Produced by Shelby and Ford from 1967-70, the GT500 quickly elbowed its way into the top tier of American muscle cars. What made a GT500 so special? When released, it was the ultimate performance Mustang. A customer could walk into any Ford dealer in 1967 and get a big-block V8 in a Mustang, but Ford only offered the relatively mild 390ci version, rated at 320 horsepower. To make the GT500, Shelby American installed a 428 Police Interceptor V8, fed by a pair of 600 cfm Holley carburetors on an aluminum medium-riser intake manifold, and rated at 355 horsepower. Later versions from 1968-70 used the 428 Cobra Jet V8, arguably Ford’s most successful engine of the original muscle car era.
And while the Mustang GT’s styling was on the subtle side, the GT500 was anything but. The GT500 had a unique nose, hood, trunk lid, spoiler and side scoops, all made from fiberglass. The high-beam headlamps were mounted in the center of the grille, at least initially. In the rear, Mercury Cougar sequential taillights replaced the stock Mustang units. These styling upgrades transformed the GT500 into the kind of car that could never pass unnoticed. Shelby marketed them as “The Road Cars.”