There's been rather a lot of go-faster Mustang talk recently - we had the reveal of the
Bullitt
just yesterday - but Ford saved the real peach for last; revealing an all-new Shelby GT500 in a teaser video in the final moments of the Detroit show's second press day.
Of course, when we say 'reveal' we mean it in the teaser trailer sense (the car isn't actually due until 2019, and there isn't an actual car in the video). But computer renderings or not, the salient news is hammered home with no mistake: the next Shelby will have more than 700hp, making it by some margin the most powerful street-legal model Ford has ever produced.
That's rather appealing, and even - when you think about it - rather necessary given that the Dodge Charger SRT Hellcat already outputs 707hp and the Challenger SRT Demon, 840hp. Rumours have the manfacturer supercharging its rather lovely 5.2-litre V8 to achieve the target; suggesting that 700hp is at the lower end of its expectations. It makes no bones about the car's intended destination either: the accompanying press release insisting in the headline that the GT500 will "attack tracks, drag strips in 2019".
Given the Shelby name's long and illustrious history with motorsport, that's nice to hear, too. Somewhat less pleasing is the unlikelihood of the model ever making an official on-sale appearance at a Ford dealership in the UK. The GT500 will be a limited volume prospect (probably built by a third party) making export to Europe highly improbable.
That's not an insurmountable barrier for a determined (and cash-rich) individual, of course. And there's undeniable appeal in the idea of shipping yourself a Mustang with more power at the wheels than a Ford GT. Alternatively, if the Blue Oval's direct involvement isn't a deal-breaker, you could pay a little trip to the classifieds right now, and ponder dropping £129,750 on a 2017 750hp Shelby Supersnake.