Do you ever look at classic cars and wonder why they don’t make them like they used to? Well, now they will: in partnership with Ford and several of the engineers that worked on the original car, Shelby has organized an extremely limited production run of brand new 1965 Shelby GT350R Mustangs. With a few select upgrades, of course.
In partnership with Ford, Shelby will continue producing the legendary pony car 52 years later. They’re being built by the Original Venice Crew that built the original cars. The gang is comprised of Shelby American employees Peter Brock, Jim Marietta, and Ted Sutton.
Brock is using this as an opportunity to make some tweaks he wanted to make the original GT350R, but wasn’t able to due to time constraints. These tweaks include Plexiglass windows, a new front air dam, and an independent rear suspension designed by Ford.
“While these changes may look subtle,” Brock told Car Scoops, “they combine with the new suspension to dramatically change the character of the car.” But don’t worry, it won’t change too much. They stuck with the stripped-down interior and cosmetics to preserve its character as a purpose-built track weapon.
Under the hood will be a 289 V8 engine sourced from the Windsor, California-based Carroll Shelby Engine Company lashed to a period-correct Borg Warner four-speed transmission.
It’s easy to think of these new cars as restomods, but with plenty of old-school engineering and subtle yet significant upgrades, these cars better described as tastefully modified new builds of a bonafide classic.
Just like the original GT350R, production will be limited to 36 cars. According to Road & Track, the starting price is a cool $250,000 for this brand new Shelby.