Shelby Shelby GT

Scope of this guide

This guide is scoped to the Shelby GT (2007 to 2008), the Mustang that Ford built at its Flat Rock plant and then sent to Shelby Automobiles in Las Vegas to be turned into a middle rung between the ordinary Mustang GT and the supercharged GT500. It is a front-engine, rear-wheel drive car with a naturally aspirated 4.6 litre V8, sold as a two-door coupe for 2007 and as a coupe or convertible for 2008. It is not a guide to the Shelby GT-H, the GT350 or the GT500, and it is not a guide to the supercharged GT/SC conversion that Shelby also offered, all of which are different cars with different numbers.

We have not driven this model for this article. We are an editorial desk that reads sources, and everything below comes from pages we opened: Wikipedia, Autoblog, Jalopnik, Racecar.com (a 2007 launch news item), the MustangSpecs write-up, a muscle car site describing the 2008 Mustang range, and two dealer or auction listings from Hagerty and ClassicCars.com. We have not inspected, owned or tested a car. This page is for research, not a buying recommendation, and it cannot replace an inspection by someone who knows Shelby Mustangs.

The figures at a glance

• Engine: 4.6L naturally aspirated V8, the three-valve Ford Modular engine, mounted front-engine. Wikipedia prints 4.6 L (281 cubic inches) and the Racecar.com item confirms a three-valve, naturally aspirated layout.
• Drivetrain: rear-wheel drive. Wikipedia lists a Tremec TR-3650 five-speed manual and a Ford 5R55S five-speed automatic.
• Power: 319 bhp. Ford, Autoblog, Jalopnik, Wikipedia and the Hagerty listing print 319 horsepower, and the early 2007 launch item prints 325 horsepower. We use 319 bhp everywhere, for the reasons given below. The sources use the word horsepower, not bhp, and we treat the two as the same figure for this purpose.
• Torque: 447 Nm. Every source that gives torque prints 330 lb-ft, and 330 multiplied by 1.35582 is 447.4 Nm, which we round to 447 Nm.
• 0-100 km/h: no figure shown. None of the pages we read gives an acceleration time for the Shelby GT. One page prints a 5.1 second 0-60 mph time, but it belongs to the ordinary 2008 Mustang GT, and a 0-60 mph time is not a 0-100 km/h time in any case.
• Top speed: no figure shown. No page we read states one for this car.
• Production: no single total shown. The sources give separate and partly conflicting figures for each year, covered below.
• Base price in 2007: $36,970, according to Autoblog, MustangSpecs and a ClassicCars.com listing.
• Years: production began in December 2006 and the car went on sale in January 2007, according to Wikipedia. The 2008 model year added a convertible.

History and what changed

Wikipedia places the Shelby GT between the 300 horsepower Mustang GT and the GT500. Production began in December 2006 and sales began in January 2007. The 2007 car was a coupe only, in Performance White or Black with silver LeMans-style stripes. The Racecar.com launch item says the cars were built from a stock Mustang GT at the Flat Rock plant, with Shelby Automobiles then doing the conversion in Las Vegas before the cars reached Ford dealers.

The modifications listed by the launch item and the other pages are mostly bolt-on, in the Ford Racing parts-catalogue style:

• Engine: a 90mm cold-air intake, revised engine calibration and a high-flow exhaust with an X-pipe. The ClassicCars.com and Hagerty listings add performance mufflers.
• Drivetrain: a shorter 3.55:1 rear axle ratio, according to Jalopnik, Hagerty and ClassicCars.com, and a Hurst short-throw shifter on manual cars.
• Chassis: the Ford Racing Handling Pack, with lowering springs that drop the ride height by 1.5 inches, stiffer dampers, a front sway bar and a front strut-tower brace.
• Wheels and tyres: 18-inch wheels. The tyre size is printed as P235/55ZR18 by the Racecar.com item and as 235/50ZR18 or P235/50ZR18 by the Hagerty listing and Jalopnik, so the sources disagree by one sidewall number. Jalopnik and Hagerty name BFGoodrich g-Force tyres.
• Exterior: a hood scoop taken from the Shelby Cobra, side scoops ahead of the rear wheel arches, a more aggressive front air dam, a brushed-aluminium grille with an offset Mustang logo, larger dual exhaust tips and Shelby badging.
• Identification: a dashboard authentication plate and an underhood tag carrying a number recorded in the Shelby Automobiles registry.

For 2008 the car gained a convertible, with added bracing for stiffness, and a Vista Blue paint scheme with silver stripes. Jalopnik says production of the convertible was scheduled to start in August 2007. Wikipedia lists Vista Blue, Grabber Orange and black with red stripes as the 2008 colours, white or black for 2007. Wikipedia also mentions limited editions such as a Southern California GT-C and a Barrett-Jackson edition, which it counts separately. We have left them out of this guide.

Which figures we chose, and why

Power

The sources split into two groups. The Racecar.com launch item, which describes the early 2007 car, says the V8 is producing 325 horsepower. Jalopnik, quoting the 2008 launch, says 319 horsepower after the Ford Racing Power Upgrade Package. Autoblog, testing a 2007 car in April 2007, also says 319 horsepower and calls it a gain of 19 over a Mustang GT. Wikipedia prints 319 hp, and the Hagerty listing for a 2007 car says it was rated at 319 hp when new. The MustangSpecs page prints both numbers, 319 in its main text and 325 in its press release. Because the launch figure of 325 looks like an early estimate (the ClassicCars.com listing says the output was originally estimated at 325 horsepower) and the later, repeated figure is 319, we use 319 bhp for the whole 2007 to 2008 run.

