Quality of their engineers? Does Shelby have any engineers? When was the last time they designed a non-cosmetic part? GT500 was done by SVT, everything else is straight out of FRPP as far as I can tell.

 

I think Charliehorse's statement was related to performance and upgrades rather than its cost.

 

You must not be referring to appearance. Because although you'll never get an S197 to look entirely like a 1st or 2nd gen, you can clearly see the unique styling cues being carried forward on the Shelby GT350:






Why should he reinvent the wheel? You want him to invent his own supercharger? turbo? nitrous? Think of the engineering costs and time when hell he made practical application of many pre-existing technologies over the years. Didn't he use a Paxton on the 66 GT350? Is there really anything new under the automotive sun these days?

Further, it is yet to be seen what the 'tuners' will do - without requiring a new bottom end. He is the first to pump the 5.0 stock motor to over 500HP.

And praise be to Shelby for fixing Ford's effed up camaro diaper **** end. I still can't believe Ford would have done anything that remotely looks like a camaro. Anything is better than what Ford botched on the 10/11 rear. (even though I'm not fond of center exhausts on the GT350)

As far as price goes, sure its ludicrous... unless you're a millionaire. But that doesn't stop me from objectively looking at the car itself.

Shelby did a great job bringing the GT350 into the 21st century.

 

Sorry, but putting some holes in a similar place does not make it look like the old car. The new car looks nothing like the orginal as a whole. The old car was clean, lean, focused and minimalistic. The new car is tacky, porky, has awful random cutlines on both front and rear bumpers to add to the "tacked-on" look, and terrible "I am a GT-350 because I say I am" stickers/emblems everywhere (they couldn't even paint the stripes).

They could have done a LOT better in carrying the old styling cues to the new car and still keep the feel that the old car exuded.

The old car had a purpose on the racetrack, and was unique in that respect. The new car is like every other tuner Mustang around (worse, even).


Doesn't have to invent his own blower, but why not do something different, like focus on lower weight NA power (like the old car)? Or engineer a turbo system, even if you use off-the-shelf scrolls themselves? What about perfecting the Rotrex blower? There are tons of ways to do something unique. Even if they start with TVS internals, they could design and package the blower in a unique way (ala Roush, Edlebrock, Saleen, etc.).

Why not devise your own suspension? Roush does it. Steeda designs a whole host of parts. Saleen has their parts made to their specs. Shelby takes parts off the Ford shelf (blower included). Why be a "tuner" if you just take other people's parts? Any Joe can do that. A tuner is supposed to bring something unique to the table (besides a polarizing body kit).

 

Well to be objective, how do you do that with an S197? It is a bigger car and unless you want Shelby to start with a clean sheet of paper, or pull a '66 out of the junk yard, its going to be based on a larger car period.
And if the skirting is just for asthetics then I'll agree with you somewhat. But if there are track dynamics engineered in, it will increase high speed performance - which is what we want, right?

Random cut lines.... LOL What to you call this mishmash of lines?




As for excess labeling, that seems to be the modern marketing era we're in (which is what makes Bullitt pretty rare). And I guess you have to allow for 40 years of Shelby's ego growing.

We've yet to learn its performance capabilities... but 500+HP on a GT weight vehicle ain't gonna be no slouch!

As for engineering new power adders, maybe there's more to it as far as complying with today's EPA crud that we don't know about, and so he stays within Ford's parameters that are already street legal.

 

Now they are closing the critical threads of the car on their site. Very disappointing. It seems you can't tell the emperor they aren't wearing any clothes.

 

they even have a thread bashing us for bashing this car.
some will always drink the coolaide

 

Is this on a Shelby owned forum?

 

Correct Team Shelby. Which is their right to do but it doesn't look good when companies run from criticism.

 

Oh I agree, I just didn't know they had their own forum.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5j2F4VcBmeo

 

Shelby had a vision .. beat Ferrari. He did that. In the 60's Shelby was about the cars and winning. And he was good at it.

Today, Shelby is about the name and $$$. Not the cars or winning.

That's the difference, IMHO

 

http://www.teamshelby.com/forums

 

Just giving them the benefit of a doubt...

 

 

Shelby has opened himself up to more than a little criticism over the years to be sure, that said since there is so much actual fodder to work with it seems fair to be accurate and to not accuse of things which are not accurate.

AC designed neither the chassis or the body for the 427 Cobra, although they did manufacture the same. The body and chassis of the 427 car were designed and developed by Shelby American with notable assistance from Ford Motor, although the styling obviously owes it's basis to the original 289 powered car.

 

No,i don't think Shelby will lose its image. If outsourcing the '68-70 Shelbys back to Ford,hot-rodding K-cars,"Finding" lost Cobras in the '90s,and selling the flop Shelby Series 1....among other things.....hasn't killed his image,nothing will.
He told AC and Ford he had a deal with both and vice versa before any deal was in place,he painted the first Cobra different colors to trick the media in thinking he had a bunch of cars. He is nothing if not a consistent con-man for the last 50 years. I love him,he is a national treasure. Nobody is making anyone buy this new car. It's lame but it will sell EVERY ONE made.

 

Even worse.

Who knows, I am probably over-reacting a bit because the GT-350 has a very special place in my heart (it got me into Mustangs, and was the only car besides Porsches I liked when I was a little kid) and I had soooooooo hoped for a reincarnation of the old GT-350 and not a "me-to" money grab.

Perhaps the "production" kit (didn't think they would show the car that wasn't production-ready) will get rid of a lot of the "messy" lines that give it such the "tacked on" look that is such a deterrent for me. And maybe they will use real A-pillars gauge pods, and get rid of the GT-350 on the hood stripes. And, perhaps they will actually build up the bottom end instead of just slapping on a blower.

But, even if all that happens, it will still be an over-priced, nothing-new-to-the-table marketing exercise, and not the unique and special tuner car it could have been.

 

They deleted my improving the GT350 thread again! This is crazy so I made another one. Nobody will tell me why they continue to do it. The first one was constructive and the second one was starting to be.

 

I like the front fascia of that car - less busy.

Having studied some more, I think a reduction in the GT350 badging would help with the "minimalist" appearance, as well as some extention of the striping.

Image is an interesting concept - studying what was done many years ago for "hot rodding" and what is done today, there are some parallels. The number of aftermarket companies today, I assume, are so much more that it is even harder to be distinctive. Appearance now is probably more where the image is set, rather than performance. There is a lot of base capability built into the 5.0L engine now, and braking and handling have very clear parameters changes because the S197 platform is "mature" now.

I think people will buy this car regardless. especially given the volumes.