Last week, at a press event in California, Shelby American revealed that it will finally produce a very limited number of its much awaited Mustang GT500 Super Snake. It’s formally called a ‘continuation’ model, meaning it will be built from 1967 Fastback donor units
Ten donor units will mean only 10 of these special continuation GT500 Super Snakes will ever exist, headed to the garage of 10 lucky customers who each had to shell out US$250,000 for the privilege of ownership.
Being a modern day product, there’s always a temptation to have/demand/install more high tech amenities for a re-creation project such as this. However, Shelby has stuck as much as they could to the 1967’s original Super Snake as possible. This isn’t a replica, it’s essentially a 1967-era muscle car that happens to be built in 2018.
Under the bonnet lives a brute of a naturally aspirated V8, a 7.0-litre (or 427 cubic inch) big block that goes beyond the original 67’ racing engine to produce 410kW, a 22kW improvement. Shelby will offer the motor in either aluminium or iron, depending on customer spec.
Mated to it is a classic-style four-on-the floor manual shifter with requisite long lever connected directly to the transmission. Just like the original, the cars will have disc brakes and the famous triple stripes.
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 tire 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 program never came to fruition, until now.”
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