Shelby Nz Motorhood Nzv8.Pdf

SPECIAL SHELBY MUSTANGS FEATURE WORDS: KEVIN SHAW PHOTOS: ADAM P PHOTOGRAPHER YOU’VE HEARD THE NAME, NOW MEET THE FLEET THAT MAKES UP THE LOCAL SHELBY LINE-UP! he name ‘Shelby’ is synonymous with Shelby Mustang, the GT350, was born, followed in high-performance Fords and has been 1967 with the GT500, both of which are now highly Tsince the mid ’60s when Carroll Shelby’s collectable cars. AC Cobras were the stuff of legends, as was Shelby later moved on to other ventures with other his involvement with the GT40s. However, it was the manufacturers, but the GT500 model was revived Shelby Mustangs that launched the Shelby brand with his return to Ford in the early 2000s. The new into the mainstream automotive world 55 years Shelby GT500, revealed in 2006, powered by the ago. Spawned in the era of the muscle car, the 1964 5.4-litre modular V8 fitted with four valve heads and Mustangs were the first of the mid-sized sporty and an Eaton supercharger, was conservatively rated well-handling — for the era — performance cars. at 500hp, significantly more than the 300hp of the Targeted at young people, they were the ‘I’ve got to Ford Mustang GTs, and successfully relaunched the have it’, ‘I need one now’ icon of the time. Ford–Shelby relationship. Other manufacturers soon followed with the In 2007, the Shelby GT-H was again built for the Camaro, Firebird, Challenger, and Barracuda, but Hertz group, celebrating the 40th anniversary of the the Mustang was the first — hence the term ‘pony legendary GT350H ‘rent a racer’ car of the ’60s and car’. It was no surprise then, given Carroll Shelby’s the Shelby-Ford high-performance brand was well involvement with racing Fords, that in 1965 the first and truly alive again. 102 themotorhood.com themotorhood.com 103 The black-printed engine covers either side of the supercharger’s top-mounted intercooler are a Shelby NZ innovation, hiding the plumbing and wiring that would normally be visible and completing the engine bay nicely The mufflers are built by Borla exclusively for Shelby, with a bit of wizardry on the rear units to allow the flow and noise to be tuned to suit the driver’s requirements Another Shelby NZ innovation is the custom driveshaft loop, designed not just to be functional but to look good too! Local suppliers are well represented, with HPC coating this Shelby’s exhaust at the customer’s request the time to follow it through any further. Shortly to see if Ross was interested. Two days later, Ross of the shop’s customers and other people in the after the rev-up from the Aussie Shelby owner, met with Malcolm, by which time Ross had emailed industry in New Zealand to make sure that Malcolm Malcolm had an enquiry from Tauranga, another Shelby and included a detailed portfolio of some and his crew were up to the task. They then had potential customer wanting a new Shelby, and that of the cars Matamata Panelworks had built, as well to be approved by Ford US because of its close was all the impetus he needed. as multiple referees in the industry. It transpired relationship with Shelby. They also had to get Ford With an already hectic workload, Malcolm realized that Ross had met Gary Patterson, the president of New Zealand on board with the deal, which involved that, to get the Shelby deal over the line, he needed Shelby, at the SEMA Show a few years earlier, so he more hurdles to jump and boxes to tick. That would someone with his passion, commitment, and emailed him directly. The next day, Joe Conway, ultimately enable ‘Shelby NZ’, as it was to be known, attention to detail; that is, another Malcolm, who the CEO, emailed back, copying in Gary, to say they to become a Ford New Zealand business partner could focus on making the Shelby connection a were keen to develop the relationship with the team and have access to the Ford New Zealand dealer reality. Running through the contacts he had made in Matamata. network and the associated privileges. in the industry over the years and discarding a lot of While Ross and Malcom expected things to move After more than a year of hard work, Shelby NZ names, his thoughts kept returning to Ross Prevette. rapidly from that point, they were to learn there finally joined the Shelby team, and Malcolm, Ross, Every Shelby vehicle is signed by the team responsible for Malcolm had worked with Ross many times over the was still a lot of hard work to be done, as it was and a few of the crew were in the US learning how building the vehicle, with every technician involved having years with CRC Speedshow and other events, and, not just a case of ticking the boxes with Shelby. to