Shelby Mustang GT500 1967

Scope of this guide

This guide is scoped to the Shelby Mustang GT500 (1967), the first big-block Shelby Mustang, built for the 1967 model year only. It is a front-engine, rear-wheel drive two-door fastback with a 428 cubic inch Ford FE Police Interceptor V8 under a fibreglass bonnet, a four-speed manual gearbox as the usual fitment and an automatic available. It is not a guide to the smaller-engined 1967 GT350, to the 1968 GT500 or GT500KR that followed it, or to the one-off Super Snake prototype that carried a 427 engine. Those cars share the name and some of the styling but they are different machines with different figures.

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: Wikipedia, Mustang Specs, Silodrome, an RM Sotheby's lot page, Revology Cars, Endurance Warranty, Old Timer Australia and a Sports Car Market page about the following year's car. We have not inspected, owned or tested a car. This is a rare and valuable collector car, so a page like this cannot replace a specialist inspection. It is for research, not a buying recommendation.

The figures at a glance

• Engine: 7.0L naturally aspirated V8, the 428 cubic inch (about 7,014 cc) Ford FE Police Interceptor, with an aluminium mid-rise intake and two four-barrel Holley carburettors, each rated at six-hundred cfm, mounted front-engine.
• Drivetrain: rear-wheel drive, four-speed manual in the usual car, automatic available.
• Power: 355 bhp at 5400 rpm. Silodrome calls this the SAE gross rating. The other pages do not say whether it is gross or net, and none mentions a net figure, so we use 355 bhp as the single rated figure.
• Torque: 569 Nm, which is the 420 lb ft that every source prints at 3200 rpm, multiplied by 1.35582 (569.4, rounded). Wikipedia independently prints 569 N m.
• 0-100 km/h: no figure shown. The period tests we read give 0-60 mph times, and a 0-60 mph time is not a 0-100 km/h time, so we have not converted or relabelled any of them.
• Top speed: no figure shown. None of the pages we opened gives a top speed for the standard 1967 GT500.
• Production: 2,048 cars in 1967 according to Wikipedia, Mustang Specs, Endurance Warranty and Old Timer Australia.
• Price when new: 4,195 US dollars according to Silodrome.

History and what changed

Shelby American built the GT500 as the top performer of its 1967 line-up. Wikipedia describes the engine as the 428 FE Police Interceptor with an aluminium mid-rise intake and two Holley carburettors, and notes that the GT350 beside it kept the 289 K-Code V8 with a single four-barrel. Silodrome adds hydraulic lifters. Mustang Specs says 1967 was the last year the cars were built by Shelby American, because for 1968 and 1969 production moved to Ionia, Michigan, under direct Ford control.

The pages we read describe a big-block car with plenty of torque, a four-speed manual as the usual gearbox, an automatic in at least one period test car, and a new price of 4,195 US dollars according to Silodrome. A Sports Car Market page about the 1968 car records that in 1967 the GT500 outsold the GT350 by nearly two to one, 2,048 cars against 1,175. We read that as supporting the 2,048 figure from a source that is focused on a different model year.

Body changes listed by the pages we read include:

• A fibreglass front end, bonnet, tail-light panel, boot lid, quarter panel extensions and side scoops, according to Wikipedia.
• A longer bonnet with functional scoops, an extended nose with high-beam driving lights in place of the standard Mustang grille, and widened wings, according to Revology Cars.
• Side stripes, quarter-panel scoops with rear brake-cooling ducts, and sequential tail lights, according to Revology Cars. Endurance Warranty also lists a rear ducktail spoiler and a wood-rimmed steering wheel.
• Interior details of Stewart-Warner gauges, a wood-rimmed wheel and a six thousand rpm tachometer according to Revology Cars and Endurance Warranty.
• A roll bar, mentioned on the RM Sotheby's lot page for its Arizona 2020 car.

Wikipedia also lists a convertible as a body style but says only one GT500 convertible was built in 1967, car 0139. None of the sources we read says whether that one car is inside the 2,048 total or separate from it. Silodrome calls the 2,048 cars fastbacks. That is why we treat the model as a fastback in our figures and mention the convertible only as a footnote.

Which figures we chose, and why

Power

Ford's rating was 355 bhp at 5400 rpm. Wikipedia, Silodrome, Revology Cars, Endurance Warranty and Old Timer Australia agree on 355. Wikipedia also prints 360 PS and 265 kW, which are conversions of the same output. Several pages hint that the true output was higher: Mustang Specs says actual output neared four hundred horsepower, and the RM Sotheby's page says the same, calling 355 conservative. Silodrome likewise says the industry considered the rating conservative. None of these pages cites a dynamometer test, so the higher number is an impression and not a measurement. We use 355 bhp throughout, because it is the figure the maker rated and every page agrees on it.

Torque

Every page that gives a torque figure prints 420 lb ft, with the engine speed at 3200 rpm in Wikipedia, Silodrome and Revology Cars. Converting at 1.35582 gives 569 Nm, which matches the metric figure that Wikipedia prints.

