Ford Shelby GT500 Cobra with 850hp pays tribute to Carroll Shelby

‘Friends of Carroll Shelby’ pay tribute to the man with an 850hp Ford Shelby GT500 Cobra, finished in Guardsman Blue/Wimbledon White stripe paint.

Carroll Shelby – an man who understood performance cars perhaps better than any other American – died in May of this year, aged 89, after a life lived to the full.

As a fitting tribute to the man who gave Ford the sort of performance cars they could never have dreamt of building, a very special Ford Shelby GT500 Cobra has been built to remember him by ‘The Friends of Carroll Shelby’. Well, some of them, at least.

The special Shelby used the 2013 Shelby GT500 as its starting point – already with a fulsome and potent 662bhp – but ended up with a far more Shelbyesque 850bhp by using a Ford Racing 4.0 litre whipple supercharger.

Other changes to the stock car included big back wings to house the 13″ wide wheels, a new bonnet, Shelby Wilwood brakes and a paint job of Guardsman Blue with Wimbledon White Stripes.

Ford’s Jim Varley said:

Even at 89 years of age, Carroll was an inspiration to us all.

This year marks the 50th anniversary of the original Shelby Cobra. The one-off car we have created represents the very idea he had about making the 2013 Shelby GT500 into a true Cobra.

A special car for a special man. And the honour also of a new road at Ford’s Dearborn HQ – ‘Carroll Shelby Way’.

By Cars UK