By Matthew Rudy
Photos By Dom Furore
March 2008
A cheerful woman walks up outside baggage claim in Detroit and hands me the keys to what is essentially a wingless fighter plane -- a carbon-colored Shelby GT500 -- so there must be something to sign, right? I can't take a vanilla-plain Impala with polyester seats out of the Avis lot without showing ID and a credit card.
I sign the bottom of a sheet that says I can take the car with two conditions. It's got to be back to Ford headquarters on Monday. Check. And I'm responsible for my own moving violations. Yikes.
Keeping the supercharged, 500-horsepower Shelby under 90 would prove to be the most challenging part of my three-day, 1,000-mile tour of Michigan's gawk-worthy lakeshore drives -- even harder than rallying, over-golfed and leg-weary, for that 8:30 tee time at Forest Dunes on getaway day with an old college buddy.
It takes less than 10 miles on freshly paved I-96 toward East Lansing to realize this car is designed to mesmerize you into driving at, um, extra-legal speeds. It isn't watching the speedometer that does it. It's the boost gauge that sits top-middle in the dash cluster. Downshift from sixth to fifth, hit the gas and you can see exactly how much air is getting forced into the supercharger. It sets road manners back a generation, especially if you're pumping something bass-heavy out of the stereo. The subwoofers are built into the doors, and the driver's side one rumbles against your calf in the snug cockpit. You don't have to be an 18-year-old boy to get carried away by all the stimulation.
Continuing a tradition he started in 1965 with the wicked GT350, race-car builder Carroll Shelby nastifies 10,000 of these stock Mustangs a year -- adding the supercharger, giant brakes and other goodies. He can say he did his job when the only complaint about the GT500 is that the short first gear and industrial-strength clutch make it a hard car to drive slow. Still, $42,000 for a midlife crisis -- fully covered by Ford's standard new-car warranty -- is about as cheap as you can get and still be called irresponsible.
| REGISTRATION |
| STATE Michigan |
| MILES 1,113 |
| COURSES VISITED 5 |
| TOTAL COST OF GOLF $430 |
| TOTAL COST OF FUEL $231.20 |
| GALLONS OF FUEL BURNED 71 |
| FARM TRACTORS PASSED 3 |
FRIDAY
With everything stowed -- the GT500's back seat isn't much more than decoration, but the trunk actually fits two golf bags -- we tore off for Stanwood and Tullymore Golf Club, No. 14 on Golf Digest's list of America's 100 Greatest Public Courses. You can stay at condos, houses or a 44-room hotel right on the property and play Tullymore's equally worthy sister course, St. Ives, but we grabbed a sandwich and headed for the coast.
Route M-22 traces the western coastline from Manistee to the tip of the Michigan mitten -- the state's prime golf meridian. New pavement, sparse traffic and lake views make it easy to miss the turn for Arcadia Bluffs. Don't. The Warren Henderson-Rick Smith design doesn't just sit on Lake Michigan. Take a wrong step on the edge of the 11th green and you're in Lake Michigan.
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