THE ORIGINAL SHELBY AMERICAN crew has long been characterized as a bunch of hot-rodders. Yes, most of them started out in 1960s Southern California, but Carroll Shelby didn't pick great hot-rodders-he found guys who had incredible talent, then gave them free rein to use it. Their passion, and a lot of trial and error combined with genius, produced world-beating cars that were more than the sum of their parts.

Take, for example, the 1965 Shelby GT350. Concerned that his new Mustang would quickly fade from the spotlight and be seen as a boring "secretary's car," Ford boss Lee Iacocca hired-no, commanded-Shelby to build a performance Mustang eligible for competition. The result, the 1965 GT350R, went on to win an SCCA national championship and help save the Mustang brand.

As time passed, the focus shifted. The rough edges of Shelby Mustangs were softened, resulting in cars with far more comfort and far less athletic ability. Ford moved production to Michigan in 1967, but even then, no Shelby vehicle sold in large numbers. As much as people like hard-core performance cars, few ever sign up for the reality.

The Super Snake moniker dates to 1967. It was first applied to a GT500 prototype fitted with a 427 V-8 in GT40 Mk II trim. Shelby planned to sell 50 such cars, but the idea was scrapped when it was discovered that they would need to be priced at $7500-427 Cobra money-to turn a profit. (The prototype made history as part of a 500-mile Goodyear tire test, clocking a 170-mph top speed and a record 142-mph average.)

Richard Pardon

The name was next used in 1968, on a twin-supercharged 427 Cobra touted in a classified ad penned by Shelby's right-hand man, Al Dowd, as "Carroll Shelby's Personal Super Snake." It was one of two such cars built-the other was sold to Bill Cosby, who rejected it. That car killed its second owner, careering off a cliff when the throttle stuck open.

By the end of 1970, Shelby Mustangs of any strength were no more. The Super Snake designation lay dormant. In 2003, Shelby and Ford mended a long-broken fence and rejoined forces. In 2006, they developed the first new Shelby Mustang in more than three decades, when Shelby, now located in Las Vegas, tuned 500 GT-H Mustangs for rental-car giant Hertz. They brought a similar car to the masses in 2007 -- the Shelby GT -- and, for owners of Ford's then-new GT500, a "Super Snake" conversion package offering either 600 or 725 hp. This was a post-title conversion, meaning you bought the car and then gave it to Shelby for modification.

Richard Pardon

Concerned the Mustang would be seen as a "secretary's car," Ford commanded Shelby to build a performance edition. Few buyers signed up for the reality.

The Super Snake has been available in one form or another since. Which brings us to the car seen here -- the 2015 Shelby Super Snake -- and today's Shelby American. In keeping with tradition, there's nothing subtle about the 2015 model. The car has the word "Shelby" on its exterior no fewer than 25 times. (The 1968 GT500 featured the word twice, and the original 1965 GT350 didn't use it at all.) If you count engine and interior badges on the 2015, you'll see the name 42 times. Branding has come a long way.

The "entry-level" Super Snake package costs $49,995, on top of the 2015 Mustang GT that you supply. A host of Ford Performance components lie under the hood and under the car, including a Roush-sourced 2.3-liter supercharger, which boosts the GT's 5.0-liter V-8 from 435 hp to 627 hp. There's also an exhaust, a handling kit, 3.73:1 rear-axle gears, half-shafts, and a short-throw shifter. Shelby fits cooling upgrades, 20-inch Weld Racing wheels, and six-piston Wilwood front brakes. Not bad, but why stop there? Our test vehicle had the $54,999 "750+ HP" package, and that extra five grand goes a long way. It replaces the Roush supercharger with a larger huffer (our car had a massive, 2.9-liter Whipple) and adds more cooling upgrades, brake cooling, and a one-piece driveshaft. No internal engine modifications are made. You also get a carbon-fiber hood, front splitter, rear spoiler, rear diffuser, and rocker panels; a billet grille; a dash plaque; and a three-gauge carbon instrument cluster on top of the dash.