build the Shelby cars. They soon figured out been trained by the team at Shelby US after weighing up the pros and cons, he decided The due diligence extended to contacting a lot that they could make them even better here, With the iconic Mustangs now available in markets Panelworks’ owner Malcolm Sankey and his team worldwide in both left-hand and right-hand drive, have always built older classics — American and Shelby responded to the demand for its products, Aussie muscle cars — with customers winning partnering with top-tier manufacturing shops more than their fair share of trophies and many around the globe to make the highly sought- of the vehicles appearing on countless covers of after Shelby Mustang available to suit their local NZV8 over the years. markets. With a reputation for high-quality, high- Malcolm has an obvious passion for older performance vehicles from its factory in Las Vegas, Mustangs, but recently he started getting few Shelby is naturally incredibly selective about its customers wanting to get into the late models too. partners, with just six approved Shelby workshops One of them went to Australia to order a Shelby in the world. There are two in Canada, one in from the team at Mustang Motorsport in Victoria. South Africa, one in Australia, one in Europe, and When he came back, he ripped into Malcolm that, the last of them here in Matamata! with the shop and team he has, he should pull his Matamata Panelworks has long been recognized finger out and build Shelbys here. SHELBY F150S locally as one of the top restoration and custom It turned out that Malcolm had been interested in As if the challenge for Shelby NZ of gearing shops in the country, but, even so, becoming the trying to secure the Shelby name and had made a up to build the Mustangs were not enough, Shelby partner in New Zealand was no easy feat. few enquiries and sent a few emails to Shelby US it will also be building four different Shelby Shelby doesn’t just let anyone join its elite group. but with no joy. Being flat out with work, he lacked trucks, starting with the Shelby F150, which is a 4x4 with the full Shelby treatment and, of course, a 770hp supercharged V8. Then there is the Shelby Raptor, which is the extreme off-roader, making use of technology with its twin-turbo EcoBoost V6 making over 525hp. For the tyre shredders, Shelby NZ has the F150 Super Snake, which can be either a 2WD or 4WD, sitting low on 22-inch rims; with 770hp on tap, it will make a great daily-driver and work truck. The Super Snake Sport Truck will be the interesting one, as it is based on the regular cab and is the first real replacement for the F150 Lightning, which was extremely popular. This one will be a real rocket ship: it’s low to the ground, 4WD with big tyres, and 770hp, which makes it good for 0–60mph in 3.45 seconds, and it out- accelerates the Super Snake Mustang! What is even more impressive is that this ‘truck’ will go from 0 to 100mph and back to 0 in just 8.3 seconds — many supercars can’t do that! Shelby NZ is the only shop outside of the US that will be building the trucks. The team will buy left-hand-drive F150s in the US, ship them here, and convert them to right-hand- drive before blowing them apart to receive the Shelby treatment. None of these will be cheap, yet, before the first trucks have even landed here, two have already been sold; that is how much Kiwis love the Shelbys! 104 themotorhood.com themotorhood.com 105 THE MOMENT YOU TOUCH THE START BUTTON YOU REALIZE THAT THIS CAR IS SOMETHING SPECIAL The ultimate road racer’s dream is the Super Snake Penske coilover suspension option is also available. road holding thanks to the Shelby suspension and Wide Body, which, with the new sheet-metal and Obviously, these Wide Body packages add wheel-tyre upgrades. They also feel a whole heap and several of their local upgrades are now being also be ordered supercharged, which boosts the body upgrades, adds around four inches of track considerable time and cost to your Shelby dream faster despite there only being 20 or so additional considered by the team at Shelby US. performance from the base Shelby of 480hp to to the rear and two-and-half inches to the front, but even the wild Wide Body still comes with the horsepower over the Mustang GT. Add the blower Going live at the start of 2020, Shelby NZ set a 700-plus horsepower using a Ford Performance giving razor-sharp handling that is amazingly even Shelby NZ three-year 60,000km new-car warranty, option, though, and it is a whole different ball modest target of cars for the first year.

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