AROUND NCM MOTORSPORTS PARK, the Ford Shelby GT350R feels very nearly as special as the Viper ACR. It has the same single-minded focus on high-speed balance and usable performance, and if it sometimes feels a bit like a taxicab compared with the Viper, it makes up for that with a simply magical V-8 that brings the caviar thrills of 8250-rpm performance to a beer-and-burgers demographic. If you could summon some sort of Lovecraftian dark magic to combine the best parts of the other seven cars in this test—the Bentley's on-road poise, the Cadillac's vivacious chassis, the Merc's bluff-nosed retro charm, the Cayman's accessible limits, the Ferrari's auditory drama, the Corvette's wide-hipped machismo, and the Viper's sense of purpose—then what would appear in the swirling mists would be, not Cthulhu the Great Old One, but Shelby the Baddest Mustang. Our winner by a runaway vote, the Ford Mustang Shelby GT350R is, quite deservedly, the Road & Track 2016 Performance Car of the Year.
