Shelby GT500 Super Snake 2008

Scope of this guide

This guide is scoped to the Shelby GT500 Super Snake (2008), the post-factory performance package that Shelby Automobiles of Las Vegas offered on the Ford Mustang Shelby GT500 from the 2008 model year. It is a two-door, front-engine, rear-wheel drive muscle coupé with a supercharged 5.4 litre V8 and a six-speed manual gearbox. Convertibles were also converted, according to one equipment list we read, but this page follows the coupé that our catalogue lists.

The important thing to understand is that the Super Snake was a conversion programme and not a single fixed specification. Wikipedia describes a rebuild offered from 2008 on existing GT500s, and the sources we read describe at least two states of tune: a warranted package of around six hundred horsepower, and a hotter, unwarranted version quoted at 725 hp or more. Our catalogue figure of 725 bhp refers to that top tune. It does not describe every car sold as a Super Snake.

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 (two articles), Supercars.net, Mustang Specs, The Market (a British auction listing), Autoblog, Motor1 France, Fox News and a Classiccars.com listing. We have not inspected, owned or tested a car. This page is for research, not a buying recommendation, and it cannot replace inspection by a Shelby specialist.

The figures at a glance

• Engine: 5.4L supercharged V8, a Ford Modular V8 with a Kenne Bell supercharger in the top tune, mounted front-engine.
• Drivetrain: rear-wheel drive with a six-speed manual gearbox and a 3.73:1 final drive on the car in The Market listing.
• Power: 725 bhp. This is the figure printed by Supercars.net and Mustang Specs for the top tune. Other pages say 725 hp, 725+ hp or 750 hp, and we explain the spread below.
• Torque: no figure shown. Two spec tables print 685 lb ft, but we found no maker or test source behind that number, so we do not adopt it.
• 0-100 km/h: no figure shown. Every time we found is a 0-60 mph time, and we have not relabelled any of them.
• Top speed: no figure shown. Sources repeat a claim of two hundred mph, but no test and no maker document stands behind it.
• Production: no figure shown. Sources give a scheduled run and an upper bound, not a count for this exact tune.
• Years: 2008 as named, although the sources mix in 2007 and 2009 cars.
• Weight: 1,725.2 kg curb weight, which the Supercars.net spec sheet prints alongside a figure in pounds of three thousand eight hundred.

History and how the programme worked

The Super Snake name comes from a single 1967 Shelby prototype. Wikipedia says no other cars were built because of limited interest, and Fox News tells the same story, adding that it was a Goodyear tyre tester that was too expensive to produce. The modern version revived the name on top of the GT500 that Ford and Shelby developed together. Wikipedia lists the base GT500 at 500 hp and 480 lb ft (651 N-m, as printed), so every Super Snake figure below is an uplift on that car.

Wikipedia dates the rebuild programme from 2008 and says existing 2007 GT500s could be converted. The cost of the base rebuild was an additional $27,995 on that page, and the base Super Snake was rated at 605 hp at the engine. A twin-screw supercharged version offered over 725 hp, was sold without warranty, and was claimed to reach 60 mph in 3.5 to 3.7 seconds. That is a 0-60 mph claim, and it is not the same thing as a 0-100 km/h time.

The Mustang Specs page reproduces what reads like the launch press material. Shelby Automobiles used newly developed Ford Racing GT500 performance packs to turn a limited number of 2007 and 2008 Shelby GT500s into Super Snake coupes, with changes to handling, styling and power. The page says the six-hundred-horsepower Ford Racing kit carried a 12-month limited warranty and the 725+ hp tunings were unwarranted. It says conversions were done at Shelby's Las Vegas plant or at Taska Ford in Cranston, Rhode Island, and it puts the upgrade premium at about $28,000 for the 605 hp car and about $31,995 for the 750 hp version.

Autoblog wrote up Road & Track's first test of the car on 30 October 2007. It gives the price as $28,000 over a GT500 KR and Road & Track's as-tested price as $70,670. It says the car was two-tenths quicker to 60 mph and three-tenths quicker over the quarter mile than the GT500 KR, with half a g more on the skidpad, and it criticises gear whine of 80 dBA at 70 mph and a Pirelli tyre that could not cope with the power. It gives no absolute figures, so we use it only for those relative statements.

