Why Racing Stripes Cost $10,000 on the 2020 Ford Mustang Shelby GT500
Seriously? Stripes that cost $10,000?! Are they worth it?
Want to inflate the 2020 Ford Mustang Shelby GT500's $73,995 base price by 14 percent with only one option? Buy the optional painted-on racing stripes, of course! They cost $10,000, which seems, um, decadent for a non-performance-enhancing feature on a pony car's option sheet.
But wait, you might be asking: What's the going rate for factory-applied stripes these days? The GT500's option sheet provides insight by way of its available stick-on vinyl stripes, which run $1000. On the less powerful GT350, those same vinyl stripes cost $495. Curious what the 1000 percent markup for the GT500's painted-on versions was all about, we reached out to Ford for clarification.
Apparently, the stripes are hand painted onto GT500s so ordered. Per a company spokesperson, the stripe job is "hand-prepped, painted, and then clear-coated." He adds that "Due to the specialized nature of the process, [Ford has] a very limited production capacity." Indeed.
