Ford Europe had the keys to a Mustang Shelby GT350R for 24 hours, and decided to take it to central London to see what the locals thought of the red hot car. Some took pictures, some took selfies, and some were startled when the V8 came to life - the Shelby is a show stopper all right. Check out the video to see some of the cute reactions.

Back in April, Ford announced that only 100 examples of the Mustang Shelby GT350 were to be built as a 2015 model year offering, and just 37 units of the more hardcore GT350R were to be made in the same vein. Both are powered by a 5.2 litre Voodoo flat-plane crankshaft V8 with 526 hp and 582 Nm, the most powerful naturally-aspirated road-going Ford engine ever.

With a redline of 8,250 rpm, the Voodoo – which is an evolution of the more familiar Coyote 5.0 litre seen in the standard Mustang GT – is also the highest-revving production V8 in Ford history and also the Blue Oval's most efficient in terms of specific output; the unit produces 102 hp per litre without forced induction.

The GT350R, a homage to the original Shelby GT350 competition model of 1965, is lighter by nearly 60 kg over a GT350 with a Track Pack strapped on, is shod with carbon-fibre 19-inch wheels (this alone saves 27 kg) and has a specially-tuned suspension featuring track-tuned alignment settings. HUD shift lights are pretty cool, too.

The Ford Mustang, now available in right-hand drive and officially in Malaysia for the first time, is open for booking. Prices are estimated to be between RM435,000 and RM450,000 for the 310 hp/433 Nm 2.3L EcoBoost variant, and from RM550,000 to RM565,000 for the 435 hp/541 Nm 5.0L V8. It will be arriving at the end of 2015. Read our review of the S550.

2015 Ford Mustang Shelby GT350R