I kinda take offense to the 55 in the left lane comment.
My dad (not a former race driver) is older than Shelby and has NEVER driven as slow as 55 in the passing lane.
He is an engineer and still builds and tinkers with things (he can build his own PC).
Don't think that Shelby had NOTHING to do with these cars.

 

The Shelby GT is a real Shelby, those are taken to his Las Vegas shop and given the modifications that make them a Shelby. $40,000 for a 325HP Mustang isn't my cup of tea. The other one that can be considered a real Shelby is the supersnake. Same deal as the Shelby GT he takes stock GT500s and tweaks them with Ford aftermarket parts, though Tasca Ford in RI also makes supersnakes.

The Shelby that people actually want, the GT500 is a whole other story. This car was engineered and designed by SVT way before Shelby was in the fold. This is a Ford vehicle built 100% by Ford. The only involvement he had was putting fatter tires in back, whoo hoo. The original Shelby that he actually had involvement in were from 65-67. By 1968 Shelby's name was tagged onto a 100% Ford product. All 68-70 Shelbys were built in Ford assembly plants. Once again you are misinformed if you think the 07-09 GT500 is built in his shop!

 

Sorry if you were offended by my sarcasm, it was in no way intended to hurt anyone.

All the press reports and interviews show that Shelby's only contribution to the car was adding wider rare tires to the back of the GT500. The development of this car took place way before Shelby's name was going to be put on the car.

What ended up being the 07 GT500 was supposed to be the 05' Mustang Cobra. This car was developed side by side with the 05' Mustang. The car was delayed several times and Ford decided to once again join forces with Shelby when the car was near completion.

 

First off, I'm not sure I was misinformed a first time, that sounded kind of smart, nonetheless, you are correct in regards to the GT500. I knew that but must of had a brain fart. It's kind of stressful over here. However, I agree that there is too much money being paid for a SVT Cobra with Shelby's badge put on it.

 

there are so many different S197's made with different emblems an modifications...IMO, it gets really sickening..

Not to say that I wouldn't like to have one, but which one is the right on to buy....Roush? Shelby? Steeda? etc etc... It is just annoying.

 

At one point I was trying to make a list of every aftermarket third party manufacturer out there that had a turnkey production ready Mustang in the S197 chassis. When I stopped, after doing weeks of research, and probably missing some, I was at 63 uniquely different models from over 15 different manufacturers. Saleen having one of the longest list by itself. That was June of 2007!

 

wow, I believe there's that many...I don't know if that is a good thing or a bad thing.

 

Original Post cleaned

 

There is no reason that the GT500 should have costed 9k more MSRP then the 2004 cobra. The GT only went up by a couple thousand, and the GT500 doesn't have any more mods to it then the 04 did, infact it has less. so it really doesn't add up, they obviously are paying shelby money and maybe even adding price just cause they knew people would pay it with his name on it.

 

its hard not to agree

 

Gentlemen, Carroll Shelby's name is gold on a Mustang. Recently, a '65 or '66 G.T. 350 sold at auction for just over 100 times its selling price back in the day!

Your S197 will appreciate beautifully decades from now. If your S197 is also a genuine Shelby, it will appreciate phenomenally decades from now. Have you noticed how many tuner Mustangs are styled to look like the late 'Sixties Shelby G.T. 500s?

If you don't like the premium you will pay for a Shelby Mustang, there are 35 or more other tuner Mustangs in the marketplace right now. So take your pick from those others...

Carroll Shelby is the real deal, the man who invented the tuner car (although they weren't called tuner cars back in the day. They were G.T. 350s--the only ones of their kind on planet Earth), and the only tuner car manufacturer who not only won LeMans outright himself but was integral in helping Ford develop the Ford GT into an endurance racing superdreadnought that owned endurance racing until the FIA ruled them off the famous tracks of Europe and America in late 1967. And yet the GT40 won LeMans outright the next two years even under the punitive rules created by the FIA.

Carroll Shelby has ten times the stature of any other tuner, maybe even ten times the stature of all other tuners combined.

You or I could grab a credit card and a stack of aftermarket catalogs and we could build an S197 that would outperform a GT500--it wouldn't have any dealer markups, either, because our names on the dashboard wouldn't command the respect given a ****-ant. And down the road, our hotrodded parts-catalog Mustangs wouldn't even get an auction bid equal to a clean, stock, S197 Mustang GT! Meanwhile, the Shelbys on the block are probably getting record bids yet again...

There is a quality called "class", and all Shelbys have heapin' helpings of it. The double stripes that run the length of most Shelbys are called "LeMans stripes", and they're there because Carroll Shelby earned them. They're a respected symbol of greatness, and that will always command a premium.

I'm Greg "Eights" Ates, and that's all I have to say about that...

 

I agree on how great Shelby has influenced performance cars. But what about exclusivity? How many Shelbys were built back in the day? How many now? That will have more to do with it than just the name I think. Also werent the first ones designed to be driven on the track while these are simply modified for public consumption?

 

Wow. I think that's the most passion filled speak about Shelby I've ever read. Are you getting paid for this!? J/K. But seriously, while I totally agree on his stature in history and racing and all he's done for the automotive industry, I still think people who are money hungry are using his name in vain. They just want to get as much money from us as possible, and whos to say I wouldn't want to do the same thing if I were in their shoes?! Shelby is a ledgend and has earned it, no doubt, but those who are earning money from his success and hard work are those we should be directing our gripes towards them.

