(Editor’s Note: Named after the legendary Carroll Shelby, you could say it’s destiny that Shelby Grace became a Mustang enthusiast. Her exposure to fast Fords started at a young age and once in her early 20’s she purchased her first pony, a 1994 SVT Mustang Cobra. It didn’t take long before she was on track, either, as Shelby became a regular at the Hallett Motor Racing Circuit and Track Guys Performance Driving events. The Cobra was fun, but her lifelong goal was to own an actual Shelby Mustang. That day came on March 28, 2014, when she purchased a 2007 Shelby GT. With Blue Oval performance in her blood, we thought it would be fun to put her behind the wheel of the latest Shelby, the 2020 GT500 at the Ford Performance Shelby GT500 Track Tour in Charlotte, North Carolina. There, our Shelby could unleash the most capable Mustang and compare it to her 2007 Shelby Mustang. This is her story.

CONCORD, NC -- I am Shelby Grace. I have been passionate about Shelby Mustangs and racing since I was old enough to speak. From 2 years old, I told everyone I wanted to be a race car driver, and if not, an ambulance driver… so that I could still go fast.

I grew up hitting the dirt track on Friday nights, and each year we’d travel to see the Brickyard 400 in Indy. All through my youth I dreamed of owning a Shelby Mustang and meeting Carroll Shelby, who I’m named after. And in my teens I settled for Shelby posters, model cars and I dabbled with racing go-karts and four-wheelers when I had the opportunity.

After moving to Oklahoma in my early 20’s, a coworker invited me to the track after engaging in a car conversation, started solely because of my name. After seeing road racing for the first time, I was hooked!

By now the ambulance-driving gig fizzled out and that career as a race driver never got off the ground, either. Instead, I earned my Master’s in Forensic Accounting and began a career in Fraud Investigation and Accounting.

Sadly, my dream of meeting Carroll Shelby didn’t come to fruition, either, but that didn’t stop my pursuit of owning a fast Mustang. My very first was a 1994 SVT Mustang Cobra. I located it in Seattle and bought it sight-unseen. I flew up and taught myself to drive a manual on the long drive back to Tulsa. The Cobra was white, decently modified for on-track performance, and I attended my first driving school at Putnam Park Road Course just outside Indianapolis. I raced the Cobra every chance I could, hitting many mid-Western tracks like Hallett, Texas World Speedway and Hastings.

In 2014, my Shelby dream became a reality when I purchased a black 2007 Shelby GT that had personal ties back to Mr. Shelby himself. The original owner was a personal friend of Mr. Shelby, and the car was part of Shelby’s 85^th Birthday Celebration. In June of 2014, I participated in my first “door-to-door” exhibition race in my Shelby, and the feeling was one that’s hard to describe. I still get butterflies every time I get in the driver’s seat.

The Shelby GT is so much more car than I was used. It has 319 horsepower, more rear gearing (3.73’s vs 3.55’s), and more torque so I could pull out of the corners efficiently. Driving the ’07 Shelby on track requires manual input, especially while heel-toe downshifting and maintaining smooth, flawless upshifts at the drag strip. One missed shift absolutely kills lap times and ET. Regardless, I love the technical aspect of driving my Shelby. I love the braking feel, hitting the perfect apex and steering the car in and out of the corners.

As you could imagine, I was over the moon about driving the 2020 Shelby GT500, I mean, it’s got 760 horsepower and, as the name implies, the Ford Performance North American Track Tour gives you a real racing experience.

It’s amazing what 13 years of increased technology can do to performance and your soul. You see, when I first heard rumors about the 2020 GT500, I knew this car would be something special. The looks are striking, it has supercharged power and after reading about the technology of the Track Pack features, I spent months thinking about driving one. And in addition to feeling the power, handling and braking, I was anxious to see if the 7-speed DCT could give me the same thrill as shifting my own Shelby.

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the wait to get on track was longer than anticipated. In June I got a teaser when I drove a 2020 GT500 on streets of Tulsa during the Mid-America Ford Shelby meet. I felt instantly comfortable at the controls and wanted to unleash all 760 horsepower.

I finally got my chance a few weeks ago in Charlotte at the 2020 GT500 Track Tour as I climbed into the driver’s seat and headed down the track. I felt as if I was made for this moment -- and the new GT500 didn’t disappoint.

