The original Shelby GT350 of 1965, began life as a regular Mustang. Carol Shelby's hot riders added bolt on, go faster parts for the engine and suspension. A few splashy bits to make it look a little racier. Shelby id number, those iconic stripes and the rest is muscle car history.
Fast forward to 2007, and not much of change. The S197 Platform Mustang takes to performance model like a Celebuton to the Paparrazi. So why not have the work done by the outfit that did it four decades ago, and is in the Ford tent. Vista blue was the new Shelby color for 2008 and the convertible body style was also added so that's what our long term tester just had to be.
This Mustang proved polarizing among our staff. Every love the head turning look of it, the rumble from the 319 horsepower, 4.6 liter V-8s Ford racing exhaust. Enjoy it, going topmost, but from there, opinion is divided. Most felt that Shelby upgrades will worth the money and add it to the cars cache, exclusivity, performance and handling. But a few said the results weren't justified by the investment. Some like the old school field, front engine, V8, snick snick-snick Hurst shifter, live rear axle, and others said, it's too heavy. I hate the shifter give me an STI.
Issues of personal taste upon which we didn't always agree. Something everyone did agree on, is that the current Mustang still has too much cowl shake in convertible form, that's it. The soft top work nicely sealing out noise and the elements better than most. Not everyone like the interiors hard plastic surfaces, but we know that issue gets attended to with the 2010 Mustang. Fuel mileage wasn't bad, considering everyone drove the car, with his or her foot to the floor most of the time; so most shielded only about 200 or so miles. There were a few problems. The rear end starting grinding and ratcheting the day, we drove the GT home from the Shelby factory.
Shelby removes the stopper end and replaces it with a new one running 355 years. The Ford racing component proved effective and was replaced under warranty. We'll rule this normally with this test and these are tough pieces, capable of handling 500 plus horsepower. Shelby GT serial number 999, also, had a clunk on the rear suspension which we suspected was a bad shock observer. Two dealers said, we were wrong, tightened, adjusted and lubricated all sorts of things under there, but it was never gone. Upon return to Shelby automobiles they checked it out and found bad rear shock, which would have been replaced under warranty, if correctly diagnosed.
Other than that our Shelby GT, ask for no more than an oil and filter service, a tire rotation and to be drift. The engine remains sweep, the clutch endured who knows how many burnouts for camera. Rest of the car looked like new at the end of the long period. Never spent a week alone in a Motor Trend garage. As the world looks to hybrids, fuel cells, diesel and who knows peanut oil, power transportation. We may not have cars like the Shelby GT or Camaro we'll challenge it forever. We are pleased, we got to enjoy this one during 2008 getting one last blast of 1968 in the process.
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