The 1967 Shelby GT500 was built to test and promote Goodyear’s new Thunderbolt tire. This request was made for a special car with tremendous speed as the testing was to be done at its five-mile-long oval in San Angelo, Texas. The Mustang’s dual-quad 428-cubic-inch engine was replaced with a medium riser Mark II 427 from a GT40 race car with a solid cam, a single 780 cfm Holley carburetor, and a special set of headers with a “bundle of snakes” design.
Don McCain, a former sales manager at Shelby was quoted as saying the engine was “the mother of all 427s at the time with aluminum heads, aluminum water pump, forged crank, Le Mans rods, just basically everything inside the engine was built to run sustained 6,000 rpm to race at Le Mans.”
Goodell, the company’s chief engineer also added heavy-duty front disc brakes, a Detroit Locker rear end, traction bars, a redesigned grille for additional cooling, and unique triple stripes on the Mustang’s hood, roof, and deck lid. He also installed a set of tall 2.73 rear gears to maximize the fastback’s top speed. At the track, a set of Shelby 10-spoke wheels and of course a set of Goodyear Thunderbolts, complete with whitewalls, were fitted. Let take a look at some of the car’s features.
The exterior design of the GT500
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The 1967 Shelby GT500 features a diecast metal exterior with fabricated plastic in some parts. Outside its landmark performance on the track, the car also came with unique features to enhance its looks and racing appeal. It offered fiberglass body parts, hood with functional scoops, four add-on side air intakes, fiberglass tail, with molded spoiler, and sequential turn-signal were added. The shut lines are very good, and the panel gaps are decent. the chrome around the exterior glass is top-notch. Its symbolic quad headlights and the center grille contribute to the car’s amazing look. The rear of the GT500 continues to display its beautiful shapes
The Interior Design
The GT500 is one of the best looking from the team to date. All the basic elements of the GT500 interior are here. The steering wheel, manual shifter, seats, and the added fire extinguisher are champions. The integrated seat-belts/roll-bar is primitive and the creature comforts on the interior flocking and fine-tuned detailing within the dash are not here.
The Engine and Performance
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1967 Shelby GT500 – Under the fiberglass hood of the GT500 lies an all-aluminum 427 FE, which is 100 pounds lighter than the original iron block, with cross-bolt mains for strength, a hydraulic roller cam, a set of Doug’s headers, a Holley Black Ultra HP carburetor, and 10.5: 1 compression ratio so it runs well on today’s pump gas. Output was rated at 355 hp and 420 lb-ft of torque. There’s also a top-loader four-speed and a 9-inch rear end, just as the original Super Snake, but the rear gears are a more street-friendly 3.50 ratio. The only other hardware changes are the tires, although they’re still 15-inch and mounted to a set of Shelby Magstar wheels, and the grille, which is now polished instead of black in a subtle attempt to distinguish the cars from the original.
In Goodyear’s promotional video of the test, which is on YouTube, the engine was reported as making 650 hp, however, the real number was around 520 hp. Shelby drove the car around the track at 170 mph, gave the editors of Time and Life rides they certainly never forgot, and then turned the car and his helmet over to Goodell, who drove the Mustang to an average of 142 mph for 500 miles.
After the test, McCain persuaded Shelby to produce 50 similar 427-powered GT500s, but at $7,500 apiece, as the Supercar was just too expensive. So the one and only was sold for $5,000 and has now become a prized piece of Shelby history last selling at Mecum’s 2013 Indianapolis auction for $1.3 million ( also on YouTube).
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