In the latest episode of the YouTube series Jay Leno’s Garage, Leno teams up with Ford Performance‘s chief engineer, Jamal Hameedi, to give us an in-depth look at Leno’s recently purchased 2015 Shelby GT350R, which is one of 37 examples.
Leno makes the point that, although his GT350R is only one of 37 examples in the world, he plans to drive the crap out of it – and we couldn’t blame him. As mentioned in the video above, the all-new Shelby GT350 has earned quite the reputation for being compared to a Ferrari because of it’s flat-plane crank assembly.
Albeit the GT350 does share a similar structure and composition of many of Ferrari engines, the GT350’s engine is currently the largest flat-plane crank engine in production. Many enthusiasts may not be aware that flat-plane crank engines have a tendency to fail the larger the displacement is. This is often due to issues balancing the assembly, and can create atrocious vibration during operation. Hameedi explains that during the development process of the all-new GT350, Ford purchased a complete Ferrari 458 Italia powertrain to benchmark the GT350R. During the teardown, Hameedi says that the Italian’s 4.5-liter DOHC flat-plane crank V8 weighed 13-pounds more than the GT350’s 5.2-liter DOHC flat-plane crank V8 engine. Talk about efficiency, eh?
Speaking of flat-plane crank engines, the 5.2-liter DOHC Voodoo V8 found in the '15+ Shelby GT350 uses a different firing order than any other Ford modular V8 engine, which also contributes to it's unique sounding exhaust note.
With Leno snatching up one of 37 2015 GT350R models available, we can’t help but wonder if he too, had to pay a hefty premium for his rare and unique Shelby Mustang.