The Holy Grail of Mustangs

The 1967 Shelby GT500 Super Snake has a formidable reputation.

In January 2019, it became the most expensive Mustang ever sold at auction – $2.2 million.

What makes this particular 1967 Shelby GT500 the most sought after Mustang in the world?

Part publicity stunt, part market study, the Super Snake was born from opportunity. Goodyear needed to showcase their latest model of tyre – the Thunderbolt – with a promotional event centred around its performance, and Carroll Shelby, their West Coast distributor, was the man to do it.

He could have tested the tyres on a regular GT500.

But in typical Carroll Shelby style, in collaboration with former Shelby American Sales Manager Don McCain, he instead placed a 427 GT40 Le Mans racing engine under the GT500’s hood, modifying the car to deal with the additional power. The Super Snake would end up hitting 170 mph, averaging 142 mph over 500 miles, and despite being “way too fast for the tyres it was on”, it became, at the time, “the fastest, street-legal production car ever made”.

McCain wanted to produce 50 Super Snakes, but the cost was simply unviable. The suggested price would have been $8,000 – almost double the $4,195 price of a standard Shelby GT500. Thinking it would be difficult to find 50 buyers, full scale production of the Super Snake was cancelled.

And so the Super Snake remained one-of-a-kind.

Now, with this stunning, faithful replica, you too can own a part of Shelby history, and build one of the most legendary cars ever made.