tw0scoops123

Just curious what you guys think about the future of the Cobra? I know Shelby did a heck of a job, but his ideas are reaching out of the mustang's target audience aka the Average Man.

I was reading an article about Shelby wanting to reach over 600 hp on his next mustang. Common now, we can barely afford a 500 hp mustang. I love cobra's, mostly because they have serious hp for the buck and can challenge cars double in price. Don't take that away from us, Shelby.

afcop13

I just feel too much emphasis is put on CS himself and the consumer gets stuck with paying $$ for the name Shelby based on stuff that happened 35-40 years ago.

The Shelby GT is a perfect example - $35k for something I can build and blow away for less than $31k based on my GT Premium. The extra $4-6k is simply the Shelby name and the hoopla that surrounds it.

I thought SVT was doing a fine job, especially with the 03 & 04 Cobra's - and was looking forward to buying the next Lightning before it got shut off. I just hope that it is brought back at some point because I for one WILL buy a Lightning if it comes back.

tw0scoops123

I agree with ya afcop...

rhumb

While the GT500 and Shelby GT's are impressive in many ways, and have the huge benefit of starting from a much more modern platform than did SVT with the ancient SN95 underpinnings, SVT simply offered more bang and finesse for the buck over its more pedestrian GT stablemate.

For it's roughly 35% price premium over the Stang GT, the 2003-04 SVT Cobra simply offers much more per dollar than the GT500 does for its nearly doubled price premium. You just don't get as much bump for your buck. Now maybe the GT500, being much more a Ford piece than a real Shelby piece, merely reflects the bloated Ford specialty product development process than does the truly Shelby-developed Shelby GT. So perhaps Shelby's future products will benefit from their far leaner and more focused and efficient development process in the future and return to the incredible bang-per-buck values of SVTs hay days.

Jack Frost

Straight up.

'Shelby' & 'Hemi'...the two most over-milked phrases in the automotive industry.

Enough already.

flieger67

Along these lines, have prices been announced for the upcoming Shelby GT? It'll be interesting to see what the added costs are for a few mods and the Shelby name.

afcop13

From what I've seen and read - it looks like it'll be $35k.

tw0scoops123

LOL 35k...thats what a cobra used to be and it had more HP than the Shelby GT. He must think very high of his name...I give it

rickoshay

Excuse me but the new "Shelby GT500" was designed by SVT and was supposed to be the next Cobra! Ford just jumped on the Shelby name to stir up more interest in the car. CS had little involvement in the design other than the "approval" of the use of his name, IMHO.

kh765

Exactly Rich, the GT500 is essentially an SVT car. If it weren't for Shelby though, would SVT even being making these Super-Stangs nowadays?

black sunshine

I couldn't agree more!!!!!

rickoshay

Well, I'd bet the house that if it weren't for SVT, there wouldn't be a new Shelby! Hard to tell if this car would have happened without the Shelby connection, though. Geez, I didn't think they would kill the Lightning either! I guess I've been a Ford fan long enough not to get too surprised at anything they do anymore.

kh765

Oh yeah, I complete agree. This GT500 would not have built is it weren't for SVT. At least, not in the same capacity. I am saying, didn't Shelby really start the Super-Stangs yeaaaarrss ago? We can at least partially thank him for the great performance Mustangs we have now.

FRITZ

I really wanted the SVT Sport Tract, i had a new "01 SVT Lightning. That truck was a real blast, all though i think stock for stock the new ("05) Mustang is as fast or faster than the truck was. But there is just something about the sound of a supercharger.....

Thunder Road

When Shelby started building Shelby Mustangs, Ford shipped the Mustangs to Shelby and he built them. Save the 66 which had the Shelby stripesand hood scoop, the 67-70 had very disctintive body mods but in the last couple years, Shelby Mustangs were built by Ford in house. That didint work as well as the first 3 or 4 years when they were outsourced to Shelby as well as competition of other Ford Mustangs varitions competing with Shelby sales, ie the BOSS etc. Shelby had much less control on the Shelby being bulit and called it quits.

The new Shelby 500 is an inhouse SVT built with the Shelby name on it. Just not the way to do it. You get right down to it, its much more SVT than Shelby.
Right now we have a GT with 300hp, a soon to come Shelby GT with 325, and a Shelby GT500 with 500. The Shelby GT is only slightly different in looks then a GT. The Shelby GT 500 has a very distinctive front but sides and rear very little different. Yeah its got a different rear spoiler, but "in my opinion" not a very good looking one. The best years of Shelby were "again in my opinion" the 67-68, followed by the 69-70. They were imediately identifiable from any angle from a non Shelby.
SE edition Mustangs should be built or completed in a seperate facility be it SVT or whatever. The current GT 500 which Ford stated "everyone who wants one will get one is a joke. dealer markups, auctions etc have killed it for the average joe. IM convinced if it was a SVT Cobra Mustang same thing would be happening. Why? Because of the S197 body style. the Shelby GT and any other high performance Mustang that happen to be built will suffer the same consequences.

I would much rather see the Mustangs outsourced to Shelby and let him finish it.

Read the linked article
http://blueovalblogs.com/blogs/?p=54

tw0scoops123

I still wonder if this car would cost as much if they didn't drop a 5.4 L v8 into it?

I would have much prefered the 4.6 if it would have kept the cost down to 35k or so.

afcop13

I'd still say that if the Shelby name weren't on the GT500 and it were simply the new Cobra the prices wouldn't be as high, the dealer markups wouldn't be so out of the world, etc., etc.

95SVTCobraVA

You got it right Rick

SVT did all the work just ask the Engineer's that worked on the project