The Shelby 1000: the Mustang for Shelby American's fiftieth anniversary

If the 5.4-litre V8 of the Shelby GT500 wasn’t enough, Shelby American now brings us a beastly Mustang that breaks the three-digit barrier and delivers 1,100 hp! in its competition version. It is none other than the Shelby 1000, the most impressive Mustang we have seen so far and the most powerful in the entire history of this noble pony.

Such a show of horsepower has a valid reason. It celebrates the 50 years of Shelby American, which began in 1962 as a performance tuner, and also marks the presentation of the original Shelby Cobra 289 at the New York show. The Shelby 1000 produces 950 hp for the street and 1,100 for racing. Interestingly, the original GT500 block was good for 800 hp (or more), according to Carroll Shelby himself, so everyone at his company set to work extracting as much as possible from the engine without compromising its usability in the road-going model.

Of course, they did not stop at adding a turbo. The internal changes (pistons, forged crankshaft, connecting rods and differential), plus the Tremec transmission, do more than withstand the 1,000 hp. As if that were not enough, they chose to fit two turbos of considerable size, one of the wettest dreams of any Mustang owner.

As for the price, it was clear it would be astronomical, given that this is the fiftieth-anniversary model and a true race car. Even so, the $145,000 and $150,000 for the 950 and 1,100 hp variants respectively (not including the 2012 Mustang GT500 “donor” car) seems fairly in line with such a preparation carried out “outside” Shelby.

Will this be the most powerful Mustang ever made? Probably, for a few more years, until the next generation of the Mustang arrives… who knows what Shelby American has in store.