Shelby Mustang Lives Again

The latest generation Mustang is a really cool car. Ford got the styling spot-on with a modern interpretation of the classic '60s shape. As soon as the car was launched there were a number of aftermarket manufacturers that offered performance & handling upgrades.

One of the most famous of these associated with the original Mustang was Shelby, & Ford collaborated again with them to produce their own high performance derivative - the Shelby GT500

Forty years after the first Shelby GT500 was produced, Shelby & the Ford Mustang have been reunited with the 2007 Ford Shelby GT500. This is the most powerful powerful factory Mustang ever built, using the 500-horsepower supercharged 5.4-liter 32-valve V8 engine from the Ford GT supercar.

These cars retail at about $45k, but with all the hype surrounding them, as soon as a launch date was issued there were numerous on-line auctions where the auction was actually how much you would pay extra over list price (I saw figures in excess of $20k!).

The first time I saw one of these vehicles was at the St Louis Auto Show back in January, but the impact was lost due to the other exotic machinery on display. Having now seen a couple of these cars on the road, they look seriously cool & the revised styling really makes for a purposeful looking car.

Dodge & GM are keen to not lose out to the success of the Mustang & have both recently announced new performance vehicles, with modern retro styling (Dodge Challenger & Chevrolet Camaro). It looks like history might be repeating itself with a modern day version of the Musclecar Wars - I can't wait!

Photos not taken by the Author courtesy of Ford Chevrolet & Dodge