Shelby Super Snake Wide Body and Focus ST are here
The 2013 Detroit auto show has featured the debut of the Shelby GT500 Super Snake Wide Body and the Shelby Focus ST – showing to the world that even though Carroll Shelby may have passed on, his name will live on for many decades to come on some of America’s most insane cars.
Shelby American unveiled the wide-body version of the Shelby GT500 Super Snake, a supercharged 634 kW beast capable of easily eating through a set of 330 mm-wide rear tyres, and to complete that picture they also unveiled the front-wheel-drive Ford Focus ST-based on the Focus ST, obviously.
John Luft, president of Shelby American, has been ensuring his customers and the public at large that despite Shelby’s death his spirit of innovation and aggressive hot-rodding lives on in future designs.
Giving the now well-known examples of how Shelby redefined the sports car with his Cobra, how he turned the Mustang – what was called a ‘secretary’s car’ back in the day – into a fire-spewing beast of the GT350, and basically his invention of the concept of the American ‘pocket rocket’ with the Shelby GLH – a four-cylinder turbocharged, front-wheel drive vehicle – mister Luft said that this year they are once again going back to their roots with what they consider to be a pair of game-changers.
The idea of making a Wide Body Street Edition of the Super Snake is more than just a cosmetic change, because the wider front and rear guards and 20-inch wheels give the beast much more traction thus making it easier to exploit the vehicle’s power potential. As far as the cosmetic-only options go, US customers will be able to choose from a variety of racing stripe designs including Satin Black, Gloss White, Silver, Blue or Red.
When it comes to the Shelby Focus ST, it’s all about performance on a budget, the 2.0-litre turbocharged four-cylinder package is very extensive, including a lower Ford Racing suspension, new wheels and tyres to work with it and to improve traction, bigger Shelby-spec brakes, new exhaust and many-many more changes.
