This is the Ford Mustang GT4 racecar

Going racing? You might want this mightily winged Mustang GT4

Plenty of manufacturers offer their own customer racecars for GT4 racing. Though, none of them have been a Mustang.

Until now. Ford has used SEMA to show off its new ‘global’ Mustang racer, significant as such dedicated motorsport models have previously been solely enjoyed by its native American audience.

It is based upon the Shelby GT350R-C, a car which already has American motorsport success on its CV. The Mustang GT4 can run in a number of competitions, including European GT4, the IMSA Continental Tire SportsCar Challenge and the Pirelli World Challenge.

You want specs? The GT4 runs a 5.2-litre V8 engine linked to a six-speed paddleshift gearbox, while Multimatic Motorsports – who helped the Ford GT racecar win so much this year – have fettled the chassis. Forgeline provide the 18in wheels, while you’ll no doubt have clocked the starkly appointed spoilers and splitters that give the GT4 the aerodynamic profile it needs to properly compete.

Ford Performance unveils an all-new, non-street legal, track-ready Shelby FP350S race car at the 2016 Performance Racing Industry show in Indianapolis.

Shelby FP350S - designed for road racing sprint events in classes including, but not limited to, Trans Am (TA3 and TA4), NASA and SCCA club racing (T1 and T2) - is the latest offering from Ford Performance in a long line of turn-key race cars that include the FR500C, BOSS 302R and 302S, and most recently, the IMSA Continental Tire SportsCar Challenge championship-winning Ford Shelby GT350R-C and GT4, unveiled at SEMA this year.

"Our goal has always been to provide those who want to race with equipment that enables them to compete and win," said Dave Pericak, global director, Ford Performance. "Shelby FP350S is our latest example."

Highlights of the all-new Shelby FP350S include:

• 5.2-liter four-valve-per-cylinder V8 engine prepared by Ford Performance Parts
• Modified unibody chassis with seam welding
• Six-point FIA-compliant roll cage
• Performance-oriented oil pan and oil cooler
• Tremec 3160 manual transmission with integral oil pump, shifter, 3.73 rear final drive ratio
• Race-oriented exhaust
• Race-oriented suspension components including electric steering calibrations, ultra-high-performance brake system
• 19 x 10.5-inch front,19 x 11-inch rear wheels
• Optional forged 18 x 11-inch race wheel package
• Optional Shelby FP350S custom graphics
• Ford Performance splitter and carbon fiber-construction adjustable rear wing
• MOTEC data acquisition system
• Sparco FIA-compliant racing seat, quick-release steering wheel

The all-new Shelby FP350S will be available to order at Ford Dealerships throughout the United States.

Super Snake. It’s just a cool, cool name isn’t it? Shelby, long the purveyor of rather astonishing modified Ford Mustangs and, more generally, Cars With Excellent Names, has revealed a ‘50th Anniversary’ edition of its iconic Super Snake.

It celebrates 50 years since the ‘67 SS ‘Stang (duh), and was revealed over the weekend at the Barrett Jackson auction. According to Shelby president Gary Patterson, the new model is “extraordinarily fast and a thrill to drive”.

He’s certainly not wrong on the fast thing. The standard version which you don’t want pumps out 670bhp from that 5.0-litre V8 via means of a supercharger. The version you do want is the more powerful 750bhp V8, using either a Kenne Bell or Whipple supercharger, to allow a 0-60mph time of 3.5s and a quarter mile time of 10.9s. On street-legal Michelins. With an automatic gearbox. Sheesh.

Elsewhere you’ll find Ford/Shelby spec new dampers, sway bars, springs and bushings, Wilwood six-piston calipers with floating rotors (four-pot at the rear), a Shelby brake/bearing duct cooling system, and 20in forged aluminium wheels. And yes Mr Wayne, those wheels do come in black.

If it all sounds a bit familiar, it’s because we saw the first iteration of a modern Super Snake Mustang GT in 2015. For this anniversary edition, Shelby has fitted a new bonnet (with nostrils), new rockers, new spoilers, a new grille and fog lights, a new rear tail panel and refreshed diffuser assembly. Oh, and many stripes and Super Snake badging both inside and out.

You want options? You’ve got options. Many of them. There’s the 750bhp package that you definitely need, a more extreme cooling pack, Ford Performance half shafts and wheel studs, a short-throw gear shift, and track suspension/coilovers.

Only 500 50th Anniversary editions will be built, and each one will cost just $69,995, which includes the matter of the base Mustang GT. That is good value whichever way you cut it.

“In a world filled with sterile cars,” Patterson adds, “it’s a throwback to a time when people enjoyed driving.”