"Carroll Shelby is truly a living automotive legend, a Ford performance legend," says Phil Martens, Ford group vice president of Product Creation. "It's a dream come true to be able to put the Shelby name on a Mustang again."
The Shelby Cobra GT500 borrows its name from one of the best-known Mustangs of the late '60s. But unlike the original GT500s, which were powered by large displacement, normally aspirated V8s, the 21st-century version uses a supercharged 5.4-liter V8.
Four valve aluminum heads borrowed from Ford's GT program allow the supercharger's 8.5 pounds of boost to flow smoothly while a T56 six-speed manual transmission gets the power to the ground.
How much power? Official numbers have yet to be finalized, but Ford officials said to expect more than 450 horsepower and at least 450 pound-feet of torque.
The GT500 sticks with a solid axle rear suspension. When he was asked, Hau Tai Tang, director of SVT, said they chose to stay with the straight axle instead of a more modern independent design because IRS wasn't necessary. "We've raced the new Mustang chassis against competitors with IRS and beat them, so we know you don't need an independent rear end to get the kind of performance we want."
