And better yet, a Shadowfast build where money was no object?

Here's some top candidates:

"Blackened"

Bud Brutsman is producer of the TV shows Overhaulin' and Rides. He had some of the top car builders in the world remake a 1969 Mustang into his own idea of a supercar.

-- 1969 Ford Mustang SportsRoof- As Long As It's Black By Mark Houlahan; Mustang Monthly, December 2006; mustangmonthly.com

The Ford Shelby Super Snake

Ford and Shelby Automobiles look to be teaming up again to offer some smoking hot GT-500 Mustangs that could beat almost anything else out there, automotive-speaking.

-- Super Snake: Shelby To Create Bigger 'Stang With Longer Fangs and 725 Hp?; jalopnik.com; 4-30-07, and The Ford That's Faster Than a Ferrari by Gizmag.com; May 1, 2007; businessweek.com

It appears these cars would likely beat the original 1970s tech Shadow in the quarter-mile. And top-end speed. And stop quicker, too. But it's much less certain they'd beat him on a curvy road-- or any sort of long distance race-- what with Shadow's possibly superior-to-original Bosses, Shelbys, and Trans Am race cars' handling and weight characteristics. Especially as the typical owners of the newer cars almost certainly won't be as skilled at high performance driving as Shadow number one's pilot.

I suspect the original Shadow could take on rougher road surfaces and terrain better than the younger whipper-snappers, too. In actual races of substantial length, the course is rarely as straightforward and downright pampered as the closed race tracks on which things like Shelby's Super Snake are tested and tuned.

And then there's the original Shadow's more Batmobile-like aspects. So far, those appear to be unmatched by any modern contenders at all.

So as of mid 2007, even with the benefit of unlimited funds and some thirty years of advancements in automotive technologies, it appears the original Shadowfast design might still represent a formidable opponent for its newer counterparts, in any real world match up.