[King T]

(Car And Driver)















THIS IS IT: 2016 Ford Mustang Shelby GT350 Live and in the Metal!

Ford’s choice of venue for unveiling the new Shelby GT350 Mustang couldn’t have been more appropriate: Shelby International, the house that Carroll built. Flanked by six original GT350s—Ol’ Shel’s lightweight, high-revving road racers—the newest Mustang’s debut wasn’t just an unveiling. It was a homecoming.

By now you know all the details that Ford has been willing to divulge on this new super Stang: the 5.2-liter flat-crank V-8, the magnetorheological suspension, the massive brakes, the wider front track, and the unique bodywork designed solely to optimize aero. We haven’t yet learned anything that we hadn’t already found out this morning; Ford folks on hand were steadfastly coy when asked about the car’s exact horsepower and torque figures, its curb weight, and its pricing. Rest assured, however, that our interrogation sessions continue.

But when the curtain was pulled back and the Shelby GT350 revved into the room, nobody was sweating the spec sheet. The warehouse filled with flat-crank V-8 music, a sound simultaneously exotic and somehow pony-car appropriate. The crowd, motor-journalism pros not normally given to gushing over a new-car debut, jumped up like teens at a One Direction concert. Cameras flashed, phones were held over heads, and everyone elbowed for a view.

We still don’t know exactly how many horses the GT350 makes; Ford says only to expect more than 500. We still don’t know how high it will rev, or how much it weighs, when it will hit showrooms, or what it will cost when it does. But we do know this: It’s a knockout. It’s stunning visually, aurally, and emotionally. Just the way Ol’ Shel would’ve wanted it.