What we have here is like a SEMA build offered to the general public. Oklahoma's Classic Recreations, known for officially sanctioned continuation builds of early Ford Mustangs, wanted to do a carbon-fiber-bodied version of its 1967 and 1968 Shelby GT500. It got in touch with Wisconsin builder Speedkore Performance, the group that built the all-carbon Dodge Charger for SEMA last year, to create the panels. Speedkore 3D-scanned a set of bodywork off the Classic Recreations GT500CR, creating molds for parts cured in a massive in-house autoclave. Classic Recreations says the aerospace-grade prepreg carbon fiber results in "hypercar-quality carbon fiber bodies" that exhibit perfect weave alignment from front to back.
As with all of the GT500CR builds, the core is a donor steel tub from an original Shelby GT500. Under the hood, fielder's choice means anything from a 3.5-liter EcoBoost V6 with 365 horsepower to a handbuilt 427-cubic-inch V8 to match the 7.0-liter displacement in the historic car, this time exceeding 1,000 horses with the optional intercooled ProCharger supercharger.
The Oklahoma builder told Jalopnik that SpeedKore is building the first prototype now, the first finished car to be ready next month. The new option can be had on any of the GT500 models save for the Classic, which still leaves three options, the least dear of them the GT500CR 545 that starts at $214,000. Opting for painted carbon fiber adds $55,000 to the price before any other options, or $60,000 for the naked weave.
The closest Carroll Shelby ever came to doing a carbon fiber car was when Shelby American offered a carbon fiber body for the Series 2, a wholly Shelby creation that didn't come to fruition until years after he died. Classic Recreations said that after this CF-dressed GT500CR, a Shelby-licensed all-carbon-fiber-bodied Cobra comes next.
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