2007 Shelby GT
If there’s one thing Ford has learned in recent months, it’s the magic that comes with combining the words “Mustang” and “Shelby.” When you throw in the fact that Ford needs all the help they these days, and you have the makings of yet another Shelby Mustang. Following swiftly on the heels of the Shelby GT500 and Shelby GT-H, this latest hot-rod pony has been simply called the “Shelby GT” and is, for the most part, a retail version of the GT-H rental car offered through select Hertz agencies.
The Shelby Automobiles, which are based in Las Vegas, began with a stock Mustang GT and adds a Ford Racing Power Pack and Handling Pack to each car. The Power Pack consists of a 90-millimeter cold-air intake, reworked engine calibration, upgraded exhaust flow (via a new X-pipe) and a shorter rear axle ratio (3.55 versus the GT’s 3.31). And while the rental GT-H comes in automatic form only, the Shelby GT can be had with a slushbox or a five-speed manual transmission featuring a Hurst short-throw shifter.
The Handling Pack consists of shorter springs, stiffer dampers and an upgraded front antiroll bar. The shorter springs drop the car 1.5 inches, which is unfortunate in the sense that it makes seeing these upgraded parts, all of them painted a shimmering shade of Ford Blue, even harder to see unless you have access to a vehicle lift. A front strut-tower brace and P235/55ZR18 tires complete the Shelby GT’s handling upgrades.
While both the Power Pack and Handling Pack are available to anyone willing to visit the Ford Racing catalog (or Web site), the Shelby GT’s styling modifications are not so easily replicated. They begin with a pair of silver Le Mans racing stripes painted over either a white or black coupe (no convertible versions are planned). Additional “Shelby GT” side stripes connect the 18-inch chrome wheels and run underneath unique side scoops (just ahead of the rear wheelwells).
A lower front fascia with a brushed-aluminum grille, minus foglights, sits below a Cobra-inspired, non-functional hood scoop. Perhaps our favorite exterior design cue is the “SHELBY” spelled out across the trunk lid in individual, classic-font letters, just as it appeared on the 1968 GT500 KR. While the Shelby badging identifies who put this Mustang together, the favorite interior component has to be the Hurst shifter, both for its classic chrome-and-cue-ball look as well as its powerful, purposeful feel.
It’s this sort of shifter action, along with the Shelby GT’s baritone exhaust warble and immediate throttle response, that truly evokes the muscle car era from which the Shelby legend springs. The real difference comes with 40 years of progress, meaning you now can enjoy those traits plus inspired steering feel and predictable at-the-limit handling. On the proving grounds we repeatedly tossed this newest pony car into sharp corners for the sheer joy of throwing the tail out and reeling it back in.