Ahead of the annual Carroll Shelby Tribute & Car Show taking place in Los Angeles this weekend, Shelby American has unveiled two new vehicles. They're both predictably brash, not to mention absurdly powerful, thanks to hulking great V8 engines shoehorned under their respective hoods. Meet the Mustang Super Snake wide body and F-150 Super Snake.
Mustang Super Snake
The Mustang Super Snake wide body is the first factory concept car to come from Shelby American in more than 10 years. Unlike classic modified Mustangs of the past, this isn't about putting down crazy times over a quarter mile, and it isn't just a mildly modified version of the Ford car. Instead, it's been built from the ground up to turn the car into a track-focused monster.
Power comes from a supercharged five-liter V8 pumping out 750 hp (559 kW), just as it does in the current Super Snake tuning package. The real changes come under the skin, where the standard suspension has been replaced with a fully adjustable coil over setup along with bigger brakes, hardened wheel studs, new spindles and more aggressive rolling stock. Shelby American says this should make it easier to put every single one of the rampaging American horsepower to the road.
"Adding approximately four inches to the car's rear track and two and half to the front, opened up new opportunities to maximize handling," says Vince LaViolette, Shelby American Vice President of Operations and Chief Test Driver. "The fully adjustable coil over suspension and the enormous Brembo braking system, along with wider wheels and tires significantly change the car's driving dynamics."
It's just a concept at the moment, but Shelby has hinted there's a chance the Super Snake wide body could go into production at some point in the future.
F-150 Super Snake
Ford already builds the Raptor for anyone who wants a powerful off-road-ready pickup truck, but even that won't make some people happy. In place of the turbo V6 engine in the regular F-150, the Snake is powered by an old-fashioned supercharged V8 making 750 hp (559 kW). Forget EcoBoost, it's all about plain old boost on the Shelby side of the fence.
Of course, there's more to standing out than a big engine. The Super Snake also needs to look like a true Shelby, not like another run-of-the-mill version of America's most popular car. To make sure it doesn't shrink into the background the Super Snake sports a new grille, hood, wheels and tonneau cover – along with the obligatory blue paint and white stripes, of course.
Just 150 examples of the F-150 Super Snake will be built, with a starting price of US$96,880.
