Shelby GT500KR 2020

Scope of this guide

This guide is scoped to the Shelby GT500KR (2020 to 2022), the King of the Road package that Shelby American offers for the Ford Mustang Shelby GT500. It is a front-engine, rear-wheel drive coupé with a supercharged 5.2 litre V8 under the bonnet and a seven-speed dual-clutch gearbox. The rear-wheel drive layout is the layout of the Mustang GT500 it starts from, and none of the pages we read spell it out in so many words. It is not a guide to the earlier GT500KR of the 2008 and 2009 model years, which was a different car with a different engine tune, and it is not a guide to the original 1968 King of the Road.

We have not driven this model for this article. We are an editorial desk that reads sources, and everything below comes from pages we opened: the Shelby American vehicle page, autoevolution (two articles), TopSpeed, Motor1, Maxim, CarBuzz, MotorBiscuit, The Car Guide and a Motorious report on a 2020 car heading to auction. We have not inspected, owned or tested a car. This page is for research, not a buying recommendation, and it cannot replace an inspection by a Shelby or Mustang specialist.

The figures at a glance

• Engine: 5.2L supercharged V8, the Ford Predator V8 found in the GT500, front-engine, with the factory supercharger swapped for a larger twin-screw unit. Sources describe that unit as a 3.8 litre Whipple supercharger.
• Drivetrain: rear-wheel drive, seven-speed dual-clutch automatic.
• Power: 900 bhp. This is Shelby American's own claim, not a measured figure. Shelby's page says the supercharger lifts the V8 to over 900 horsepower, and other pages add the qualifier of 93 octane fuel. We read US horsepower and bhp as the same thing for this purpose and give 900 bhp as the minimum claim. One source gives 671 kilowatts, which converts at 1.34102 to about 900 bhp, so the units agree.
• Torque: no figure shown. Shelby does not publish one on the page we read, and the pages we read that comment on it call it unrevealed.
• 0-100 km/h: no figure shown. No source gives an acceleration time for the KR, and we have not relabelled any 0-60 mph time as a 0-100 km/h time.
• Top speed: no figure shown. None of the pages we read give one.
• Years: 2020 to 2022 model years, which matches what Shelby's page and several magazines say.
• Production: no figure shown for a total that is clearly built. Pages give planned allocations, and they do not agree. See the production section below.

History and what changed over the run

The King of the Road name goes back to 1968, and Shelby revived it for the 2008 and 2009 model years. The third version was announced in December 2021 as part of Shelby American's sixtieth anniversary celebrations. Several pages, including TopSpeed, The Car Guide, MotorBiscuit and autoevolution, date their reports to 16 December 2021 and say the first car would be sold at Barrett-Jackson in Scottsdale at the end of January 2022 (the pages give either the 28th or the 29th), with orders opening in early 2022.

The unusual feature of this KR is that it is a conversion service as much as a model. Shelby's page says the package is built on any titled 2020 to current Mustang GT500, installed at Shelby American in Las Vegas, Nevada. CarBuzz calls it a service offered by Shelby to upgrade an existing GT500, and MotorBiscuit says Shelby American can turn any 2020 to 2022 GT500 into a GT500KR. That is why the catalogue lists the car as 2020 to 2022: the span follows the model years of the donor cars, and the announcement itself came in late 2021. Shelby's page adds that all GT500KR Mustangs for 2020 to 2022 have been reserved.

The 60th Anniversary badging is the clearest model-year marker we found. MotorBiscuit says the anniversary badges appear only on 2022 model-year cars, and autoevolution ties them to the cars for the 2022 model year as well. A 2020 car should therefore not carry them.

What the package changes

The pages we read broadly agree on the hardware list:

• Supercharger: a larger twin-screw Whipple unit, described as 3.8 litre, replaces the standard 2.65 litre Eaton according to MotorBiscuit. It comes with a larger throttle body, a high-volume intercooler and heat exchanger, a cold air intake and an updated pulley system.
• Exhaust and driveline: a Borla cat-back exhaust, heavy-duty half-shafts and a retune of the engine control unit. autoevolution says the result is 50-state emissions-legal and can run on 91 octane pump fuel, although the 900 bhp claim is tied to 93 octane.
• Chassis: height-adjustable front and rear springs, Ford Performance front and rear anti-roll bars, adjustable camber plates, and recalibrated MagneRide dampers.
• Wheels: one-piece forged 6061-T6 aluminium wheels, 20 inches in diameter, in brushed aluminium or gloss black. The second autoevolution article gives 20x11 inches at the front and 20x11.5 inches at the rear.
• Bodywork: a dry carbon fibre bonnet with functional vents and removable rain trays, which TopSpeed and The Car Guide say saves about 30 lb over the original, plus a carbon fibre front splitter, rear diffuser and Gurney flaps.
• Options: a widebody kit, a polished supercharger (black is standard), painted stripes, and a rear seat delete with a harness bar.
• Cabin and details: leather upholstery, Shelby floor mats, rocker stripes, and numbered plaques in the engine bay and on the dashboard.

Which figures we chose, and why

Power

Every page that gives a number says roughly 900. Shelby's page says over 900 horsepower. TopSpeed, Maxim, The Car Guide and Motorious print 900 hp or 900-plus on 93 octane. CarBuzz says nearly 900 hp, which is the one softer wording we found. The Car Guide goes further and says the exact figure is not specified. Because the maker says over 900 and several magazines print 900, we use 900 bhp as the claimed minimum throughout this page. It is a claim by the converter, and we found no dyno result or independent measurement. TopSpeed says the KR makes 140 hp more than the standard GT500, which puts the standard car at 760 hp, and that is consistent with the claim.

