Camerique/Getty Images A 500-horsepower V8. Has a good sound to it, eh? That benchmark is a common goal of car builders, especially considering how accessible it can be using a modern fuel-injected platform like Ford' s Coyote and GM's LS engines in a streetable build. After all, when the first generation of the 5.0-liter Coyote V8 replaced the 4.6-liter 3V V8 in the Ford Mustang GT, the 'Stang's horsepower increased from 315 to 412 ponies. Over the years, as the S197 Mustang bowed out for the S550 and then the S650, the Coyote continued to power the pony car, eventually reaching 486 horsepower in the S650 GT with a performance exhaust system. Then there's the Ford Mustang Dark Horse. The Dark Horse took the Coyote V8 and added features like forged connecting rods and a specially balanced crankshaft. The result? Ford's naturally aspirated king of the hill produced 500 horsepower and 418 pound-feet of torque. But the Ford Mustang Dark Horse isn't the only place you'll find a 500-horsepower-rated V8. Far from it, actually. To find one of the Blue Oval's most peculiar examples of a V8 pumping out 500 ponies, you'll have to look back in the history books. And, of all places, you'll find that mill powering none other than the storied M4 Sherman medium tank. 500 HP in a Mustang Dark Horse is quite different from 500 horses in a Sherman tank Fred Ramage/Getty Images Have you watched a WWII movie recently? Watched a documentary on the subject? Chances are, then, that you've seen an M4 Sherman medium tank. Over 20 years before the very first Ford Mustang stunned onlookers in Flushing Meadows, New York, at the 1964 World's Fair, the world was at war. The Axis powers, made up of Germany, Japan, and Italy, were fighting the Allies across Europe, Africa, and the Pacific theater. And one of the Allies' most recognizable tools in the global conflict was the M4 Sherman tank. What made the Sherman tank so effective? Well, it wasn't its armor or armaments. In fact, the M4 had another cheeky nickname: "Ronsons." That moniker referenced a popular lighter brand and its slogan "lights every time," to make light of the medium tank's flammability after getting hit just right. No, much of the Sherman's merit lies in its ease of repair and maintenance, and its fantastic numbers. The United States produced over 50,000 M4 tanks from 1942 to 1945. Though that wasn't enough to dethrone the more than 80,000 T-34s the Soviet Union produced, it required America's industrial base, including the might of the Ford Motor Company. Fortunately, that means the Sherman, like the Ford-built M4A3, came from the factory with a V8 engine. Enter the Ford GAA, an 18-liter (roughly 1,100 cubic-inch) engine and Ford's largest-ever gasoline-powered V8. That Ford GAA produced 500 horsepower at 2,600 RPM, a far cry from the Ford Mustang Dark Horse's 7,500-RPM redline. Of course, the Ford GAA V8 wasn't the only medium tank engine the Allies used. In one of the earliest examples of a multi-bank engine, the Chrysler A57 used five inline-sixes to power the Sherman. Just enough grunt to get things moving Archive Photos/Getty Images 500 horsepower is enough to shove the 10-speed automatic Ford Mustang Dark Horse from a standstill to 60 mph in 3.7 seconds. As you might expect, that's not really the case for the M4A3 Sherman tank. The Sherman could tip the scales at over 68,000 pounds, depending on the variant. That's a bit portlier than the Dark Horse's 3,879-pound curb weight. As a result, an M4 Sherman was only good for about 26 mph sustained and over level ground. In the interest of freeing up power and torque at low revs, a governor limited things to 2,600 RPM. However, in typical G.I. fashion, tankers were known to tinker with the Sherman, including removing the governor. That said, blistering acceleration and eye-watering speed were far from the point of the Ford GAA-powered Sherman. Now, check out this drag race between a Ford Mustang Dark Horse and an M4 Sherman tank. Just kidding. That wouldn't be much of a race, now, would it? Needless to say, 500 horsepower in a S650 Ford Mustang isn't what is in a medium tank.
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