What the package included

The Supercars.net equipment list for the 2008 to 2009 cars is the fullest we found. It names the following parts:

• Performance: a supercharger upgrade listed as six hundred to 725+, a cold air intake, Shelby and Baer six-piston brakes, a short-throw shifter, Shelby and Eibach coilovers and sway bars, and a Borla cat-back exhaust.
• Exterior: a Super Snake hood, carbon fibre front splitter, mirror covers and rocker panels, rear deck lettering, grille and fender badges, sequential tail lights, Super Snake striping and brake duct kits.
• Interior: numbered dash and engine bay plaques, door sill plates, Shelby floor mats, billet engine accents and a centre gauge cluster with carbon-faced boost, fuel pressure and oil pressure gauges. Convertibles get a light bar with a solenoid-activated brake light.
• Wheels: 20-inch Shelby Alcoa wheels, 9 inches wide at the front and 10 inches at the rear, on Pirelli P Zero Nero tyres in 255/35ZR20 and 275/35ZR20 sizes.
• Chassis numbers quoted on the same page: wheelbase 107.1 inches, length 188 inches, width 73.9 inches and height 54.5 inches.

The Mustang Specs page adds that the top tune used a Kenne Bell supercharger at about 16 psi, a Shelby tune, a high-flow intake and a Borla exhaust, with a redline of 6,100 rpm.

Which figures we chose, and why

Power

The sources use at least four different numbers for the same family of cars. Wikipedia gives 605 hp at the engine for the base Super Snake and over 725 hp for the Kenne Bell version. Mustang Specs says 605 hp for the Ford Racing car and prints 725 bhp in its spec table while its article text and headline say 750 hp. Supercars.net prints 725 bhp in its table, while saying the auction cars were described as 750 hp. The Market says two tunes were offered, six hundred or 725+ hp, and that Shelby has not disclosed how many cars received the 725 hp engine. Motor1 France says the prototype it covers was rated at six hundred chevaux, which is the lower tune.

We use 725 bhp throughout because it is the figure in both spec tables and the figure our catalogue already carries, and because 750 hp appears only in headlines and auction descriptions. We treat the horsepower and brake horsepower labels in these pages as the same quantity, with no unit conversion applied, since none of the sources supplies a metric figure for this tune. Please read the 725 as a claimed top-tune figure and not as a measurement.

The Classiccars.com listing is a useful illustration. It describes a car with the optional polished Kenne Bell supercharger as 725 hp, which again is a seller's description of the top tune and not a measurement.

Torque

Torque is where we stop. Supercars.net and Mustang Specs both print 685 lb ft (928.7 N-m, which is the 685 figure multiplied by 1.35582). The same two pages are the only ones that give it, they appear to share a spec table, and neither says whether it was measured or claimed. The only maker-style figure we found was 590 lb ft for the Ford Racing SuperPack six-hundred kit, in the press material reproduced by Mustang Specs. Because the tune we are describing has no torque figure we can trace to a maker or a test, there is no figure shown for torque on this page.

Acceleration

Every acceleration time we read is a 0-60 mph time. They are listed here so you can see how far apart they are, and none is converted:

• 3.5 to 3.7 seconds: the claim for the Kenne Bell car on Wikipedia.
• 3.5 seconds: Shelby's claim, quoted on the Supercars.net page, which also prints about 3.9 seconds in its spec sheet.
• 4.4 seconds: Road & Track's best with the 605 hp car, held back by wheelspin in first and second gears, with a quarter mile of 12.5 seconds at 119.9 mph. A stock GT500 managed 4.6 seconds and 12.8 seconds in the same test, according to Mustang Specs.
• 11.92 seconds quarter mile on the Supercars.net and Mustang Specs spec tables, and 10.87 seconds at 134.14 mph in a Muscle Mustangs and Fast Fords test on street tyres, as reported by Mustang Specs.

Because 0-60 mph is not 0-100 km/h, there is no figure shown for 0-100 km/h.

Top speed

Supercars.net prints about two hundred mph (321 km/h), and The Market says the 725+ hp version was capable of two hundred mph and ten-second quarter-mile times out of the box. Mustang Specs prints the same two hundred mph and 321 km/h. Two hundred mph works out at about 322 km/h, so the printed 321 is already a rounding. These read as marketing claims and not as measured runs, and the lower measured quarter-mile figures above do not tell us a top speed. We leave top speed as no figure shown.

Production and years

The Market says fewer than 25,000 GT500s were made across the 2007 to 2009 model years, that only a fraction went to Shelby for conversion, and that most sources suggest fewer than 1,000 Super Snakes were converted for 2008. Mustang Specs says 1,000 cars were scheduled and that only a limited number per model year was built. Motor1 France calls one of its cars the last of four prototype Super Snakes. None of that is a count of 2008 cars with the 725 hp tune, so there is no figure shown for production.

