The Shock and Awe of the Mustang GT350R in London

For the longest time, we Americans have been teased with high-performance vehicles from Europe that we will never see. The Focus ST wagon, which would be nearly the perfect family car, isn’t available here. There are some high-performance French hatchbacks that’d make great cars for the school run. But now, we’re getting the Europeans back.

For 2015, the Ford Mustang is being built for a worldwide audience. That’s fantastic for European Mustang fans, especially the ones who need right-hand drive. But they aren’t going to get the super exotic stuff, like the Shelby GT350 and GT350 R.

To make matters worse, Ford decided to tease the Europeans a bit recently. Now they call it, “gauging the public’s interest,” but it clearly was a tease timed around the American Independence Day holiday.

Ford took a Shelby GT350 R to London and parked it. Normally, that car wouldn’t even be allowed in the city with congestion charging and emissions regulations. However, as long as they promised not to start it up, they’d be okay.

Of course they started that bad boy up and gave it some revs as people walked by. Some were excited, photographing the car and laughing, while others were a bit scared of the shrieking exhaust note.

Maybe the British will demand that Ford sends the Shelby there for purchase, but until then we have something special here in the Colonies that they don’t get across the pond. It feels good, doesn’t it?