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Ford Performance Trying To Poach ‘Disappointed’ Dodge SRT Hellcat Customers

It requires no small amount of gravitas to try so bluntly to poach would-be customers from a rival automaker as this: Ford Performance is reaching out to “disappointed” would-be Dodge SRT Hellcat customers, trying to get them to consider climbing into a Shelby Super Snake Mustang instead.

As we recently reported, intense demand and rampant ordering has forced Fiat Chrysler to cancel some 900 orders for the 2015 Dodge SRT Hellcat Charger and Challenger models, extending olive branches to those (perhaps disgruntled) customers in the form of vouchers which would ensure them 2015 pricing on a 2016 model when available.

Not one to miss an opportunity, Shelby American Chief Operating Officer Keith Belair is trying to get these deprived souls to consider Ford Performance instead, saying simply: “You can’t park a voucher in your garage.” Yahoo! Autos reports that Shelby American is offering its own 2015 Ford Mustang GT-based “Super Snake” as an alternative to these underserved Hellcat orderers, sweetening the deal with a free “Katzkin Package” upgrade to those switching camps.

A value of $2,995, the Katzkin Package brings unique, premium leather wrapping to the Shelby Super Snake’s racing buckets – albeit only for the more expensive 850 HP model. And therein lies the problem; in order to opt-up to the 850 HP supercharged Ford Performance pony car, a hard-to-justify $54,995 is required. That’s in-addition to the original MSRP of the 2015 Ford Mustang GT which will serve as the Super Snake’s base, meaning that at the very least, one is paying over $87,000.

But then again, as Yahoo! Autos notes, that does buy you an additional 143 HP to play around with. Or, as Shelby American VP of Marketing Gary Schechner put it: “[Buyers] now have the chance to buy the car that would have likely left their Hellcat at the last traffic light. And now they’ll be able to do it from the more comfortable seats of their Shelby Super Snake.”

Aaron Birch is an automotive enthusiast and writer/filmmaker from Detroit, MI. As a rule, he only buys cars older than himself.

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