We’ve long heard from our sources that the forthcoming Ford Mustang Shelby GT500 will once again be motivated by a supercharged V-8 engine, this time code-named Predator, and a photo currently circulating on Instagram all but confirms it.
The image came to our attention by way of Instagram user mustangmannylv, who informed Car and Driver that he originally found the salacious snapshot on Facebook via a post in the Ford Mustang GT350 Owners group. The picture appears to show the top of a Roots-type supercharger that has been cast with the classic Shelby snake and “5.2 L” to denote the displacement of the engine it’s strapped to.

2019 GT500"
A post shared by Mustang Manny ?? (@mustangmannylv) on Dec 9, 2017 at 8:29pm PST
Expected to share its block and other bits with the 526-hp naturally aspirated 5.2-liter V-8 in the GT350, the supercharged V-8 in the GT500 is likely to forgo the GT350’s racing-derived flat-plane crankshaft for a more conventional cross-plane unit. The forced-induction V-8’s more traditional crankshaft design is sure to result in slower engine speeds compared to that of the rip-snorting naturally aspirated V-8 in the GT350, which can rev past 8000 rpm.

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Despite this, we still expect the GT500 to push out enough power to keep both the Che...