Torque

No page we read gives a torque figure for the KR. TopSpeed says the figures are not revealed but expects the car to be over 700 lb ft, and gives the standard GT500 as 625 lb ft. Those are an expectation and a donor-car figure, not a Shelby number. Converting at 1.35582 would put 625 lb ft at about 847 Nm, but that is the standard car and not the KR. For the KR itself there is no figure shown.

Acceleration and top speed

MotorBiscuit says the KR will likely beat the 3.4 seconds that it quotes for the 2020 GT500 to 60 mph. That is a prediction about a 0-60 mph time for another car. It is not a measured KR time and it is not a 0-100 km/h time, so there is no figure shown for 0-100 km/h. autoevolution makes the point directly that Shelby does not provide specific figures for the GT500KR. No page gave a top speed.

Production

The production story is where the pages disagree the most, and we do not think any single number can be treated as a build total:

• Maxim says only 180 will be produced from 2020 to 2022, 60 for each model year, and CarBuzz repeats the 180.
• The Car Guide says 180 units are planned for the US, or 60 per model year, with a further 45 for shipment outside the US. TopSpeed breaks it down the same way as 60 kits for each of the 2020, 2021 and 2022 model years in the US plus 45 elsewhere, which comes to 225. MotorBiscuit gives 60 per model year for the US and 45 overseas.
• autoevolution says Shelby will offer only 225 units, 180 for the US market, and that only 60 upgrade packages will be available for existing owners. Its other article says 225 will be built for 2022. Motor1 says 225 for 2022 with 180 going to the US and only 60 upgrades for 2020 and 2021 cars.
• Shelby's own page gives no count. It says only that it is building a limited number and that all 2020 to 2022 cars have been reserved.

These are planned allocations reported in December 2021, and they mix new cars with conversions. We found no source that says how many 2020 model-year cars were actually completed, so there is no production figure shown for this page.

A 2020 car at auction

Motorious reported in November 2025 that a 2020 GT500KR, with the number 20KR0002, was set to cross the block at Mecum's Kansas City sale in December 2025. It had 445 miles since new, was one of two 2020 cars in Kona Blue with the Carbon Fiber Track Pack, and had white stripes, black forged wheels, a Borla cat-back exhaust and a Technology Package. The original carbon fibre wheels and tyres came with it. The article gives no estimate, reserve or result. We read this as one example of how these cars are documented, and nothing more.

Prices and market notes

The prices below come from the pages we read and date from December 2021 and after. They are launch prices and not current values.

• A conversion of an existing GT500 was priced at $54,995, which is the package price shown on Shelby's page.
• A complete 2022 GT500KR was priced at $127,895, according to Maxim, Motor1, TopSpeed and The Car Guide. MotorBiscuit gives the donor GT500 as $72,900, so the two figures are consistent with each other.
• CarBuzz says the first car sold for $700,000, with proceeds going to the Carroll Shelby Foundation and JDRF. That was a charity sale of a first-production car and says little about what other cars are worth.

We found no resale data for 2020 cars beyond the Motorious report, which lists no price, so we give no market value.

What to check before buying

Only a few of the pages give specifics, so this is a short list and not an inspection scheme. The details below are things the sources say distinguish a genuine KR, and they are cues to check, not proof.

• The numbered plaques in the engine bay and on the dashboard are described by The Car Guide, and the Motorious car is identified by a Shelby number in the 20KR format.
• Motorious says the Gurney flap is exclusive to the GT500KR, so a car with a carbon fibre hood but no such flap deserves questions.
• The 60th Anniversary badges should be absent from a 2020 or 2021 car, according to MotorBiscuit.
• Ask what documentation comes with the car. The Motorious listing mentions an owner's kit, documentation and Shelby floor mats, and the work was done by Shelby technicians in Las Vegas according to autoevolution.
• Because the KR is a conversion, ask which donor car it was built on, and confirm that the title and conversion paperwork match.

A specialist inspection is the sensible step for a car like this. We found no page that lists known faults or recalls for the KR package.

What we could not find

• No torque, 0-100 km/h time or top speed from Shelby American or any page we read, so there is no figure shown for any of them.
• No measured power figure. The 900 bhp number is a claim.
• No agreed production total, and no count of 2020 model-year cars actually built.
• No known-fault or recall information specific to the KR.
• We could not open the Top Gear UK article (access refused), the Motor Authority article (access refused), the Mustang Motorsport Australia page (too many requests) or a Dale Adams reproduction of the Shelby press release (too many requests). We did not work around any of these, and we have not cited what they say.

About the photograph

The page uses the catalogue photograph for this model, and its credit is listed on the credits page.

Verdict

The 2020 to 2022 GT500KR is best understood as a Shelby American upgrade of a Mustang GT500 and not as a mass-produced model. Its headline is a claimed 900 bhp from a supercharged 5.2L V8, a bigger Whipple supercharger, a carbon fibre bonnet and a retuned chassis, all of it described the same way by the maker and by the press. Beyond that, the public record is thin: no torque, no acceleration time, no top speed, and a production count that changes from page to page. If you are researching one, ask for the paperwork, treat the power as a claim, and treat this page as a starting point and not as buying advice.