Pre-Production 2016 Shelby GT350 Spotted in Michigan

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Posted by Zach Doell

 

 

Visitors to this past weekend’s Quicken Loans 400 witnessed quite a rain-soaked race, which saw Kurt Busch run through the field to take the win in a backup Chevrolet. But for Ford Performance fans… the real show was in the NASCAR event’s parking lot. 

 

This 2016 Shelby GT350 Mustang, suspected to be a pre-production model, was spotted in the Michigan International Speedway parking lot and photographed by eagle-eyed reddit user Dripp_e. Note the Shelby badging, aggressive splitter, and no-nonsense side skirts. Given that these rarified Mustangs have yet to officially go on sale (expected fall 2015), that makes it quite a rarity to see out in the open.

Another pre-production Shelby GT350 was spotted in Michigan in late May, which suggests that Ford is giving its muscle car fleet some last minute exercise before the cars go on sale. In April, Ford revealed that 100 GT350 and 37 GT350R models will ship with 2015 VIN numbers, as part of a limited-run series to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the original Shelby GT350. Larger production volumes are said to follow for 2016. Official pricing has yet to be announced, though a leaked price list did suggest the 526 horsepower GT350 will start just shy of $48,000.

 

The leaked intel suggests the even more track-capable Shelby GT350R will start just north of $61,000. Given the absolutely brutal exhaust howl its flat-plane V8 produces… it’s easy to imagine Ford will have a long list of hand-raisers waiting to buy one.

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