Ford boosts Mustang Shelby GT500 to 650 hp for 2013 model

The all-new Escape SUV might be more important to Ford Motor Co.'s bottom line, but the 2013 Mustang line being unveiled at the Los Angeles auto show is more exciting -- starting with the 650-hp GT500.

Yes -- 650 hp for the 2013 Mustang Shelby GT500. It's the most powerful Mustang ever, and it will almost certainly be the least expensive 650-hp new car money can buy.

You can credit Ford for not allowing the Mustang to get stale or soft -- especially as it squares off with the new Camaro from Chevrolet and Dodge Challenger.

The Camaro has pulled ahead in the muscle car sweepstakes, with U.S. sales of 76,368 through October this year. The Mustang is second with sales of 61,516 and the Challenger is a distant third with sales of 33,254.

A year after the debut of the Boss 302, the Mustang lineup remains the same, with a V6, GT 5.0, Boss and GT500.

Yet all get a mild facelift for 2013, with improvements across the board. There's a more aggressive shark snout in front, standard HID projector-beam headlights trimmed with LED strips, and three-bar LED taillight/turn signals that flash sequentially.

Puddle lights in the outside mirrors cast light in the pattern of the Mustang pony logo.

The 2013 Mustang GT gets LED fog lights and a bump from 412 hp to 420 hp, thanks to internal friction reductions in the engine. The six-speed Select Shift automatic will allow full manual control, with no default upshift at the redline. Recaro seats will be available all the way down to the V6, in cloth or leather.

There will be new performance packages, upgraded audio systems and a new option called Track Apps, with an on-board accelerometer. Track Apps can save and display lap times, quarter-mile times and g-loads on the new 4.2-inch LCD in the center stack, not to mention a range of engine telemetry options, right down to cylinder-head temperatures.

Then there's the 2013 GT500. Ford promises that 650 hp, up 100 from the current GT500, and top speed above 200 mph. That kind of speed required a thorough overhaul of the suspension, cooling system and aero package, according to engineers, though Ford was keeping details close to the vest before the L.A. show.

Nonetheless, we've confirmed the source of that 650 hp, and it's not a blown version of the new 5.0 Coyote block used in the GT and Boss 302.

Rather, it's the supercharged Ford GT engine used in the current GT500, with all its high-tech metallurgy, bumped from 5.4 liters to 5.8 liters displacement. Redline is 7,000 rpm, which will mean incredible piston speeds for a long-stroke engine. We'd also predict some sort of self-adjusting, variable-rate suspension.

And a substantial price increase. Yet even with a bump of 25 percent from the 2012 GT500 base price of $49,605, we still haven't hit $65,000. You can't touch 650 hp or 200 mph from any other automaker for that kind of cash.