The Track Tour started bright and early with an orientation and meet-up. Ford Mustang and Shelby brand manager Jim Owens welcomed us, gave a tech-talk on the Shelby Mustang and shortly thereafter we were ripping up the track. My group started on the drag strip, at the amazing zMAX Dragway where they hold the NHRA Four-Wide nationals. alt="Ford masks lined up on table"

Confession time: I’m a drag-racing novice, having only made eight passes in my whole life – the quickest being at 14.0 in my stick-shift Shelby. It makes 289 horsepower at the wheels and now I was about to unleash 760. Needless to say, I was beyond excited. We were instructed to put the car in “Drag Mode” and use the Launch Control function. I set the rpm to 1,700, which is on the light side, but it was right for the track conditions – or so my instructor told me.

I rolled up to the line, pre-staged, staged, and then I mashed the gas to put the LC into action. When the tree lights came down, I let off the brake and the Shelby took off like a rocket! The DCT shifted at the perfect moments for an incredibly smooth and effortless pass. There’s no need to manually hold the perfect rpm, no slipping the clutch and no shifting … it was beautiful. All I had to worry about was keeping the throttle on the floor and keeping it in the groove. I did just that, and pulled off the two quickest elapsed times and highest mph runs of the day! First, I ran 11.49 at 130 mph, and my best was an 11.33 at 131 mph. I even cracked 100 mph by the 1/8-mile mark, which is the quarter-mile top speed of my ’07. How’s that for power? It was an incredible feeling for someone with a total of just eight passes in her drag history -- well, now 10.

What was so impressive is that Ford made it so easy for anyone to go to the track and run this car to its potential. The launch was so easy to do, even with the cold temperatures and mild track prep. I didn’t have to focus on feathering the clutch or perfectly rolling into the throttle to prevent bogging or spinning on launch. And can we talk about this 760 horsepower for a second? Holy smokes! That horsepower just forces you perfectly into the Recaro seats. What a thrill! It implanted a permanent smile on my face. At this point, the analysis of how and when to purchase this car has begun. It was instant love and we hadn’t turned a corner in anger yet.

Okay, okay – so yes, this road-course girl absolutely has an appreciation for this drag racing thing; however, what kept me up at night was thinking about how the new Shelby would feel as I guided this Snake through the Charlotte Motor Speedway’s Roval.

With my adrenaline still redlined from the strip, I was strapped to a Track Pack car with my heart pounding. It was time to see how this beauty will perform on the road course, and I was ready.

Over the last decade, I have tracked or instructed in multiple cars, with both manual and automatic transmissions, ranging from my 1994 SVT Cobra to a 2016 Shelby GT350R. I recently instructed in a 2003 automatic Mustang, and was not impressed by the feel of the auto on the road course. I much prefer a manual to keep the car in the best powerband for the corner and, since I wasn’t shifting, I wondered if the new GT500 would do a nice job in this department.

This was my first time driving a DCT so I was most anxious to see if would select the right gear for the corner and how smoothly it would shift, both up and down. In a word, it was beautiful! This car is tuned to perfection. Not only is there unlimited power, it shifted when it needed to, with perfectly timed wide-open upshifts that didn’t upset the chassis, and it has magical downshifting with rev-matching perfection.

The Michelin Pilot Sport Cup 2 Tires had excellent grip, the Brembo brakes were exceptional and all that combined to let me concentrate on hitting the braking markers and apex points. I anticipated having to hold back as this car accelerates so hard, but that wasn’t the case. I mean, we’re talking 319 vs 760 horses, but after the first turn I felt so comfortable, it was natural to push this thing – it was as if I was made to drive this car.

Any reservation I had about the new GT500 not being as fun as a “manual” disintegrated. The 2020 Shelby GT500 lived up to the hype and exceeded what I thought a factory Mustang could do. My thoughts catapulted from, “I can’t believe I’m getting to drive my dream car” to, “When am I going to buy this car?”

To be honest, this was a fulfilling experience that will be hard to beat. I left feeling fully immersed in the Track Tour program. Sure, I could go for a typical test drive, but to feel how the 2020 Shelby GT500 performed in my hands on the drag strip and at the road course was phenomenal. Best of all, I enjoyed the day with like-minded enthusiasts, reps from Ford and the suppliers such as Recaro and Tremec. As an added bonus, throw in Hailie Deegan, Chase Briscoe and Aaron Shelby who came out to take part. How cool of an opportunity to compare driving notes with a professional female driver? You can hear the passion in their voices. To speak with guys like Ford’s Jim Owens and Gary Patterson of Shelby American and hear their enthusiasm was amazing. These people created this masterpiece, and now my love for Shelby and Ford has reached a whole new level. And as a Shelby enthusiast, yet another dream had just come true.

FORD PERFORMANCE PHOTOS / COURTESY EVAN SMITH