Shelby-Prudhomme Super Snake Ford Mustang takes another chomp

This isn't a wheels-and-wings, limited-edition Mustang kit. Horsepower entrepreneur Carroll Shelby and drag-racing legend Don Prudhomme teamed up to produce the Prudhomme Edition Shelby Super Snake, an 800-hp monster Mustang based on 2007 and later Shelby GT500s.

The Snake features a Kenny Bell/Shelby supercharger under a custom forward-tilting fiberglass hood. There's also a big wing on the back.

Though they say it will make 800-plus hp on 109-octane racing gas, the car will crank 750 hp on 93-octane pump gas. Shelby claims the car is street legal and will even pass smog at the 750-hp level.

The car was unveiled at the NHRA Motorsports Museum in Pomona, Calif., on the first day of qualifying for the NHRA season opener.

MARK VAUGHN
New and old versions of the Shelby Super Snake sit side-by-side in Pomona, Calif.

Ironically, Ford representatives were making passes of the track earlier in the day in the new Cobra Jet Mustang that was unveiled at SEMA. The Prudhomme-Shelby car is built to surpass that Mustang and anything else that gets in its way, with a claimed quarter-mile time of less than 10 seconds.

The car shown had drag slicks and skinny front tires that might not have been too road-worthy in the street-legal part of those claims. But that likely won't matter too much to buyers of the beast, who certainly will plan to race it.

The sticker price is $149,995, or $99,995 if you provide the donor GT500. Only 100 of these cars will be made. Want to put in an order? Go to www.shelbyautos.com.

By Mark Vaughn