A nest of vipers is about to be unleashed on Australian roads as the latest Shelby GT 350 Mustang arrives down under.

More than a dozen 2025-model GT 350s are set for customers with the promise of 357 kiloWatts of V8 muscle and a range of Shelby performance upgrades. The GT 350s follow the Shelby Super Snake, the current headliner from the US performance company, complete with 600 kiloWatts of supercharged power.

Further down the road, likely before the end of the year, there will also be the first Super Snake R (below). Shelby cars for Australia are built using a package of upgrade parts shipped from Shelby American in Las Vegas, through the local agent, Mustang Motorsport in Melbourne. The differences between the GT 350 and Super Snake are obvious, including the number of cars and the bottom line.

"We're going to be building our first GT 350s next month. It's $45,000 on top of the cost of the donor car," the co-owner of Mustang Motorsport in Ferntree Gully, James Johnson, tells Wheels. "But most people will add the supercharger on top, which is $70,000. It's Shelby's 810-horsepower (604kW) package."

The flagship takes a big step up.

"The Super Snake package here is $170,000 on top of the car. We call it the hamburger with the lot," says Johnson. "It's drive-in, drive-out We do second stage manufacturing engineering work, so it's all road legal in Australia."

But that's not the end of the Shelby story, or even the beginning.

"We have our first order for a Super Snake R. That's a wide-body car that can only be built on a Mustang Dark Horse. That's the top tier car. It's four inches wider in the rear, wider in the front, and runs on 12.5-inch rear wheels. I'm still getting the final sign-off, but I have one pre-order and he has the donor car and his cheque book."

According to Johnson, there is strong demand for the Shelby cars based on their performance and the history of the brand with the Cobra badge.

"We were the first Shelby mod shop outside America. It was in '07 or 08," he says. "We've been doing more business now we had the (factory) right-hand drive vehicles. It's a continuous flow.

"Shelby brings out a new model every couple of years. And we build them if people want them. It's a small-volume niche model."

Johnson says the production total for the Super Snake is growing quickly.

"We've been allocated 20 cars a year. In America they are limited to 200 a year. By the end of this year we will have finished cars. It's a big package. It's got magnesium wheels and runs a carbon fibre front end. New bonnet, carbon fibre wings. It's a fully body upgrade, with leather on the interior trim. And 305 tyres all around."

He says the difference for the GT 350 is less reliance on power.

"It's more about handling and styling. It's a new bonnet, suspension, wheels, spoiler and body design.

It can be done without a supercharger. But every angle is covered."

Johnson says there has been a slight delay in the arrival of GT 350 packages, after a sell-out in the USA, but local deliveries will ramp-up in 2026.

Shelby GT 350 Mustang V8s arrive down under