 

11/10/2008 Date Unscheduled Order Bank (USOB) Opens


Does this mean that they will start taking orders on this date??

 

Deifying Carol Shelby notwithstanding, I see no evidence to suggest current Shelbys will be worth any sort of 'fortune' decades from now. That was a different time, and there is a groundswell towards increased fuel efficiency, environmental stewardship, and possibly even completely different types of ICEs, which will likely render our present cars nothing more than curious dinosaurs, not high value collectibles. Moreover, those '60s Shelbys had a greater 'genuine' factor. The current top dog GT500 is built by Ford with little or no input from Carol Shelby.

 

Time-out got me in the cods. Go directly to the next posting--do not pass "GO" and do not collect $200...

 

I perceive a lot of yesteryear logic in the responses to my last posting--well-meaning guys looking back on the past and projecting the values of the past and the experience of the past into the automotive marketplace of the future...are you guys actually just John McCain with multiple usernames???

Yes, people are making money on Shelbys--that's why cars are manufactured, after all. If nobody made money on 'em, nobody would go to the immense expense and hassle of building and marketing 'em--do you guys know what a pain in the third eye (Boomer may cruise by here at any time) it is to run a vehicle manufacturing business? Yeah, it sucks--and it especially sucks right now...

Performance cars will be worth stupendous money down the road when all you can buy are vehicles with two-cylinder biodiesel R/C model airplane engines used to charge the batteries in your ugly POS with bicycle tires that's shorter than your office desk and half again as tall as it is wide, wheezing along with all the other lame little oversized roller skates with training wheels that are class sales leaders because no one sells anything else! The Toyota Putrid, the Buick Disgusting, the Ford ExcuseMe, the Nissan .5 Z, the Chevy Wimp, the Dodge *****, the Lincoln Lacking, the Honda Dreadful, the Pontiac Mediocrity, yada yada yada. Starting at just $185,000 + Tax at a WalMart near you!

Everything costs too much money. I remember when you could buy a brand new full-race Cobra 427 SC certified for A Production sportscar racing in the SCCA for $9500 out the door at the Shelby factory in Riverside, CA. The "standard" Cobra 427 listed around $6500. What can you get for $9500 today?

G.T. 500s once stickered for less than $5000, and before that G.T. 350s stickered around $4400-$4600. There were street G.T. 350s with 306 HP and there were G.T. 350Rs for competition with 350 HP. The vast bulk of them were the street G.T. 350s. Forty years makes a lot of difference--you can tell by my waist measurement and my hairline...

 

Eights do you not think the 2010+ will fetch more in the future than the 05-09? You are getting a 5.0 with 400HP a higher quality interior and a more refined body style. The care is still staying with the Retro theme but just taking it up a notch.

 

Nuff said.

 

I perceive a lot of yesteryear logic in the responses to my last posting--well-meaning guys looking back on the past and projecting the values of the past and the experience of the past into the automotive marketplace of the future...are you guys actually just John McCain trying to fool us with multiple usernames???

Yes, people are making money on Shelbys--that's why cars are manufactured, after all. If nobody made money on 'em, nobody would go to the immense expense and hassle of building and marketing 'em--do you guys know what a pain in the third eye (Boomer may cruise by here at any time...) it is to run a vehicle manufacturing business? Yeah, it sucks--and it especially sucks right now...

Performance cars will be worth stupendous money down the road when all you can buy are vehicles with two-cylinder biodiesel R/C model airplane engines used to charge the batteries in your ugly POS on bicycle tires that's shorter than your office desk and half again as tall as it is wide, wheezing along with all the other lame little oversized roller skates with training wheels that are class sales leaders because no one sells anything else! The Toyota Putrid, the Buick Disgusting, the Ford Excuse, the Nissan .5 Z, the Chevy Wimp, the Dodge *****, the Lincoln Lacking, the Honda Dreadful, the Pontiac Mediocrity, yada yada yada. Starting at just $185,000 + Tax at a WalMart near you!

Everything costs too much money. I remember when you could buy a brand new full-race Cobra 427 SC certified for A Production sportscar racing in the SCCA for $9500 out the door at the Shelby factory in Riverside, CA. The "standard" Cobra 427 listed around $6500. What can you get for $6500 today? Or even $9500?

G.T. 500s once stickered for less than $5000, and before that G.T. 350s stickered around $4400-$4600. There were street G.T. 350s with 306 HP and there were G.T. 350Rs for competition with 350 HP. The vast bulk of them were the street G.T. 350s. Forty years makes a lot of difference--you can tell by my waist measurement and my hairline...

Using Ol' Shel's name in vain? I hardly think that having your name on the first 500 horsepower Mustang with a supercharged, intercooled, dual-injected, aluminum-headed, DOHC, 4-valved, variable-timed, Tremec 6060-equipped, 4-wheel-disc-braked-with-ABS, wide low-profile-tired, carbon-fiber-air-extractor-hooded, best-equipped-Mustang-ever-offered, starting at under $43,000 is takin' Ol' Shel's name in vain!!! There ain't no room in that startin' price to stash away a tidy sum in the pocket for Ol' Uncle Shel', that's for sure! Things just cost too damned much. And I ain't just talkin' tuner cars here...

Good luck in November, John. Oh, yeah--great choice on the First Airhead to be your running mate...

Greg "Eights" Ates