Let me clarify something as this is solely personal opinion. I believe that the new Shelby made by Ford motor company is a Shelby for all intents and purpose. The cars that are produced by outside companies such as Superformance and Unique Performance are Shelbys only by licence agreement. To me personally cars built by Shelby American from 1962 through 1970 are true Shelby cars. There are two catagories, first is the Shelby American through 1967 and the Shelby Ford cars of 1968 and 1969, with the leftovers sold as 1970's. The new cars are being built with Shelby as a consultant to Ford, similar to what was really going on in 1968 and 1969 when Ford moved the assembly of Shelby cars to the A.O. Smith company. Cars built by dodge when Shelby worked there are real Shelbys, they just were in a time that performance vehicles were a joke by todays standards. It is like comparing a 195 horsepower Cobra II to a 2004 Cobra with 390 horses. The performance of cars in the 1960's is what made Shelbys legendary, cars of the 1970's and early 1980's were bogged with emission controls and detuned to a point that they were not comparable as high performance cars. Today cars have performance, better fuel economy, and essentially clean emissions. Other companies put out some incredible cars. I have several friends who have Saleen Mustangs (and I own a 1999 Cobra Convertible). They are all special models and nicely modified Mustangs. They are like Shelby's in that they are special modified production vehicles. The Saleen and Roush cars are very similar in concept to the Shelby cars of the 1960's. With all of the body kits and special parts from Classic design, Roush, Saleen, and Steeda (just to name a few) there are incredible options to modify a Mustang. I had a new 2005 Mustang GT convertible on order that was delayed. I was lucky to have acquired the 1969 GT 350 during the delay instead of the getting a new car. Just my thoughts and not the final word. I just believe that a car has one original manufacturer. Shelby, Saleen, Roush, and Steeda all qualify as an original manufacturer. Lee 66 # 869 69 # 2055
A local Ford dealer where I inquired about the 2007 GT500 just sent me these info links. I can't remember if these have already been posted here. http://media.ford.com/products/presskit_print.cfm?vehicle_id=1269 http://bradbarnett.net/mustangs/concept/07gt500/index.htm Dave