Cloaked in a rare late-spring mist, the menacing gray Mustang looked like a ghost with angry eyes.
It seemed lost in the fog of the past.
Broad white "skunk" stripes on a long hood, fat tires tucked beneath wide fenders and a wicked, road-hugging stance recalled monster Mustangs from long ago.
If you squinted hard, you could almost see Texan Carroll Shelby leaning over one of his raw road-racers from the '60s.
But don't dismiss the 2016 Shelby GT350R as some retro poseur Mustang -- despite its obvious connections to an era when drivers needed strong arms and legs just to wrestle one of the beasts down the road.
One push of the red starter button in the new GT350R will instantly dispel any notion that this might be some tarted-up anniversary car 50 years after the original.
The GT350R doesn't spring to life politely. It explodes in a mechanical tantrum, sounding kind of like an avalanche cutting through a metal building.
It rattles glass and nerves, emitting a 90-decibel howl never heard in any previous Mustang.
Gulp.
As you may know, Ford started with the all-new Mustang -- already a pretty good car with its stiffer platform and independent rear suspension -- giving the GT350 and GT350R better shocks and springs, stickier tires and dramatically better brakes.
I figured that's where it would end -- better handling, meaner-looking, maybe a few more horsepower.
But Ford then put a spell on the GT350 and track-ready GT350R, bolting in a bored-out, thoroughly revised version of the Mustang's 5-liter V-8 known now as the Voodoo motor.
Without any help from a turbocharger or supercharger, the edgy new engine blasts out 526 high-rpm horsepower and is tied to a sweet-shifting six-speed manual -- the only transmission available.
In base form, the R comes with no radio, no air-conditioning and no back seat in an effort to save weight - and is $13,500 more expensive than the "regular" GT350, pushing the window-sticker to an eye-watering $66,970.
It just might be worth it.
Sinister from front to back, the GT350R glowers at lesser cars with fierce headlamps and a broad, blacked-out grille wearing a small red Shelby badge.
Large white stripes outlined in red ran down the center of the long hood, top and trunk.
An aerodynamic black splitter beneath the bumper hovered less than four inches above the ground, wrapping around to wide-body fenders that barely covered massive 305/30-19 tires up front and 315/30-20s on the back.
They were mounted on black five-spoke carbon-fiber wheels that weighed a mere 18 pounds each. (And, yes, I am absolutely tired of black wheels, too, but they seem right on this extreme 'Stang.)
Moreover, the big new Mustang body -- which I'm not crazy about -- never looked better than on the R.
Everything is functional. A slender vertical heat-vent behind the front fender, for example, slid up into a deep character line that ran through the door handle.
The line formed a strong shoulder over the rear wheels, complemented by a chiseled lower line and a slinky top.
Meanwhile, enormous cross-drilled brake-rotors with red Brembo calipers bristled from behind those boring black wheels, while four exhaust pipes the size of large soup cans took aim from the rear.
But the black heart of the R lay beneath the hood, residing deep inside the aluminum block of the 5.2-liter Voodoo V-8.
Both the regular GT350 and the more intense GT350R get the same magical motor, which starts life as a lightly bored 5-liter engine.
After adding all sorts of hot-rod parts, Ford opted to put a flat-plane crankshaft in the Voodoo -- like Ferrari uses in its intoxicating engines -- to lighten its so-called reciprocating mass and give it more rpm.
That is the source of the engine's dusky 8,000 rpm howl, a mix of Ferrari over drag-strip thunder.
If you really want to wake up the neighborhood, flick a toggle switch on the console that opens the exhaust, making the GT350R one of the most exquisitely loud production cars I've ever heard.
Like most high-rpm engines, the Voodoo doesn't pin you to your seat with low-end torque.
It pushes you back with an ominous flat growl. At about 3,500 rpm, the car leaps ahead with a warrior's bellow, screaming to 8,000 rpm.
In the 3,700-pound R, 60 pops up in a mere 3.9 seconds. Not too surprising, it only manages 14 miles per gallon in town and 21 on the highway -- but who's counting?
More important, the R with its magnetorheological shocks and grippier tires attacks corners even more viciously than it does straights.
Turn-in is sudden and precise. The R's body remains so flat and composed that it will push some people to silly excesses.
Though the rear-wheel-drive car will understeer at really high limits, it can be lightly drifted through curves at slightly insane speeds and go exactly where it is pointed.
The Shelby made every run to the grocery store an adventure -- as well as a potential quick trip to jail.
Although some writers have criticized the steering in the hoodlum Mustang, it felt alive to me, transmitting changes in pavement and grade through the three-spoke wheel.
The R's suspension and steering can be fine-tuned through the computer to suit your mood. But it really has only two settings for ride: stiff and stiffer.
Still, the R's rigid platform and sophisticated shocks soak up most of the harshness in bumps. Consequently, the big coupe moved around a lot in a sort of gentle rumba, but it rarely bounced or crashed over bad pavement.
The black interior in my R -- though "optioned" with air-conditioning and a stereo -- remained as functional as the exterior.
Alacantra Recaro seats with supportive bolsters and grippy pleated centers were its best features (think suede), along with a springy, relatively light clutch.
Wide, flat hoods over the instrument panel and glove compartment evoked some of the classic Mustangs, as did two gauges in the center of the dash for oil pressure and oil temperature.
The cockpit-style layout offered a fairly broad black-plastic console and black door panels with Alacantra centers stitched in red.
In place of a back seat, the R provides a flat panel covered in black carpet.
So, can any car without a back seat possibly be worth nearly $70,000 -- especially when it is largely a mainstream Mustang?
Rationally, no. But if you relish the pleasures of driving a finely balanced, wildly capable car, the R will reel you in.
Hey, you could always sell your house. A sleeping bag should fit nicely on the panel where the back seat once resided, and your drive to various parks for an overnight stay will be the best part of your day.
I'm thinking about it.
