Shelby GT500 Died To Make You Safer

Are you even grateful for its sacrifice?

I used to think we didn’t have an automotive analogy to The Giving Tree, that book about the tree that gave all it was and received zero gratitude. That was until everyone started making waves about how the Dearborn Fire Department in Michigan cut up a 2020 Shelby GT500 as if it were for no good reason. That’s when it hit me that the Shelby was like that tree, giving all it had with little to no gratitude for the sacrifice.

The whole point of cutting up the muscle car was to train firefighters on vehicle extrication. Sure, they could’ve used a Chevy Cobalt or Toyota Corolla or some other appliance vehicle for the exercise, and we’d be willing to bet they’ve done that plenty of times. But, don’t you want firefighters to be knowledgeable about cutting into a vehicle like yours if you’re in an especially bad accident?

It seems to that you should be grateful for the sacrifice of this GT500. The training could be the difference between life and death for someone.

Before anyone gets really mad, know this wasn’t a production 2020 Shelby GT500. This car wouldn’t have ended up in a consumer’s hands no matter what because it was a test vehicle. These things are used for benchmarking during the development process, so they’re pushed to their limits until they fail. In other words, the thing was created to suffer and die so that your Shelby wouldn’t crap out in the middle of a long road trip.

Of course, Mopar and GM fans are probably snickering at all the Ford and Shelby people freaking out about this GT500 getting hacked up. They might even find seeing one in such a sad state entertaining.

All this isn’t to say you shouldn’t be sad about a new Shelby GT500 getting hacked to pieces. We fully expect it to be used for memes about Ford durability or something like that. Sure, these pictures are a horrible sight and the firefighters said it “almost broke (their) hearts” pulling the car apart, but let’s remember it was for a worthwhile cause.