Richard Pardon

Amazingly, there is an option list beyond all that. Our test car appeared to have most of them: painted carbon bits, four-piston rear Wilwoods, and leather seats.

Full disclosure: I love Shelbys. I've owned, driven, and raced them for years. I wanted to love this Shelby and its numbers. Unfortunately, that didn't happen.

The Super Snake is definitely a fast car. The numbers it laid down at our test track are strong by any measure. Problem is, they should have been better. A stock Camaro ZL1 is quicker. In the Snake's defense, its gearing is short. We shifted to fifth to clear the quarter-mile, which hurt elapsed time. But there's more to it.

This is where things get murky, as they often do with tuner cars that lack SAE-certified horsepower and torque ratings. Despite the "750+ HP" billing, Shelby told us that our particular test car produces 850 hp at the crank. But the car's 12.3-second, 116-mph quarter-mile run speaks to a horsepower number far less than 750, let alone 850. Confused? So were we. Consider the Dodge Challenger SRT Hellcat, with its SAE-certified 707 hp and a curb weight 627 pounds above the Shelby's. The last Hellcat we tested did a 12.0-second quarter-mile at 124.8 mph-enough to make any old drag racer doubt the Super Snake has anywhere close to the Dodge's beans. With a superior power-to-weight ratio, the Super Snake should be traveling faster than the Hellcat in the quarter. The culprit here may be excessive heat soak, a tune on the safe side, or electronics otherwise struggling with the newfound horsepower.

Richard Pardon

As for braking performance, the Super Snake can definitely stop. It has an abundance of caliper and friction area, and even fancy floating rotors. What the numbers won't tell you is how difficult the brakes are to modulate. They're nearly an on-off switch. When you're on them, it's obvious the Mustang's factory anti-lock calibration can't compensate for the Snake's change in brake torque, its front to rear balance, or its larger, staggered wheels and tires.

With a mass-produced car, these things are all carefully tuned. R&T's road test editor, Robin Warner, was on hand for this test; in a previous life, he helped calibrate ABS, traction-, and stability-control programming for Ford, including the last Mustang Boss 302. His thoughts paralleled mine: The Super Snake's software is struggling with its hardware.

On the skidpad, the Shelby returned numbers you'd expect from a 2015 Mustang with big tires, stiff springs, and big anti-roll bars. The only issue we encountered was a disturbing one-the car was virtually impossible to keep from spinning once it stepped out. In the end, however, we saw an impressive 0.98 g of lateral grip.

Richard Pardon

AFTER THE TEST TRACK, WE DROVE TWO HOURS NORTHWEST, to Michigan's Grattan Raceway road course. This lumpy, demanding 2.0-mile track gave us a controlled environment that mimicked real roads.

Going into this test, I expected the car to be unruly, unable to put all that power to the road. That wasn't the case. The Shelby never felt loose. But the real problem wasn't the numbers. It was how the package felt. The brakes are a battle-you find yourself constantly trying to breathe on the pedal so as not to remove the windshield with your head. The cross-drilled and slotted floating rotors are quite loud and noticeably rough in operation. Our test car surged under light throttle and offered pronounced bucking in sixth gear when accelerating from around 3000 rpm. And while it may have been engine tuning-or perhaps something to do with the car's half-shafts or driveshaft-our Snake seemed to have considerable driveline slop, along with a fair amount of vibration under load.

You have to assume that these things can and will eventually be tuned out by Shelby. Our test car was the first Super Snake built based on the new Mustang. But for now, the car feels like a work in progress.

Richard Pardon

The brakes are a battle-you find yourself constantly trying to breathe on the pedal so as not to remove the windshield with your head.

The morning of our track day brought heavy rain. I began questioning my marching orders to take a supercharged monster to a drenched, 10-turn roller coaster that's a favorite of small-bore sports-car and motorcycle racers. But amazingly, the Super Snake was predictable in the wet. And reasonably capable at a good clip.

