The 500bhp+ Shelby GT350R Is The Ultimate Mustang Track Weapon

If you keep up with muscle car news, you might have noticed that there’s a new Shelby Mustang GT350 on the scene. And jolly nice it is too, with its 5.2-litre flat-plane crank V8 and overhauled suspension. But, even though the 350 is supposed to be the track-friendly ‘Stang, for some, a car can never be hardcore enough. For that crowd, there’s now this: the GT350R.

Revealed the same day the Ford GT made its bombastic twin-turbo entrance at Detroit and the production NSX at last said hello, it’d be easy to let the GT350R slip under the radar, but it’s well worth our attention.

For all its track day bro aspirations, the standard GT350 has quite a bit in the way of luxury clobber, but the R dispenses with much of that. The air conditioning has been ditched, while the reversing camera, rear seats, stereo and even the boot floor have ended up in the bin. All this makes the R 59kg trimmer than the 350. Although much of the removed electronics will be optional, if you really can’t do without.

As with the GT350, we don’t know the exact power figure from the 5.2-litre V8 just yet (“more than 500hp” is promised), but it’ll send that power to the rear via a six-speed manual gearbox and a Torsen limited-slip differential, which gets its own air-to-oil cooler.

On the outside, there’s a set of 19-inch carbonfibre wheels, plus a socking great carbonfibre rear wing. The rear wing is part of an extensive aero package which includes vented wings, wheel wells and a vented bonnet, plus a new front splitter.

As an added bonus, the exhaust resonators have been removed, which - as you can tell from the video above - makes the R sound particularly delicious.

The GT350R is on display at the Detroit motor show now, and will go on sale in the United States and Canada later this year.