I think you have great points, hoewever, the GT500 was not developed as a race car. Mr Shelby has said that numerous time in about 5000 different interviews. The Development of the GT500 was to carry on the Shelby name and to create a reasonably priced collector car for many years to come which isnt done all the time with typical domestic vehicles, those are his exact words. The new shelby was in fact designed hand in hand with Carol Shelby, and his team of engineers. Those GT500's are built at his factory in Las Vegas, and then distributed back to dealers nationwide. On any given day Shelby has over 1800-2000 S197 vehicles in their stockpile, with 2 man teams converting cars to specialty series Shelbys. It was just in the 2008 January edition of 5.0 magazine.

Amd that car putting down a 12 second pass. In the same issue 5.0 mag tested the Shelby GT/SC that put out more than 500 hp, and in the dead middle of summer at the Strip in Las Vegas, they put down a 12.7 on stock gears. So, I am sure you can yeild a better pass with 700 horsepower. With some stickies and a gear swap.