The track dried by late morning. Before heading out, Warner and I discussed Grattan lap times. He recalled a Ford factory driver turning a 1:28.6 in a 2012 Boss 302 Laguna Seca (444 hp and 3690 pounds). My handicap-beyond not wanting to crash Shelby's Super Snake during its first media appearance-was that I had never before raced at Grattan.

Once the car was wired up with timing gear, I strapped in. The Shelby pulled hard. As on the road, the abrupt brakes were an issue. Into Turn 1, Grattan's heaviest braking point, the Mustang's rear would lift, and its ABS would occasionally interfere with odd activity. But the most unsettling section was just over the track's infamous jump, before the slower, right-hand Turn 5. Even when I waited for the wheels to touch the ground before hitting the brakes, the car would engage full ABS, requiring speed scrub the old-fashioned way-by pitching the Mustang sideways.

Richard Pardon

Through Grattan's Monza-style bowl, the Super Snake's rear suspension would bottom out and clunk, but it never got worse, so I drove through it. The chassis is heavily biased toward understeer, making a tight circuit like Grattan that much more challenging. A moderate stab of the throttle would usually rotate the rear enough to help, while a harder stab would rotate the rear a lot further. (And sometimes too far to get back.)

All of this made the Shelby a challenge to hustle. It doesn't perform like a car built for road racing, because it isn't. And while the car never got hot or threatened unreliability, it just didn't feel polished or composed. It felt like it needed less front anti-roll bar or less rear tire, and certainly a more balanced brake package. On a faster track, this would be far less noticeable-and the car's horsepower would be far more noticeable, shrinking lap times.

In the end, I was able to put down a 1:30.86 lap on the optional Michelin Pilot Sport Cup 2 tires. That's not slow, though it is slower than that factory Boss. The Shelby probably had another second or two in it, but given its chassis, anything faster felt like unnecessary risk.

Yes, the Super Snake needs to go to finishing school. Yes, it consists mostly of parts that anyone can buy and bolt onto their Mustang. Yes, it probably makes 750 hp in the right conditions, and maybe even 850 hp, with the right tune. (Schedule conflicts kept us from dynoing the car during its time with us.) And it isn't the best choice for a track-day car.

Richard Pardon

It's worth considering, however, that the Super Snake name has never been about balance. Carroll's two "Super Snake" Cobras were claimed to have 800 hp, but they also had a reputation for throwing blower belts and never running right. To say nothing of killing half their owners.

Those cars were too much-and for the man himself, that was just right. This Super Snake is too much of everything, but it isn't being marketed as the choice for socially awkward rich guys. This is the biggest, baddest Mustang that Shelby makes, aimed at drivers who want people to notice them. Is it a true Shelby? Absolutely.

Do people still care about this old brand? Judging by the mile-long wall at Shelby American's Las Vegas headquarters, where markers are provided for visitors to sign and there isn't an empty spot anywhere, or by the seemingly endless owner's clubs and forums, they do. It's also worth remembering that the Shelby American products everyone remembers-the Sixties cars-are now out of reach for ordinary people. This is also a modern car, with A/C and comfortable seats. It was modified by hand, by the company that Carroll used to run, produced in small numbers, and it gains owners entry into an exclusive club . . . that's an immeasurable bonus.

I wanted to love this car. I wanted the numbers to be great, not just really good. I'm still in love with the brand and the fact that Super Snakes exist. Because God knows Carroll Shelby wasn't perfect, and neither were his cars. But 50 years later, we can still appreciate the fact that he created something unique. And that's what the big, bad, and untamed 2015 Super Snake is, faults and all.

R&T Staff

TRACK NOTES

A. Slowest corner on the track reduces us to just 39 mph.

Slowest corner on the track reduces us to just 39 mph. B. We peaked at over 1.3 g's around the banked hairpin.

We peaked at over 1.3 g's around the banked hairpin. C. Top speed was 143.3 mph on the straight.

TEST REPORT

R&T Staff

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