Acceleration

The sources disagree, and this is where we have to be most careful. Silodrome gives 6.5 seconds from 0 to 60 mph and a quarter mile near fifteen seconds at about 95 mph, citing period road tests. Endurance Warranty also gives 6.5 seconds and attributes it to a 1967 Car and Driver test. Old Timer Australia is more specific: it says 6.5 seconds comes from the February 1967 Car and Driver test of an automatic GT500, not the manual car on that page, and that the same test gave 16.6 seconds to 100 mph. Revology Cars gives about 6.2 seconds in one section and about 6.5 seconds in another, a quarter mile of about 14.6 seconds in one section and about 14.5 in another, and says Road & Track recorded 15.5 seconds in the quarter mile. That page is inconsistent with itself, so we treat its numbers as a rough range. Wikipedia gives no 0-60 mph time for the GT500. The roughly seven second figure in its article applies to the GT350.

All of these times are 0-60 mph. We do not know of a 0-100 km/h time in any page we opened, so there is no figure shown for that measure.

Top speed

The pages we opened give no top speed for the standard GT500. Wikipedia mentions a Super Snake prototype with a 427 FE engine rated at 650 hp that was reportedly capable of more than 150 mph, and Revology Cars says the Super Snake is said to exceed 170 mph. Those two pages disagree with each other about that one-off car, and neither number describes the production GT500 anyway. We therefore show no top speed.

Engine size

The 428 cubic inch size converts to about 7.0 litres. Old Timer Australia lists 7,014 cc and Wikipedia says 7.0 L. We use the 7.0L naturally aspirated V8 description, and we give 7,014 cc as the displacement.

Production

Wikipedia states that two thousand and forty-eight were produced in 1967. Mustang Specs, Silodrome, Endurance Warranty, Old Timer Australia and the Sports Car Market page agree on 2,048. Silodrome says that these were fastbacks built by Shelby American. We use 2,048 as the production total for the 1967 model year, with the convertible caveat above.

What to check before buying

Only some of our sources give specifics, so this is a short list and not an inspection scheme.

• Revology Cars says the VIN should begin with 7 for the 1967 model year, with F for the Dearborn assembly plant and an S in the engine position, and that you should confirm it with a Marti Report or the original sales invoice. We read this only on one page, so verify it against Shelby documentation.
• The same page says to look for the Shelby serial tag riveted to the driver-side inner wing.
• The RM Sotheby's lot page says its car came with copies of the original build sheets and a SAAC report, and that it was a numbers-matching car restored by a Shelby specialist. That tells you the kind of paperwork the top end of the market expects. It does not tell you what a typical car comes with.
• Because several body panels are fibreglass according to Wikipedia, panel fit and repair history are worth asking about, but none of the pages we read gives specific faults, so we will not invent a list.
• Endurance Warranty says to expect a six-figure outlay even for a car in adequate shape, and notes that its service contracts do not apply to a car this old.

We found no recall notice, no known-faults list and no running-cost data in the pages we opened. Revology Cars also contradicts itself over the origin of the tail lights, and the RM Sotheby's page mentions a body designed for the 390 cubic inch engine while describing the car as a 428, so treat details from any one page with care.

Market and value notes

Silodrome gives the new price as 4,195 US dollars. For later values, Endurance Warranty quotes Hagerty estimates of 111,000 US dollars for a fair-condition car and 274,000 US dollars for a mint or concours car. The page we read does not give a date for these estimates, and prices move, so check live listings. RM Sotheby's page records that its Dark Moss Green restored car, a numbers-matching rotisserie restoration that had not been driven since, sold for 224,000 US dollars in the Arizona 2020 sale. That is one auction result and not a valuation. The Sports Car Market page records a 1968 GT500 selling for 93,500 US dollars in April 2012. That belongs to the later model and shows only how much the market has moved since.

What we could not find

• No top speed and no 0-100 km/h time for the standard 1967 GT500, so there is no figure shown for either.
• No agreed 0-60 mph time. The sources range from about 6.2 to 6.5 seconds, and the best-attributed one is for an automatic car.
• No statement of whether the 2,048 total includes the single convertible.
• No independent measurement of the true power output, only repeated claims that it was nearer four hundred horsepower.
• No weight in any page we read, and no wheelbase or length.
• The Wikipedia page is long and we read only the opening part of it, which covered the 1967 GT500 material we needed.

About the photograph

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

Verdict

The 1967 GT500 is the car that put a big-block Police Interceptor V8 into a Shelby Mustang. The pages we read agree on 355 bhp, 569 Nm and 2,048 cars, and they describe a big-block car with a bigger engine than the GT350. They also agree that Ford's power rating looked conservative, though nobody we read has measured it. Acceleration is documented only as 0-60 mph, with no figure shown for 0-100 km/h or for top speed. If you are researching one, spend your time on the VIN, the Shelby serial tag, the documentation and the panel history, expect a six-figure price, and treat this page as a research aid and not as a buying recommendation.