NEW Corsa Product… For a Discontinued Legend?

April 13, 2022April 5, 2022 Bruce Lindermann 0 Comments Corsa, Exhaust Upgrades, Ford Mustang GT350

2020 was a sad year for many reasons, including Ford’s dropping the Shelby Mustang GT350 from its lineup like a hot potato. Thankfully, this discontinued beast is quickly becoming a darling of the collector car market – just in time for Corsa’s specially-crafted, all-new active valve exhaust system.

We’ve been through a lot over the past few years. With so much going on at a cataclysmic level, it can be hard to process anything that isn’t apocalypse-related. One of the many things that happened on the sideline that’s worth taking note of is that the Ford Shelby Mustang GT350 has left the building. You diehard Ford guys might call it old news, since the model hit the sunset back in 2020. But for many of us, that year was just a wee bit stressful and we found ourselves out of the loop during the time it departed.

As such a beloved, impactful platform, it’s only natural that many described the discontinuation of the GT350 as the end of an era. However, you can say the true legacy of this performance icon has only just begun. It’s now officially a big name in the collector car world, with low mileage examples being the talk of the block at Mecum and other big-name options.

Classic GT350s can easily crest six figures, but even low-mileage contemporaries are fetching impressive sums at auction. Granted, this 2020 Shelby GT350 is in exquisite condition, wearing blue Le Mans stripes, a 6-speed manual, and a mere 14 miles on the odometer. It sold for $73,700 at Mecum’s Glendale auction in March 2022. | *Mecum*

Many of you proud GT350 owners don’t care about resale values just yet. In fact, you still have a few years of enjoyment to get out of that ride. Along the way, you may want to make some modifications that really bring out the best of the beast. Well, don’t worry. Even if the GT350 officially went the way of the Dodo, parts industry leaders like Corsa are still hot on making a monster out of an already beastly pony.

What Makes the GT350 So Special?

The S550 Ford Mustang is a fantastic platform as-is. Many drivers need to do very little, if anything, to get the thrills they’re craving from it. So, when Ford added better rubber, a stiffer suspension, heavy-duty brakes, and a ton of other goodies to the mix, creating an all-out track assault vehicle, it’s only natural to have captured the hearts of many — never mind the true monster taking things even further dubbed the GT350R.

All of that is already great but it doesn’t tell the whole story. Ford didn’t simply cobble together a handling package and slap a special badge on it. The engineers took their time, giving the pony a little more muscle to mush with.

Ford paired the GT350 with some serious Voodoo. No, that’s not a metaphor. That’s what it named the new 5.2-liter flat-plane crankshaft, naturally-aspirated V-8 packed under the hood. Voodoo lived up to the name, as it was ready to scream out to 8,250 RPM with the force of 526 ponies that could run the quarter in the 12-second range all day. That makes for a legendary package that is a favorite among performance enthusiasts of all shapes and sizes. From its birth in 2016 to its final days in 2021, Ford made just under 24,000 GT350s, making it a natural choice for car collectors to target.

Corsa Celebrate ICE the Right Way

With everything going electric, it’s sad to think the sweet sound of an engine roar may also be going extinct. (Although, wacky startups like EngineVox are hard at work slipping some convincing fake rumbles into sporty EVs.) Regardless, exhaust manufacturers like Corsa are here to help us enjoy that glorious note like no other… even if the model the folks over there are focused on is no longer in production.

In Corsa’s new product lineup for 2022, you’ll find part number: 21096. This is a cat-back active valve exhaust system introduced this past march for the GT350. The sound is every bit as glorious as you’d want it to be. It perfectly accentuates Voodoo’s scream belted out at an excess of 8,000 RPM but keeps things nice and quiet when you need it to be.

The 3-inch stainless steel system sounds great on paper, but all it takes is a quick glance to understand it’s not just any other set of pipes. That double X-pipe Helixx layout alongside that iconic sound declares it’s something special.

As for performance, this kit cuts eight pounds off the stallion and can supply it with an additional 10% of power gains. Suffice it to say, the lucky few that own one of these collector cars are going to want to toss this on while their name is still on the title. (Of course, Corsa’s limited lifetime warranty on the system and 5-year warranty on valves will also help entice those owners even more.)

Pro tip: It’s a good way to keep that factory exhaust from rotting away while you drive the car around, which may help the resale value even more.

Love for the F-150 Too

Mustang this, Mustang that. Is that the only V8-powered Ford anyone cares about? Not exactly. Corsa is showing much love to the F150 this year as well. The engineers have been hard at work developing the pinnacle of performance exhaust systems for 2021 and newer 3.5 Ecoboost- and 5.0 Coyote-equipped Ford F-150s.

While we can only speculate what to expect, Corsa has given the audience quite a bit to go on. Right now, we know that both Sport and Xtreme sound levels are in the works and 4-inch dual-wall stainless steel tips, along with the renowned RSC technology we should expect, are a part of the package. Of course, it’s going a cat-back bolt-on setup, and Corsa will also back it with the lifetime warranty its customers are accustomed to.

As for the actual sound quality and performance, we all just have to wait and see what it brings to the table upon release. Though, we all can count on it delivering on both fronts in stride.