It's a valid argument and fun to think about. Why opt for a basic 550hp GT500E when there's a 725hp option available? The 200 extra horsepower puts you in an exclusive club of Super Snake owners, with a build run limited to 75 units.
At $150,000 and a little change for options and accessories, you might be asking yourself if there are 75 buyers for this car.
The day we took these pictures last March, Unique Performance-the production facility that makes "Eleanors" with the full blessing and ordination of Carroll Shelby-informed us 18 were on order and production had just begun.
That's a healthy number for a '67 Mustang that's 20 grand higher than an exotic turbo Porsche. Douglas Schwartz of El Paso, Texas, ordered this one. Serial number 009, it's technically the first Super Snake off the line with the full supercharger treatment on the 427 engine. It was preceded by a red Super Snake prototype, which was sold last summer at a Kruse International classic car auction in Las Vegas.
Our minds were stretched on absolutes. We wondered if this Super Snake, in terms of raw horsepower, was the highest-performance Mustang ever sold to the public. Doug Hasty, co-owner of Unique Performance, planted those seeds of curiosity.
When SVT Chief Engineer John Coletti dropped a 10.0L Boss 429 into a '94 Mustang, the fuel-injected 604ci powerplant delivered 855 hp, more than 725.
But wait. SVT's Boss was not produced for public consumption. It was a concept car made to run 10s in the quarter-mile and to wow the troops at shows. A series-produced Mustang it wasn't. The Super Snake is.
Neither Hasty nor his cohorts, David Reed and Bobby Mikus, or the rest of the production crew could think of a Mustang with more power. Schwartz was of the same mind. He couldn't think of another Mustang, factory or tuner, that delivered this much horsepower. The '00 Saleen Mustang SR is close, a response to the '00 Mustang Cobra R with a base price of $158,000, which boasted a blown 351 with 505 hp.
Clearly, the advantage goes to the new Shelby 427 aluminum block, engineered to higher standards than the original but using the same concept of big cubes in a high-winding V-8. The Shelby/Vortech supercharger boosts power into the 725 range.
A look at the spec sheet reveals these early Super Snakes come with carburetors, notable because Unique recently added a fuel-injection option to its '65 GT350SR. Now the company is developing fuel injection for the blown big-block as well.
Brute musclecar power, in Schwartz's mind, was not the original motivating reason for an Eleanor. The land developer from El Paso gave credit to the original '67 GT500. "I've always wanted a GT500. That's always been one of my favorite cars," he said in reference to the original '67 Shelby. "And this was the best of both worlds. I saw it in Autoweek when it was a concept and in the movie. You had to love it in the movie."
The remake of Gone In 60 Seconds has been the springboard to success for the GT500E. The car just looked so hot, people had to have one. Schwartz is no ordinary Joe off the street. "I collect old musclecars. Especially, I like drivers. But they all take quite a bit of work to keep them going. You're always worried about them, always looking for parts. This seemed like the best of both, like having a brand-new '67 car that's unlike anything they built back then."
Schwartz referred to the increased horsepower and technology of the Eleanor. He could have his cake and eat it too, so to speak. The car was rebuilt to brand-spanking new. It looked vintage, yet there was no problem finding parts or restoring or having the car break down. It was fresh and ready to rumble. "Unbelievable" was his assessment of Shelby building new Eleanor-style GT500s, then he couldn't repress a laugh as he added, "In fact, I'm in line for a GT350SR, too."