Torque

Every page that gives torque says 330 lb-ft: Jalopnik, Racecar.com, Hagerty, ClassicCars.com and MustangSpecs. At 1.35582 Nm per lb-ft, that is 447 Nm. The ordinary Mustang GT is shown at 320 lb-ft on the muscle car page we read, so the Shelby package added a small amount.

Acceleration and top speed

We found no acceleration time or top speed for the Shelby GT on any page we opened. Autoblog's review gives no performance figures beyond horsepower, and the Racecar.com item does not give either number. Rather than borrow the Mustang GT's 5.1 seconds, or relabel a 0-60 mph time as a 0-100 km/h time, we leave both as no figure shown.

Production

This is the least tidy figure. For 2007, the Hagerty listing and the ClassicCars.com listing both say 5,651 coupes were produced, and ClassicCars.com adds that 2,876 of them were Black manual coupes, while the Hagerty car is described as one of 3,385 finished in Black with Metallic Silver stripes. Wikipedia says that up to 6,000 cars were originally planned and does not give a final total.

For 2008, Jalopnik says production was set at roughly 2,300 units counting coupes and convertibles together, while the muscle car site we read says the 2008 Shelby GT posted production of two thousand six hundred. Those two numbers do not agree, and neither page says whether it counts the GT-C or other special editions. Adding a 2007 figure to a 2008 figure from different sources would give a total that no source actually states, so we show no total for the whole run.

Driving impressions from the press

Autoblog's April 2007 review is the only road test we read. It found the ride firmer than the reviewer wanted over moderate bumps, uncomfortable after about two hours, and prone to coming apart on rough, potholed pavement. The lowered suspension reduced body roll and tightened the car in corners. The short-throw shifter felt clunky and gave little reduction in shift times. Because the Shelby uses the same brakes as the Mustang GT, the reviewer said they fade after about one lap on a road course. The reviewer thought the car best suited to a drag strip. Fuel economy was quoted at 16 mpg city and 23 mpg highway, slightly below the Mustang GT. These are one writer's impressions, not our own.

What to check before buying

Only a few of the pages give specifics, so this is a short list and not an inspection scheme:

• Documentation: the dashboard authentication plate and the underhood tag are the identifiers the launch item points to. Shelby Automobiles kept a registry, and the Hagerty listing shows a Shelby serial number alongside the Ford VIN. Check that the numbers match the paperwork.
• Originality: listings show cars with aftermarket body kits, upgraded Wilwood brakes, subwoofers and sequential tail lights. Those can be reversed or not, so know what you are looking at.
• Underside: the Hagerty listing records corrosion on underside components as an imperfection on a car with six thousand eight hundred miles.
• Brakes and ride: the Autoblog review suggests the brakes are the same as the Mustang GT's, so a car that has done track or strip work deserves attention.
• Transmission and axle: the car came with a manual or an automatic, and a 3.55:1 rear axle. Confirm which you have.

A pre-purchase inspection by someone who knows these cars is the sensible step.

Market and value notes

The base price was $36,970 in 2007, and Autoblog says the tested car cost $38,970 with an upgraded stereo, leather and an interior package. It also says the Las Vegas conversion added $10,530 over a Mustang GT. The Hagerty listing for a black 2007 coupe with six thousand eight hundred miles shows it as sold after the auction for $29,425 after 37 bids, with the auction ending on 26 May 2026. The same page shows a highest bid of $25,900, and does not explain the difference, so we treat the sale price with caution. A ClassicCars.com listing for a black coupe with 25,780 miles asked $39,500 and is marked as sold, though the page gives no sale date or final price. Those are two individual cars, modified in different ways, not valuations, and prices move. Check live listings before relying on any of this.

What we could not find

• No total production figure for the whole 2007 to 2008 run, only separate year figures that disagree for 2008.
• No acceleration time and no top speed for the Shelby GT, so both are no figure shown.
• No page we read gave a reliability record, a recall list or common fault list specific to the Shelby GT.
• We could not open the Mustang Source timeline page (access refused), the Mustang Attitude page (a bot check), the LMR specification table (access refused), the Shelby American forum thread (access refused), the Fordmuscle post (page gone) or an auction results page that asked for a login, and we did not work around any of them.
• We found nothing in a first-hand owner or workshop source about long-term ownership costs.

About the photograph

The page uses the catalogue photograph for this model, and its credit is listed on the credits page.

Verdict

The Shelby GT was a modest Shelby: about 19 extra horsepower over the Mustang GT, a lowered and braced chassis, a shorter axle, a louder exhaust and the right badges, at a base price a good deal below the GT500. Our figures are the 4.6L naturally aspirated V8 at 319 bhp and 447 Nm, with no figure shown for 0-100 km/h or top speed because none of the pages gave one. The one road test we read praised the tighter handling but found the ride and brakes lacking. If you are researching one, work out first which year and body style you are looking at, check the Shelby identification, and treat this page as a research aid and not a buying recommendation.