Story, photos and video by Sam and Llyra Haymart

The weather outside was not frightful, the cars inside were delightful. Let it show, let it show, let it show!

This year’s North American Auto Show in Detroit, Michigan was nothing short of a blast of automotive good weather! While the Detroit show in January is usually marked with an icy, snowy grayness of negative five degrees, things were different this year. Sunny skies and fair weather in the high 30’s and 40’s kept show goers minds on the cars. As an interesting parallel, the face put on by American automakers Ford and GM was hopeful and positive despite the bad financial storms they are weathering. We saw the cars and we heard what they had to say. This is what we have to say about them:

The 2007 Ford Mustang Shelby GT-500

Most important to us here at MAA of course is the big news that came from Ford. With 475 horsepower and a healthy exhaust note, the red '07 Shelby GT 500 convertible rolled out with Ford’s new Executive Vice President, Mark Fields at the wheel and Carroll Shelby riding shotgun. The official debut of the production car that hits showrooms next summer was a cavalcade of fireworks and the music that sent shockwaves through the building. Large video screens played a street race between two GT 500’s on the glitzy streets of Las Vegas while the show hall erupted in standing applause when Carroll Shelby stepped from the newly minted Snake. While we American gear heads were easily amused, even the journalists from Europe and Asia sensed the history of the moment as they stood up and cheered without reservation.

The car really is familiar. The pictures and write ups on the new Shelby have been in magazines for the last year. That car was the “concept car” however. Luckily as we discovered, the production version retains most features of the show car with only minor differences. To start with, the new GT 500 features the “SHELBY” nameplate carefully set to the left on the rear deck lid instead of centered and spread across. This placement allows a better visual fit with the bold LeMans stripes. Those stripes come only on the coupe, leaving the convertible version to carry a more understated presentation with it’s rocker striping only. Both models have the Cobra snake emblem on the fenders and the GT 500 logo in the rocker stripes. As it should be, a Cobra emblem sits off to the left side of the front grille and also adorns the non-functional “gas cap“ emblem at the rear. The interior is where major upgrades abound with leather inserts in the door panels and most importantly, the richly stitched upholstery on the dash panel seemingly made to production. SVT signature white faced gauges and dark tone aluminum trim round out the purposefully appointed cockpit. For the curious at heart, the available interior color schemes are dark charcoal leather or the dark charcoal with red inserts.