The Shelby GT350 Is Back With 810bhp

Remember the Shelby GT350? The one from about 10 years ago that turned the previous-gen Ford Mustang into a hunkered-down track monster with a flat-plane crank V8 that focused more on handling prowess than ripping up the quarter-mile?

Well, the name is back, but this time, it’s a rather different affair. While the Shelby versions of the previous ’Stang were developed wholesale by Ford and just borrowed the name of Carroll Shelby’s long-standing tuning shop, this one’s a full aftermarket conversion carried out by Shelby itself.

That means the name is now on a ridiculously powerful Mustang. Shelby will sell you one with the standard 480bhp 5.0-litre V8 found in the US-spec Mustang GT, it’s also offering a supercharger kit that lifts things to a faintly ludicrous 810bhp.

Available with a six-speed manual or the Mustang’s (perhaps excessive) 10-speed automatic, the GT350 also gets tweaked suspension, a new exhaust and that big rear wing, plus the obligatory racing stripes. All this, in the words of Shelby vice president Vince LaViolette, adds to the car’s “sex appeal.” We can’t imagine the second-most senior person at, say, Mercedes talking about sex appeal.

The 810bhp supercharged version starts at $109,999, or around £89,000, in the States, but it’s not quite top of the GT350 tree. The more hardcore GT350R name is also back as a road-legal but very track-focused Mustang packing at least 830bhp – more power than Ford’s own ultra-focused seventh-gen ’Stang, the GTD – sent exclusively through a six-speed manual.

The list of hardware here is enough to make you swoon if you spend your weekends standing around pit lanes talking about camber angles: fully-adjustable remote reservoir JRI dampers, Alcon race-spec brakes, a full carbon fibre aero package and optional carbon racing seats with harnesses.

Just 36 GT350Rs will be built in collaboration with Michigan outfit Turn Key Automotive/Motorsports, while the ‘regular’ GT350 will be limited to 562 examples for 2025 – that’s how many original GT350s were produced back in 1965. They’ll be sold through certain Ford dealers in the US, but apparently, a small number will be made available internationally too, so you just might end up seeing one of these in the UK.