Shelby American is no stranger to producing high-powered specialty variants of the Ford Mustang, as the company has been doing just that for decades. One noteworthy example of the company’s prowess is the Ford Shelby 1000, which used the formidable S197-generation Shelby GT500 as a foundation. But the packaged took supercharged performance to the next level by delivering tweaks to the chassis, aesthetics, and interior for a pretty substantial all-around package. A particularly superlative example from 2012 recently broke the six-figure mark at Barrett-Jackson’s Las Vegas event in mid-June, where it sold with no reserve.
Shelby American really upped the ante with the Ford Shelby 1000, as the GT500’s stock supercharger on the Ford Modular 5.4 V8 got replaced by a larger Kenne Bell 3.6 liquid-cooled unit, allowing higher boost pressures to better suit the extreme output goals of the car. To support vastly improved airflow capabilities, long tube headers with 2-inch primaries and 3.5-inch collectors were chosen for their proven effectiveness at dispelling gasses in large-frame supercharger applications.
It’s one thing to crank a factory supercharged V8 up a few notches and make big power, but transmitting all that torque to the ground is often a challenge unto itself. To ensure that the Shelby 1000 left the start line with appropriately swift authority, Shelby swapped FoMoCo’s 8.8-inch rear setup for a custom 9-inch rear end, paired with a billet Watts Link and adjustable control arms in front of a six-speed manual transmission. Combined with Eibach coilovers and deep-dish 20-inch wheels sporting 345-wide tires, there’s plenty of available grip too, to supplement all those suspension upgrades.
Shelby American made sure not to leave the cockpit devoid of special features on the Ford Shelby 1000 either, with a full host of informative gauges, grippy Recaro sport seats, and custom Shelby badging to indicate the special build. Modern convenience and drivability is also retained with the Shaker 1000 10-speaker, 1000-watt sound system along with GPS navigation and LoJack anti-theft protection.
With such drastic power and handling upgrades so well-concealed, this was essentially the ultimate sleeper S197 GT500 available with OEM level craftsmanship. Bidding reached a solid $115,500 when it crossed the auction block last month, an appropriately outsized number for a specialty Mustang that can still embarrass its newer counterparts on the track. Its sub-3,000 mile odometer reading likely boosted bidding too, as it’s basically brand-new.
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