2012 Shelby 1000

Shelby himself is responsible for the 1000, and he’s says he’s been much more involved with the development of this tractable 200-mph Mustang than with his company’s other recent creations. “When we had Carroll in Vegas to drive the 800-horse version of the Super Snake,” explains Shelby’s Gary Patterson, “we all expected to get a bunch of accolades and ‘attaboys’ after he finished driving the car. But even before the car had stopped rolling, Carroll was asking us when we’d have a 1000-horse Mustang.”

That time is now. Gary Davis, Shelby’s vice president of manufacturing and R&D, says the prototype show car seen here is 95 percent complete, although the production 1000 will have some slight interior modifications and wear unique 3-piece wheels shod with Michelin Pilot Sport Cup tires, possibly as wide as 335s in back (the wheels on the car right now are the GT500’s stock Pirellis).

Production Mustangs aren’t designed to handle 1000 bhp, so Shelby goes to great lengths to strengthen the unibody S197 chassis, beginning with special subframe connectors that run the length of the wheelbase and tie the chassis together front to rear, side to side and to the body in the rocker area. Also, a new tubular chrome-moly front subframe is stronger and lighter than stock, and its rear attachment points on the frame rails just aft of the front wheels—a notorious buckling spot for high-horsepower Mustang drag cars—are strengthened via welded-in plates. This subframe allows the supercharged aluminum-block V-8 to be moved back a bit and down 0.75 in. to help this Mustang turn, and the strengthened transmission tunnel now features an integral loop designed to prevent the 1000 from pole vaulting should its massive aluminum driveshaft ever break.

In back, all the attachment points for the 1000’s rear control arms have been made stronger, and the entire rear-axle assembly has been replaced by a beefy unit from Currie that has a 9-in. ring gear, sturdy 35-spline axles and bigger 5/8-in. drive studs, the last deemed necessary when early tests showed the 1000 was bending its standard wheel lugs. The axle is also controlled by a billet Watt link that eliminates rear steer tendencies associated with wheel travel. The suspension is a coilover Eibach R2 setup, with camber plates and adjustable dampers tuned to help the 1000 get off the line with authority but still remain controlled on a road course.

The 1000’s 5.4-liter V-8 employs Ford’s aluminum block, line-bored and fitted with 4-valve heads ported for 35 percent better flow. Although the valves are stock, higher tension valve springs, titanium retainers and a proprietary cam grind help make more power. In the prototype 1000 here, a liquid-cooled belt-driven Kenne Bell 3.6-liter blower is on duty, providing 19 psi of max boost to this engine, which has raised compression (8.7:1 versus 8.4:1) and an rpm limit that has been raised from 6150 rpm to 6450. The intercooled supercharger makes usable power throughout the rev range, with a stout 850 bhp on tap at only 4900 rpm.