Archived Road Test
Not content with his Cobra-Powered-by-Ford, Carroll Shelby has now come up with a Ford-Powered-by-Cobra. The Ford in question is the “fastback” Mustang, and Shelby’s merry men have stuffed a burr of some size and effectiveness under its metaphorical saddle. The result is that while the Mustang is still recognizably the same horse, it has undergone a complete change of character. This new car, called the Mustang GT350, and known familiarly as the Shelby Mustang, will not have the mass appeal of the original, but by all that is sacred to us enthusiast-types, it certainly is a lot more interesting.
Basically, what Shelby has done is to convert the Mustang fastback coupe into a road-going version of a NASCAR stocker. There is a one-inch anti-roll bar across the front suspension that has all of the flexibility of a section of railroad iron, and oversized Koni adjustable shock absorbers set up hyper-hard. In addition, the front suspension has been noticeably de-cambered. The steering is speeded up 14% with altered steering geometry. At the rear, big, fat Konis are again used and a pair of trailing torque-control arms added. Completing the transformation in handling are 15-inch Kelsey-Hayes “mag-type” wheels with six-inch rims mounting wide, low-profile Goodyear tires. We should mention that these tires are special, semi-racing Goodyears, with low-angle nylon cord; safe at sustained speeds up to 130 mph.
The Mustang GT350 also gives you a special brake package, consisting of the Kelsey-Hayes 11-inch discs up front and big drum brakes at the rear borrowed from the Ford station wagon line—3/4-inch wider than the stock Mustang rear brakes. The rear brakes are fitted with sintered-metal linings which, when combined with the racing pads used in the disc-brake calipers, provide a lot of stopping power. The one criticism we have regarding the brakes is that their pedal-pressure requirement is very high.
In the engine compartment, you’ll find a fairly standard Ford 289-cubic inch V-8, but with some Kobra Kustom accessories bolted on. Shelby starts with the 271-hp “High-Performance” version of the 289 V-8, and adds a high-riser intake manifold, welded-tube headers and cast-aluminum valve-rocker covers which raise peak power to 306. Also, the pressed-steel stock oil sump is replaced with a bathtub-sized cast-aluminum sump, complete with cooling fins and all that sexy stuff.
The 4-barrel carburetor fitted on the Cobra high-riser manifold has special jetting for the application (to make it compatible with the free-flow exhaust system) and “center-pivot” floats—which hold the fuel level fairly well even when it is sloshing about under the high side loads of cornering. The standard transmission for the GT350 is a four-speed, all-synchro unit with close ratios housed in an aluminum case and tailshaft. A ratchet-type limited slip differential is also standard equipment.
