Shelby unveils new 810-hp GT350 and GT350R with plans to return to racing

On By Littum

Today at Barrett-Jackson’s Scottsdale 2025 Auction in Arizona, Shelby American unveiled the next-generation GT350 and GT350R Mustangs and announced plans to return to Trans Am racing for the 2026 season. The new cars celebrate 60 years since the original GT350R program, first unveiled by Carroll Shelby on January 27, 1965. The limited run of sixth-generation Mustangs received a full range of performance-enhancing upgrades that transformed America’s favorite sports car into the most powerful GT350 in history.

The combined packages take the new Shelby Mustang GT350 and GT350R much further than Ford’s GT350, which ended production back in 2020. An aggressive exterior, with more aero and venting, hints at the performance potential inside. Shelby will offer up to 810 horsepower by bolting a Whipple supercharger to the 5.0-liter V8, pushing output well past even the last factory GT500 — though not quite to current levels. Super Snake that sits at the top of Shelby’s current lineup.

Likewise, the GT350 comes with an available manual transmission, in classic Shelby fashion, or an optional automatic. Skipping the blower in favor of an available 480-hp naturally aspirated V8 might be more historically accurate, but seems antithetical to Carroll Shelby’s pioneering performance perspective.

A new era in Shelby begins in 2025

“The Shelby GT350 and Shelby GT350R are back for 2025,” Gary Patterson, president of Shelby American, said in a statement. “Just as Carroll Shelby envisioned in 1965, this sports car is designed to be exciting and competitive on both the street and the track.”

Pricing starts at $109,999 for the supercharged variant, which also comes with a three-year/36,000km warranty. The lack of the previous GT350’s flat-plane crank may leave some fans disappointed, but an additional 284 horsepower should more than make up for the difference. And critically, the GT350 promises suspension that won’t sacrifice road comfort for performance, to better accommodate potential buyers who plan to enjoy the new Shelby regularly.

The GT350R, meanwhile, focuses more on track performance while remaining street legal. The supercharged V8 now pushes more than 830 horsepower and is mated only to a six-speed manual transmission. Track-specific goodies include Alcon brakes, JRI remote-damping reservoir shocks and struts, carbon floors, additional aero components, racing seats and an integrated roll cage. Available colors include a gold, silver and black paint job, the blue and white heritage pack or a simple white with racing stripes.

“While the Shelby GT350 street car is civilized enough for a daily commute, the Shelby GT350R was built for the serious weekend track warrior,” added Vince La Violette, Vice President of Operations and Senior Designer at Shelby American. “Embracing the character of the 1965 competition model Shelby, our focus was to lighten the car, sharpen performance and keep it cool on the road.”

A return to Racing underway

As radical as the new GT350 and R sound, perhaps the biggest takeaway from the Barrett-Jackson scene involved Shelby’s plans to return to racing. The GT350R’s package will be built in collaboration with Turn Key Automotive/Motorsportwhich contributed to Chevrolet’s legendary COPO Camaro and specializes in building Trans Am race cars. This new partnership aims to produce full-spec, non-street-legal racing cars for the 2026 season. And a development engineer at Turn Key who worked on the new GT350R even plans to enter a car in the series, a solid vote of confidence in the product.

Of course, the decision to base a competition car on the street-legal Mustang gives the prospect of Shelby starting with one Ford Mustang GTD as a platform instead. For now, pricing for the GT350R and the complete race car remain under wraps, but they’re unlikely to eclipse the exclusive road-going version of the Mustang GT3, which currently races globally in IMSA and WEC, with a starting sticker of $325,000.

As in 1965, Shelby plans to build just 562 examples of the new cars, of which only 36 will be available with the GT350R package. That year, Shelby won the FIA ​​World Sports Car Championship before taking the first two Trans Am championships in 1966 and 1967. Hopefully, this next chapter for Shelby American can continue to build on that history and honor the past, but with a focused eye on the future of fast-paced, competitive automotive development.