Ford Mustang GT500

Shelby GT500 at a glance

Carroll Shelby, a racing driver and Le Mans winner, worked with Ford from 1965 to turn the Mustang into a race and road performance car, starting with the GT350. The GT500 followed for the 1967 model year as the big-engined, more comfortable partner to the GT350. It was based on the redesigned 1967 Mustang fastback, with its own nose and bodywork details and Shelby stripes. Shelby's wider story is told in the Shelby brand page, and the base car in our Ford Mustang fastback page.

The 1967 GT500

The 1967 cars were finished by Shelby American in Los Angeles, using Mustang fastbacks supplied by Ford. The heart of the car was the 428 cu in FE V8, a big-block engine from Ford's large cars, in Police Interceptor specification with two Holley carburettors. It gave the GT500 far more torque than the smaller V8 of the GT350.

The power figure is an SAE gross rating, measured without accessories, as was usual in the United States at the time; real output at the wheels was lower. Even so, the GT500 was one of the most powerful Mustang-based cars of the 1960s.

1968: GT500KR and the move to Michigan

For 1968 production moved from California to Ionia, Michigan, where the bodywork conversion was carried out by the contractor A.O. Smith, and a convertible joined the fastback. Early 1968 cars kept a Shelby-installed 428 Police Interceptor rated at 360 hp. From April 1968, Ford fitted the new 428 Cobra Jet, and the car became the GT500KR, the letters standing for Ford's "King-of-the-Road" slogan. Ford rated the Cobra Jet at 335 hp and 440 lb ft (597 Nm) at 3,400 rpm, a figure widely considered understated. 1,571 GT500KRs were built in the 1968 model year.

1969–1970: the last original GT500

For 1969 the GT500 received a new, longer body with its own nose, designed under John Chun, and lost the Cobra name from its badges. By now Ford made most of the design decisions. Carroll Shelby ended his agreement with Ford in the summer of 1969, and no new 1970 cars were built: 789 unsold 1969 cars received 1970 serial numbers and were sold as 1970 models. That ended the original GT500.

The revived GT500: 2007 to 2022

Ford brought the name back on the fifth-generation Mustang. Deliveries of the new Shelby GT500 began in May 2006 for the 2007 model year.

The old 1cars text describes the early revived car: a six-speed manual gearbox, a 61-litre tank, Tokico dampers and ventilated brake discs of 356 mm at the front and 300 mm at the rear. It quotes about 5 seconds for 0–100 km/h and a top speed of around 270 km/h.

Shelby GT500 generations compared

From 1967 to 2020 the power of the GT500 more than doubled, from 265 kW to 567 kW, while the engine shrank from 7.0 to 5.2 litres. The modern cars are far quicker, but the original is the one collectors value most. Compared with the 1967 car, the 2020 GT500 has 302 kW more from an engine 1.8 litres smaller. Our most powerful coupés ranking shows where the newest GT500 sits among today's cars, and the power converter translates the period bhp ratings into kW.

Eleanor and continuation cars

The GT500 gained wider fame through the 2000 film "Gone in 60 Seconds", in which "Eleanor" was a customised 1967 Mustang fastback presented as a Shelby GT500. The film car inspired many replicas. Carroll Shelby partnered with the company Unique Performance in 2002 to build licensed continuation cars, but the venture was badly managed and was raided by police over vehicle identification irregularities in 2007. Buyers of 1967-style cars should therefore check carefully whether a car is an original, a licensed continuation car or a replica.