Just over 50 years ago, Carroll Shelby and Don McCain put together a single special Ford Mustang called the GT500 Super Snake. And now Shelby America has announced that it will “reintroduce” this model in the form of ten continuation units.
“We’re fulfilling the dream of Carroll Shelby and Don McCain,” said Shelby American president Gary Patterson. “Shelby built an engineering study dubbed the ‘Super Snake’ for high-speed tyre testing by Goodyear in 1967. When that successful test ended, Shelby American offered it to Mel Burns Ford in So Cal to retail to the public.
“Former Shelby American employee Don McCain approached Shelby about doing a limited run of cars. They carefully studied the idea but sadly, the timing did not work because the car was too expensive. The programme never came to fruition, until now,” explained Patterson.
Based on a donor Mustang (stripped down to bare metal), each revived GT500 Super Snake will bear the signature of Shelby and McCain, as well as a Shelby serial number for the official Shelby registry.
Under the bonnet, you’ll find a “race-inspired” 7,0-litre Shelby V8 good for more than 410 kW. The block is available in aluminium or cast-iron, while power will be transferred to the rear wheels via a four-speed manual transmission. Stopping power will come courtesy of a set of front and rear disc brakes.
The original 1967 model was fitted with a similar V8, rated at 388 kW. With a four-speed manual gearbox, it was able to clock a top speed of 274 km/h. The original GT500 Super Snake was a pretty pricy model, although it held its value quite well. Indeed, a collector recently paid more than $1,3-million (that’s about R16,3-million).
Each of the ten models to be built by Shelby, meanwhile, will go for $249 995 (around R3,14-million).
