Home of the NMRA season opener dubbed the Spring Break Shootout, we know Bradenton Motorsports Park when we see it. A curious bystander stopped at the Bradenton drag strip recently to record this short video that certainly has grabbed our attention. The subjects in question are a couple of S550 Mustangs wrapped in camouflage from head to tail meaning that some super secret squirrel stuff was in the works. Sadly, no actual runs were recorded.
The man recording this YouTube video is heard asking if the cars were Shelby GT500 models, but we were told by Ford at the Detroit Auto Show that there are no future plans for a new GT500 model at this time. Recently, Ford did reveal the Shelby GT350 and track-ready GT350R, and numbers have yet to be released. All we know is that the GT350 model is said to have more than 500 horsepower and 440 lb-ft of torque.
The two cars look to have two different appearance options, one with a larger spoiler much like a GT350R. It’s hard to tell with the shaky camera video and the position of the sun, but the wheels on one of the cars look very similar to the carbon fiber wheels given to the Shelby GT350R. The front fascias are also a dead giveaway that these at the very least are GT350s. It does make sense to test with the lightweight carbon fiber wheels to gather the best performance data possible. The regular Shelby GT350 model has been spotted lapping the Nurburgring overseas, and now it looks to be gathering performance numbers in the quarter-mile along with its track-ready sibling.
We can’t help but wonder – could this be the Shelby GT350 and the GT350R putting in some winter testing time down in the sunshine state? Our guess is that it almost certainly has to be.