Will you be unable to survive this year if you don’t get your hands on Ford’s most track-capable street legal car ever made? Then you better act fast. For the 2015 model year, only 37 Shelby GT350R Mustangs will be built. Thirty-seven! Just at first, anyway.
That’s not a lot, obviously, and it basically sets up all of the 2015s to achieve collector status pretty much out of the gate, as long as they can survive the drive home. Why so few for 2015? Because it’s close to what they did back in 1965 with the original FIA-homologated Shelby GT350 competition Mustangs, Ford says:
There is heated debate among Shelby enthusiasts over how many 1965 GT350 competition models were built during the extremely limited production run. While Carroll Shelby insisted two prototype cars and 35 production models were built, most records show only 34 production models received serial numbers from the Shelby production facility.
For 2015, Ford will make sure there is no confusion about the number of GT350R models constructed; 37 cars will be built in Carroll Shelby’s memory.
“Okay, fine, I’ll just get me one of the ‘normal’ GT350 models instead,” you’re saying. There’s bad news there too. Ford’s only making 100 of those for 2015 as well. Bummer.
Granted, this isn’t ever, just until they switch over to the 2016 model year. But because of their limited status and 50 year-mark after the original GT350s, these are surely to be the most desirable Shelbys among the die-hards.
The GT350 and GT350R feature a flat-plane crank 5.2-liter V8 putting out more than 500 horsepower, making it Ford’s most powerful naturally aspirated engine ever. In both GT350 and R form, it promises to be one of the most potent performance cars America has ever produced.
I’m buying three of them.
Contact the author at patrick@jalopnik.com.