First Drive in Our Shelby Mustang

Update by Tim Suddard to the Shelby GT350 project car
Feb 13, 2012

Our first run was down to the office, both to show off our new jewel and to be among friends, if something had gone wrong.

After a bit of gusseting, the clutch slave cylinder bracket worked perfectly.

Would this car live up to the dreams of our youth?

Our first drive in our Shelby GT 350 couldn’t come soon enough. After three months of sweating nearly every day and night, we were ready to see what we had created. Would this car live up to the dreams of our youth as to how awesome Shelbys are?

The answer, as we soon found out, was a very big yes, but of course tempered by a few teething pains. What surprised us most is how well the Mustang went down the road. It was essentially new underneath, so it drove like a new car. It started easily, ran cool, and had very little in the way of creaks, rattles and issues.

One thing we dealt with was reinforcing the clutch slave cylinder bracket. The flimsy steel bracket was literally bending, giving us only about half of the clutch action we needed to easily shift the car.

A new, but blown out strut rod bushing caused the car to pull to the left, but this was quickly diagnosed and remedied. Damn, they don’t make parts like they used to. We were also upset with how jerky the newly rebuilt power steering was, but this loosened and lightened up after just a few miles of driving.

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