It’s easy for us to be snooty about the thought of a live-axle equipped
Mustang with 1,200hp
and snigger that it’s all about show rather than go – but spend five minutes in the company of Shelby American president John T Luft and you’re soon won over. Actually, you’ll be there for more than five minutes, the
Ford PR man
’s promise that ‘they’ll talk your ear off about the car…’ no overstatement.
That's 1,200hp under there. Yes, really.
Luft is everything you’d hope for from the boss of Shelby: a larger-than-life, back-slapping and hugely enthusiastic chap who, within minutes of meeting, was inviting us to Vegas to come and have some fun in some of their cars. Which was nice of him and, of course, we intend to.
But what about that Mustang? “When Ford give us a strong product to work with we’re happy,” he says, “and when they gave us the GT500 we all had to stop for a minute and thing, gee, where do we go from here.” It helped that the late Shelby himself had declared that a 1,000hp Mustang was on his bucket list according to Luft, and he got to see – and ride in – just that before he passed away last year. And was suitably delighted. That was a 5.5-litre car with the magic four figures; expanding to a 5.8 opened up the extra power (like it needed it) and the GT1000 was born.
Does it actually get off the line, though, or does it just sit there incinerating its tyres? Luft assures us the supercharged power delivery is actually – relatively – tractable and, off-boost, the car is surprisingly docile. But when the needle moves on the boost gauge things start getting interesting. Lunacy, sure. But the kind you can sort-of appreciate.
Focus ST's a new chapter for Shelby
At the other end of the spectrum Shelby’s 252hp Focus shows how times are changing both at Shelby and at Ford. But a Shelby-tuned front-driven hatchback? There is previous, Shelby having turbocharged the Dodge Omni back in the mid 80s with the Omni GLH. GLH? Goes Like Hell, obviously. Which all of a sudden makes ‘GTI’ sound terribly pretentious.
Anyway, like Ford, Shelby is very excited about the American awakening for hot hatches and Luft is keen to point out the Focus is a true Shelby and about more than just power. “Sure, you can put more power in it easily,” he says. “But you’ll torque steer off the road if you don’t set it up right.” The graphics packages aren’t shy – the classic Shelby stripes are the better option – but it’s an interesting new direction for this historic partnership.