Ultimate Surprise: Fox Body Hides Near-full Shelby GT500 Swap
Born of a friend’s misfortune and a trashed Shelby, builder infuses life into a tired ’80s notchback with modern cobra internals.
So, you’ve happened into a fresh Fox Body Mustang project. Where do you go? Some, of course, will turn it into a drag strip monster (a few of whom will do the unthinkable and drop in a Chevy short block, sadly). Others might want to restore it to how it left the showroom floor or use period-correct mods for the trip to Radwood.
And then, there are crazy people like Jason Hall. According to StangTV, Hall decided his Fox-body Mustang needed more than a modern engine and transmission. Instead, it was fused with nearly everything from a Shelby GT500.
Birth of a Spiritual Fox Body Shelby
The Mississippi native took ownership of a friend’s 2007 GT500 a few years ago, the result of said friend needing to pay his medical bills following an accident which had totaled the Shelby. Hall’s original intent was to use the parts of the wrecked GT500 to build a new one off a V6-powered S197 Mustang. However, he had the Fox-body waiting in the wings for its turn at greatness, so why not bring over as much of the GT500 as possible into the ’80s pony?
“We started by pulling out the tape measure and checking everything, of course in the end it was a lot different than what the tape measure would make it seem to be,” Hall told StangTV. With a friend, a car port, and over two years’ worth of weekends, Hall transformed his old Mustang into the spiritual snake Carroll Shelby never built in his lifetime. The S197’s floor pan was swapped in, which gave more structural strength than even an aftermarket Fox floor pan would have, followed by the supercharged, 500-horsepower 5.4-liter V8 (upped to 748 horses at 19 pounds of boost thanks to the Kenne Bell supercharger) and Tremec TR6060 six-speed manual.
Inside, thanks in part to having the S197 floor pan, Hall was able to drop in the seats from the GT500 in their correct positions. He and his friend then dropped in the dash, stereo, console and HVAC system with hardly any work needed to make it all work.
Through tons of work, Hall now has a Fox Body that is equal parts cool and insane. There’s no doubt few will ever touch this unique build.
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