850hp GT500 Cobra tribute to Carroll Shelby

How to celebrate the life of the man who – amongst many other things – created the iconic brute that is the AC Cobra? The ‘Friends of Carroll Shelby’ have this for an answer: a one-off “Shelby GT500 Cobra” Mustang with 850hp.

Unveiled at the Monterey Motorsports Reunion in California over the weekend – an event that this year had Cobra as the “marque of the show” – the GT500 Cobra is the collective work of a group including Ford Motor Company, Shelby American, Ford Racing and “many others”.

On Bing: see images of Carroll Shelby

On Bing: see images of the Shelby GT500

Painted in the classic Cobra livery of Guardsman Blue with Wimbledon White stripes, this unique Mustang is powered by a Ford Racing V8 complete with “Whipple” supercharger, and takes the production 2013 Shelby GT500 as its starting point.

The standard car already produces 662hp – cranking that up to 850hp is where the Cobra part of the name comes in.

The extra power means it needs extra tyre, and this in turn has required massively flared rear wheel arches. The Shelby American wide-body kit covers 20-inch alloy wheels that are 10-inch across at the front and a huge 13-inches thick at the rear.

Following on from its display at Monterey, the Shelby GT500 Cobra is set for a tour around the United States. After this it’s future is undecided, but according to Shelby American president John Luft, “hopefully it will be used in a special way – a way Carroll would appreciate.”

Since Shelby was a noted philanthropist, we can only speculate that this may eventually lead to a charity auction of the car.

With its unique status and association with a man who had such an impact on the development of the American performance car, goodness only know what price it would fetch in those circumstances.

Especially given some Mustang variants Shelby American produces command well over $150,000 (that’s currently around £95,000).

1,100hp Ford Shelby Mustang at New York Motor Show

Find out how much a used Mustang costs on Auto Trader

On Bing: see images of the AC Cobra

On Bing: see images of Carroll Shelby

On Bing: see images of the Shelby GT500