Background
Very few cars are as powerfully representative of time and place as a first generation Ford Mustang.
It has the stars and stripes running through it like a stick of rock and it instantly evokes a whole oeuvre of movies, songs, heroes and rogues that capture the freedom and excitement of a very different, determinedly rebellious, late 20th century American Dream.
When the Mustang was introduced in 1964, Ford hoped that it might sell as many as 100,000 per year. They sold 22,000 on the first day and surpassed their initial annual estimate within three months.
The Mustang’s winning formula was, partly, a combination of a beautiful and understated bodyshell allied to commonplace mechanical components. But it was the sheer number of options that really caught the attention of the widest demographic. With five different engine options, six different transmissions, three suspension packages, three braking systems and a whole host of performance, colour and cosmetic choices, there was a Mustang to suit everyone.
Even more importantly, it was cheap.
The Mustang’s launch price of under $2,500 enabled blue-collar workers across America to release their inner rebel and momentarily escape the grime, tedium and thanklessness of industrial labour.
Bruce Springsteen may have made heroes of the men and women working in mines, mills and foundries, but it was Ford’s pony car that gave them the freedom and opportunity to gallop off into the sunset.
Legendary Texan racing driver Carroll Shelby's team had been campaigning Ford's Mustang 'pony car' with considerable success in North America, winning the SCCA's B-Production title three years running in the mid-1960s.
Capitalising on his success, Shelby began manufacturing modified Mustangs, which were officially sanctioned and sold through selected Ford dealerships.
The first Shelby Mustang - the GT350 - arrived in 1965 powered by a modified version of Ford's 289ci (4.7-litre) small-block V8 producing 306bhp, with options of a 340-360bhp unit in competition trim or 400bhp when supercharged.
A four-speed Borg-Warner manual gearbox was the stock transmission on early Shelby Mustangs, though a heavy-duty, three-speed automatic soon became available as an option.
The running gear was up-rated appropriately to cope with the GT350's increased performance, though outwardly there was little to distinguish Shelby's GT350 from the standard product apart from a pair of broad 'racing' stripes down the body centre-line. On the open road there was, of course, no comparison.
When the factory introduced a 390ci 'big-block' V8 option on the Mustang for 1967, Shelby went one better, installing Ford's 428ci (7.0-litre) Cobra Jet V8 to create the GT500, one of the great, iconic muscle cars of the 1960s.
The Shelby Mustang continued to be based on the stock version, receiving the latter's styling changes and mechanical improvements while retaining its own distinctive special features until production ended in 1970.
As with all rare, iconic cars, the Shelby Mustang GT500 (and its various Hollywood expressions) has spawned countless imitations, copies and ‘tributes’ of varying degrees of authenticity and quality.
We have one such beast with us here today at The Market.
