers about what's coming out. I guess its to protect sales of existing inventory on the lots.

2) Just about any modern engine can handle boost. Certainly moderate boost with a fat tune (which is exactly what the manufacturer always does). They may upgrade internals just as insurance, or if they want to go smaller displacement and still big power, but the voodoo engine can handle MODERATE boost with good tuning. The reason our cars aren't all that great for boosting is the factory compression ratio, which is high for N/A output. That's solved easily enough with dished pistons and or hogged out combustion chambers on the heads (to save retooling for Ford).

3) If Ford wants to make a fight of the competition in the Hellcat segment, I suspect it won't be the voodoo engine. The Hellcat isn't a track car, it's a muscle car. I could see them twin turboing a coyote or the "aluminator" and put out North of 700 ponies, but I'm willing to be if they do that, it'll be a muscle car and not a track car. It'll assuredly have a single rear "live" axle.

The only way Ford could offer a 700+ car with warranty straight from the factory is to spend more and beef up the rear, transmission, clutch, etc. I'd be less concerned about the small block internals and more worried about other failure points of the vehicle (which is certainly what Ford bean counters will do). It's a delicate dance between performance, reliability and cost.

"You can have it cheap, you can have it fast, you can have it reliable. Just pick any two."

Count Me Out

Coolpixer said:

In reading the comments in the included link one commentor seems to know for sure... "It will, 100%, have a 685-715 hp Supercharged 5.0 V8"

Click to expand...

I am not interested in a GT500. My interests have always leaned towards high speed autox (not the parking lot "sea of cones kind) like the one my old Corvette Club ran on an old banked NASCAR track about 12-14 Sundays a year. Or club events at road courses - exactly what the original and current GT350 was made for.

With a little bit of "sharpening" I can see my car being even more formidable on those types of venues. These will be changes on the edges, nothing to fundamentally change what the car is. A bit more power (480 or so at the rear wheels including a bit more lower RPM torque and h/p) and about 200 lbs less weight should meet my goals. Not thrilled that the stock GT350 aluminum wheels are said to weigh in at 31 lbs, considerably more than they should have weighed but probably done for reasons of cost, and exacerbating the delta between them and the R's carbon fiber wheels - perhaps it was purposeful.

As for adding turbos or superchargers to the Voodoo, I was told by folks who had this conversation with the Ford engineers associated with this engine and were told "just don't do it." Evidently they broke a lot of engines doing this during some durability testing exercises. And why, would you buy a beautifully balanced road oriented car to screw it up by adding so much extra weight on the front end?


Wait for the GT500 (if there is one) or buy something else if you want a boosted front heavy straight line specialist and you are one of the "fast and furious" who signed up to the "I live my Life a quarter of a mile at a time."