Bill Pierre Ford

In 1967, the New York auto show played host to the launch of the original GT500KR, a version of the Shelby Mustang powered by a 428-cubic-inch Cobra Jet V-8 rated at 335 horsepower. With the ’08 model’s supercharged 5.4-liter V-8 under hood wearing a Ford Racing Power Upgrade Pack (revised ignition timing and throttle calibration, plus a cold-air intake), the 2008 KR outdoes its predecessor by 205 horsepower—a margin greater than the entire output of some V-8 Mustangs of the 1980s—with 540. That herd travels rearward through a six-speed manual with a short-throw shifter to a shorter 3.73:1 rear end (stock is 3.31:1) for quicker giddyap, while snorts and whinnies get an extra edge from a revised exhaust system.

The Shelby GT will offer a five-speed manual. The manual Shelby GT will have the same 3:73 rear end, which will make the car launch like it has a lot more than the expected 325 horsepower. You’ll be able to get it in black or white with silver stripes, and possibly one or two other colors.

          And you’ll be able to buy it at Ford dealerships that have met Shelby standards, which is more than 90 percent of them. And you’ll be able to add “genuine” Shelby parts, from a supercharger to a rear spoiler that, incidentally, the Shelby GT won’t have as standard

In the meantime, Hertz would like to invite you to rent a GT-H as sort of a test drive of the 2007 Shelby GT.

It won’t be cheap. You must be over 25, have three forms of identification, sign a lengthy and very limiting agreement, and participate in a tedious checklist session when you pick up the car and when you turn it back in. And it may not be convenient. The GT-H is part of Hertz’s Fun Collection, which includes the Chrysler PT Cruiser and Ford Escape, confirming that “fun” means different things to different people. Shelby is supplying Hertz with 500 cars; they will be reallocated to the new cities, but there will still be just 500 cars in all. Shelby finished the last few in July, so all should be in service by the time you read this.

The King knows that some of its subjects wind and dip, so the GT500KR gets a unique Ford Racing suspension tune. The production Shelby GT500 was maximized to deliver the perfect balance between ride and handling. In that same ride-versus-handling continuum, the KR will lean heavier toward all-out handling while still making it drivable on the street.”

Beyond the yawning hood vents and racing stripes already in place on lesser GT500s, the GT500KR gets the signature hood, reminiscent of the original KR, in carbon fiber with two forward-looking mail slots at the leading edge of the hood feeding the blown 5.4’s appetite for air and twist-down hood pins for a more secure racer flair. The stick-through pins on the Shelby GT we tested recently actually vibrated out of their posts on rough roads. The Cobra badges in the grille and on the fenders add wings proclaiming them as the badges of not just any Shelby Mustang but the 40th-anniversary GT500KR. Rocker stripes on the Shelby mimic those on the original car, right down to the typeface used for the lettering.
 The Triton engine uses four valves per cylinder (versus three in the iron-block truck version) and the cylinder heads from the Ford GT, which has an aluminum block.