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After 40 years building vehicles that eschew such modern ideas as fuel economy and tree-cuddling, tuning legend Carroll Shelby belted out a beauty - with the first rolling off the production line on his 85th birthday.
The 540hp (402kW) GT500KR is about as cool as American muscle can get - excepting maybe a mint condition Hemi 'Cuda or delightfully ugly Plymouth Superbird.
Even a dyed-in-the-wool Chevy worshipper in the nzherald.co.nz office got weak at the knees for this one - and that's saying something.
Dubbed the King of the Road Mustang, it's a even grumpier version of the Shelby GT500 which, with a mere 500 ponies shoe-horned under its bulbous bonnet, was the most powerful production Mustang ever made.
Shelby and Ford resumed their collaboration in 2001. Working under the blue oval is when the creative/maniacal engineering flow is at its strongest, says which the man who bought us such ultra-rare delights as the Shelby Daytona Cobra Coupe and iconic rides like the GT350 and GT500 (Eleanor) Mustangs.
"My energy and passion for performance products has always been strongest when I am working with Ford," he says, "I'm always looking to up the ante when it comes to performance and the bringing back the King of the Road Mustang is just what we need."
The original 1968 GT500KR packed a 428 Cobra Jet, and was considered the boss of all Mustangs - one sold in Australia for $310,000 last July.
The new version will also be a bit of a rarity, with only 1000 of the GT500KR to be made - most of which are likely to be snapped up in the US, and all built in left hand drive configuration.
Desirable enough in their own right, the base GT500 cars are built in Michigan before being shipped to Shelby's Vegas facility where the performance work begins. When they leave Shelby's the cars are delivered to customers in an enclosed transporter, a la the Ford GT, which, in the interests of exclusivity, halted its 4038-car production run in 2006.
At Shelby Automobiles, a host of cosmetics are added, as well as a Ford performance suspension pack, new aeros, a new exhaust system and a short-throw shifter for the six-speed Tremac TR6060 gearbox with 3.73:1 rear axle.
It comes with an all-leather interior, complete with Shelby's embroidered autograph on the headrests, a wrapped and stitched instrument panel and console, plus a limited edition plate that makes it obvious it's a KR (in case the exterior posturing doesn't tip people off) and there's the option for a dirty great sound system and DVD-based satnav set-up.
American cars aren't exactly known for their precision handling, although the 'base' GT500 was well-treated in most test write-ups, so the chassis gets a 50 per cent rise in stiffness as well as dropping 20mm of front-end ride height and 15mm at the back.
The car - which is the basis for Kitt in a new TV movie version of Knight Rider - features a more modern take on the bulging bonnet of the original, with design elements stolen from the ducted aluminium and carbon fibre combo as per the Ford GT.
The bonnet has three components - outer and inner panels and the yawning airflow duct which spans the whole bonnet, channelling air into a new cold air intake and shifting air from the engine bay to the rear extractors.
But it's under the fancy striped bonnet that the good stuff lives - namely a supercharged 5.4 litre V8 with the extra grunt coming from advancing ignition timing and remapping the electronic throttle set-up, plus a serious cold air intake, which is sealed shut under the new carbon bonnet.
It will ride on Goodyear's new Supercar F1 tyres, which made their US debut on the car, 255/45/18s at the front and 285/40s at the rear.
Each Shelby GT500KR model will be identified by a stylish 40th Anniversary badge on the fenders and grille, as well as less-than-subtle Shelby lettering stretched across the bonnet and lower part of the bootlid.
Ford has been racing about the car's 1.0g lateral acceleration skidpan capability, calling it a "clever combination of chassis engineering and aerodynamic honing".
"The new GT500KR handling story is all about balance," said Jamal Hameedi, chief engineer of Ford SVT.
"That's the big result with new GT500KR dynamically," agrees Gary Patterson, Shelby Automobiles chief test driver. "Its balance makes this car very confident and predictable to drive, even on the limit."
"Our objective was to build on the GT500 to give the new model more dynamic balance, reflecting its higher power output," said John Pfeiffer, SVT product design engineering specialist. "We focused our efforts on creating even downforce levels front and rear. That meant finding more frontal downforce than the previous model."
It was even put through a rigorous 12-hour track beating by Shelby and SVT before release.
Guitar manufacturer Fender obviously knows what makes an American revhead tick - and released a limited edition GT500KR to coincide with the launch.
