The new 1967 Mustang was followed with a new Shelby. It featured a 1967 Mercury Cougar tail light panel minus the chrome trim, a flip-up spoiler, and two sets of air scoops on each side. This was also the first American car to feature a factory roll bar. The GT350 still featured a 289 Cubic-Inch V8.
This year also saw the introduction of the GT500 alongside the continued GT350. The new GT500 featured a 428-CID (7 L) big-block V8. This is also one of the most famous Shelby Cobras.
A convertible prototype of the GT500 was made in 1967, which was designated to be scrapped. Before Ford Motor Co. could destroy the prototype, it was stolen. The car was eventually recovered by Ford and sold as '68 with the marque Shelby Mustang.
With a stiff road-racing suspension setup, high-strung small-block V8, and lack of a backseat on which to haul buddies, those original GT-350s weren't a popular pick with the burger-joint crowd. And that was fine with Ford, at least at first -- Shelby's cooperation on the Mustang was initially sought to give competition credibility to Ford's pioneering pony car, which GT-350s did handily by winning sports-car races.
But starting with the '67 model year, Ford began expecting Shelby's machines to speak to a more mainstream performance crowd -- the typical muscle-car buyer. Signaling this shift toward street appeal over race-track prowess were mandatory power steering and power brakes, along with a number of optional comfort and convenience features, including air conditioning, tilt steering wheel, and tinted glass.
And, perhaps most importantly, a backseat was now standard.
But despite the added weight of such amenities, Shelby's machines hadn't lost their bite. Although the base GT-350's V8 was now somewhat tamer, that model for '67 was joined by the new GT- 500, powered by a torquey 428-cid big-block V8 rated at 360 hp.
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