More than 50 years ago, Shelby American cooked up a special Mustang-based engineering study to test Goodyear’s then-new “Thunderbolt” tires. Dubbed the “Super Snake”, the one-off Shelby GT500 Fastback was given a lightweight, medium-riser Ford 427 FE racing motor like the one used in certain versions of the Le Mans-winning Ford GT40, modified to produce somewhere between 520 and 650 horsepower, depending on whom you ask. It also had heavy-duty front disk brakes, a Detroit Locker rear end, redesigned grille for improved cooling capacity, and although they did little for performance, unique triple racing stripes.
Now, after all these years, the 1967 Shelby GT500 Super Snake will enjoy a special, limited production run, with 1967 Ford Mustang Fastbacks serving as donor cars. Shelby American, along with former employee Don McCain, had planned on offering a small run of Super Snake Mustang’s after the car’s smashing performance at Goodyear’s San Angelo, Texas test track in 1967, but the car proved too expensive to retail.
Five decades later, Shelby American is “fulfilling the dream of Carroll Shelby and Don McCain,” says company President Gary Patterson. Each of the ten GT500 Super Snake continuation cars will wear original signatures from both of the men, and a price tag of $249,995 – not bad when you only consider that the original Super Snake fetched more than $1.3 million not too long ago.
To build a GT500 Super Snake, Shelby American will strip the donor 1967 Mustang down to bare metal, building it up with special bodywork, disk brakes, a four-speed manual gearbox, and a 427-cubic-inch V8 from Carroll Shelby Engine Company, with output in excess of 550 horsepower. As a matter of course, each will feature the same distinctive triple stripes as the original.
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Yawn!