The sources mix years freely. Wikipedia lists 2007 to 2009, Supercars.net lists 2008 to 2009 and includes a 2007-registered auction car, Fox News refers to a 2007 model, and Mustang Specs mentions a 2011 car that was one of 21 of 550 built with 750 hp. Wikipedia also mentions a later Super Snake with 750 hp that reaches 60 mph in 4.1 seconds, without a model year we could attach to it. We keep this page to the 2008 programme, and we flag where a source blends years.

Later cars that are not this one

Fox News covers a 50th anniversary Super Snake from 2017, based on the 5.0 litre Mustang GT, limited to 500 units, with 670 hp as standard and a 750 hp version also offered. That is a different car from a different generation and none of its figures apply here. Wikipedia's 2015 and 2016 Super Snake also uses the 5.0 litre Coyote V8. We mention them only because search results blur the badges together.

What to check before buying

Only some of the pages we read give specifics, so this list is short and comes from them. The Market's listing of a car sold on 7 November 2022 lists items to verify on a car: the Kenne Bell twin-screw supercharger, the aluminium driveshaft, the 3.73:1 final drive, the Baer six-piston front brakes with cooling ducts, the Shelby and Eibach suspension, the carbon fibre side skirts and front splitter, the fibreglass ram-air hood with race-style pins, the 20-inch Alcoa wheels, the embroidered headrests, the sill plates, the Shelby identification plaque, the central gauge pod and the signed floor mats.

The Classiccars.com listing adds a documentation angle. It gives a CSM number of 08SS0409 (the number Shelby used to track individual cars) and says the conversion was completed by Quantum Performance of Texas, described there as an authorised Shelby modification centre. It lists the invoice and flyer from that shop, the original window sticker, the owner's manual and a programmer. It also notes that the title did not indicate mileage and that the odometer field read zero while the description stated 9,972 miles, a reminder to reconcile the paperwork with the car. Because conversions were done at more than one site and in more than one state of tune, ask which tune a given car has, who did the work, and whether the factory GT500 underneath is documented. The unwarranted status of the 725+ tune is also part of the car's history.

A guide cannot replace a specialist inspection, and this page is for research, not a buying recommendation.

Market and value notes

We found only a few price points and none is a valuation. Supercars.net lists a base price of $68,930 and a series of auction results without dates for most of them: a 2007 car at $88,000, a 2008 car numbered 0057 at $93,500, a 2008 car with the 427 package at $67,000 at Mecum Monterey in 2010, and a 2011 car at $70,000. The Market reports a 2008 coupe with the 725 hp package sold for $56,750 on 7 November 2022 after 57 bids, with no pre-sale estimate. Motor1 France quotes an estimate of 44,000 to 66,000 euros for a prototype at a Bonhams sale in Scottsdale. Barrett-Jackson held an archive page for a similar car, but it returned a payment-required response when we tried to open it, so we cannot report that result.

These are individual sales of cars in different states of tune, with different mileage, and the pages are not always clear about which tune each car had. Check live listings and recent results before relying on any of them.

What we could not find

• No torque figure traceable to a maker or a test for the 725 bhp tune: no figure shown.
• No 0-100 km/h time and no measured top speed: no figure shown.
• No count of 2008 cars, or of cars with the 725 hp engine. Shelby itself has not disclosed it, according to The Market.
• No recall or fault list specific to the Super Snake package, and no running-cost data.
• We could not open the Barrett-Jackson archive page (payment required), the RK Motors listing (access refused), the Auto123 news page (connection refused), the Iconic Auctioneers and Classic Car Auctions lot pages (they returned no content), or the Road & Track original, and we did not work around any of these.
• We read Road & Track's test only through Autoblog and Mustang Specs, which quote it.

About the photograph

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

Verdict

The 2008 Super Snake is better understood as a menu than as a model: a GT500 sent to Shelby for a supercharger, brake, suspension and styling package, available in a warranted six-hundred-horsepower form and in a hotter, unwarranted form that the sources quote at 725 bhp, or sometimes 750 hp. Our figures are the 5.4L supercharged V8 and 725 bhp, with no figure shown for torque, 0-100 km/h, top speed or production because the pages we read do not support them. Wikipedia's base rebuild cost of $27,995 over the GT500, and the Road & Track result of 4.4 seconds to 60 mph for the 605 hp car, give a more grounded picture than the headline numbers. If you are researching one, work out which tune it has, who converted it, and what paperwork exists, and treat this page as a research aid and not a buying recommendation.