There’s no mistaking the Voodoo V8 of the Shelby GT350 will go down in history as one of the most exciting powerplants to come out of America. The flat-plane crankshaft engine is relatively potent right off the bat, but some owners beg to differ.
In this short video from Hennessey Performance Engineering, Mr. Monical rides shotgun in his car with an obvious grin on his face. The reason he’s so satisfied with the Shelby GT350 is – of course – the supercharger that forces more air into the engine for bigger bangs. How big, you are asking? Make that 858 horsepower or thereabouts, thank you!
The HPE850 Supercharged Upgrade revolves around a 3.0-liter blower that ups the torque rating to 673 pound-feet (912 Nm) at 4,600 Nm. The Dodge Challenger Hellcat would blush in awe at these figures, but there’s more to the package than only the supercharging system. The throttle body, fuel injectors, and intake have been modified, and Hennessey has also fitted a heat exchanger for extra peace of mind.
Exterior badges, premium floor mats, a serialized plaque under the hood, and another one for the interior are included in the package, along with a two-year or 24,000-mile limited warranty. Hennessey recommends 93-octane gasoline at all times in order to extract the maximum amount of ponies and pound-feet from the high-revving V8.
In ideal conditions, the HPE850 Shelby GT350 is much obliged to hit 60 mph (97 kph) in as little as 3.3 seconds and blast through the quarter-mile finish line at 133 mph (214 kph) in 10.8 seconds. There are, however, two issues.
As you know from a previous story about a drag race, the GT350 with more suck-squeeze-bang-blow than stock has trouble putting that power down onto the blacktop because of the front-biased weight distribution. Wheel spin at launch is one problem, but the six-speed manual transmission isn’t ideal over the quarter-mile either.
On an ending note, have you heard that 2020 is the final year for the GT350 and more extreme GT350R? The Ford Motor Company is discontinuing them because the Mach 1 is right around the corner, and the Performance Package 2 has also bitten the dust.
After a 1:43 scale model of a Ferrari 250 GTO sparked Mircea's interest for cars when he was a kid, an early internship at Top Gear sealed his career path. He's most interested in muscle cars and American trucks, but he takes a passing interest in quirky kei cars as well. Full profile
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