I wouldn't call the motor a ticking time bomb, but that's just me.
It's not like joe-shmoe is throwing the blower on, and hoping it lasts...

 

You sure about that? You see how they attach the hood scoops?

 

From another perspective...all the Shelby people (who work for the Man) are getting older. Most of the customers are older guys who remember the 60's cars and can afford them now. I believe they are catering to this crowd. Nothing wrong with that, the crowd has cash. It is good business. But like it has been said, they are just bolting on someone else's parts - hardly innovative or imaginitive. Nothing like Roush (also an old schooler - but definitely an innovator).

As for the GT350, they most likely tapped the older crowd that collects and designed the car to their taste. All the young crowd that hates on the design is ignored because it is not for them. They can find 500 old guys with garages to put the new car in and occasionally drive them at a Shelby track event.

The younger tuner crowd is not affraid to modify a Mustang to be better than the Shelby and there are Griggs, Agent 47, Roush, Saleen and others that actually engineer and innovate that can make a Mustang outperform almost anything for less than half the price of an exotic car.

So everyone is covered. Shelby does what it does (takes parts from Ford Racing parts bin - nothing wrong with that) and does it very well. They are not selling the most technically advanced Mustangs out there and never said they were. They do what they do and there is definitely a market for it.

 

I hear ya, thats just my opinion when it comes to what we have "heard" about the 5.0 so far. By no means does it guarantee the motor won't hold up, but so far it sounds likely that it might not like the boost.

And I know Joe-shmoe is not throwing the blower on and hoping it lasts...

Shelby America is.

 

Yeah, but they aren't doing the tune on it.

 

shelby does have a mod shop too ie. cams ported heads and whatever to your liking

 

shelbys is not just for old guys .besides what is considered old ?80 or 90 ?20 or 30 ?

 

80 is the new 70!!! Lol

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I do agree the Shelby(S) are overpriced poof cars. Lets face it, for a car to make collector status, they have to be very few in number and at least 40 years old. So, most of the guys buying these "new" collector cars will all be dead before they are worth a dime. Of course, the "trophy" wives will be left with the car(s) and will be the ones making the money, if there is any to be made, so they can spend it on the their new younger boyfriends.

 

Wouldn't be the first time.

 

He's been in bed with Chrysler before. Shelby was responsible for shoe-horning the Ford 289 into the Sunbeam Alpine, which was called the Tiger. Then Chrysler bought out the Roots Group, which made the Alpine. The 318 MoPar V8 was too large to fit into the Alpine, so MoPar dealers had to repair and maintain 289 Ford engines and two-speed Ford-a-Matic trannies. Shelby claims to have gone broke on the deal.

 

Dodge OMNI
Shelby GLH and GLHS
Goes Like Hell
and
Goes Like Hell Somemore....
2.2L turbo

 

Yes I just turned 59 and like the GT350 way better than any of the GT500s Ford has made in the last 10 years. Actually the new GTS is even better with the deep draw hood and the 350 front end. The pity is I think Shelby knows better but he is hardly in charge any more, more figure head than anything. He said on one of the auction shows that parts is where the money is but you can't buy them without serial a number for your car makes no sense.

 

See your Doctor, immediately.

 

.....

 

I'm 51, been driving Mustangs since '75, am a member of Team Shelby and have owned new a '03 GT, '04 Lightning, '07 GT/CS, '08 Shelby GT and now my current '10 Roush Hammer. I also live 5 miles from Tasca Ford, which happens to be the offical east coast Shelby mod shop. I was there today and watched a '10 Super Snake put down 700rwhp on the dyno. My comment to what I've read on this thread is this, regardless of what Shelby does or doesn't do, his legacy is assured for the simple fact that he has done more to promote Ford's racing history than anyone else and for that fact alone anything he attaches his name to is gold. That being said I too feel that he is now just a figurehead and that others in his company are just milking his name for all it is worth. For the money I paid for my Shelby I got a glorified GT. I was happy to trade it in on the Roush and blow my shorts in the process as the Roush is such a better engineered car for the money. I would have gotten a GT 500 if I had found one in Kona. I guess what I'm trying to say is Shelby is going to be fine no matter what. If it wasn't for him and others the cars we are driving today wouldn't be half as fun I think. And that goes for all the brands. These are the good old days!

 

I would say Shelby is still in control of his company. He simply said he probably would not design and bulid new cars anymore because there is not a real good return on the investment. However, he said he will continue to modify Mustangs and install high performance parts.

 

That person who Shelby called was John Bishop. Bishop was the head of the Sports Car Club of America. Later, Bishop would go on to found IMSA.

From 1965gt350.com:

Shelby contacted John Bishop, the executive director of the SCCA, in the summer of 1964 and brought up the subject of what was needed to make the Mustang race worthy. A few days later, Bishop called Shelby back with a few areas to consider in modifying the Mustang. The points Bishop came up with included removing the rear seats (there were no provisions in the SCCA for a four-passenger race car), installing larger brakes, increasing the horsepower to around 300 and improving the suspension. Furthermore, SCCA's regulations allowed Shelby to modify the engine OR the suspension/brakes and the car would still be considered as a production car - but both areas could NOT be modified. Shelby determined he would have less trouble with warranty issues if the engine was kept stock. The idea of having the suspension and brakes upgraded for the race cars would not cause as much of a problem on the street cars warranty-wise. It is for this reason that both the race and street versions of the GT350 shared the same brakes and suspension. This way, Shelby's racing version could have a higher horsepower motor and still be considered "legal". Either way you look at it, this meant having to modify several major components of the basic Mustang! If that was not enough, they had to have 100 of them "ready" for the new homologation certification rules into B production racing by January 1,1965. That gave Shelby, with Ford's backing, just five months (August 1964- January 1, 1965) to get the job done. Not much time.
Shelby relayed his findings to Lee Iacocca at Ford, who gave Shelby the go ahead on the project. Iacocca placed Geddes in charge of being the liaison between Ford and Shelby American on what was initially termed to be the 'Cobra Mustang' project. Sam Smith who was working under Geddes at the time suggested to a former General Motors co worker and friend, Chuck Cantwell, that he should contact Geddes about heading up the new project at Shelby American.

 

I don't think all is well at Shelby American, desite the fact that I rather seriously doubt cash flow is an issue, because they could be doing so much more than they are and be doing it so much better.

America has thus far had exactly one brand name that has the juice to go toe to toe with Ferrari, Aston Martin, etc. in every respect, including provenance, as an across the board brand and that brand is Shelby American. The problem? Easy, they aren't anywhere close to doing it and by all appearances have zero plans to do so in the future.

Sad too, an American exotic that isn't a 15 second, fly-by-night operation would be kinda' neat.

 

I heard that Shelby just signed a new deal with Ford. A friend just toured their facility in Vegas and that was stated.