Remember that time when James Bond put his secret agent super-skills to work and drove a 1967 Ford Shelby Mustang? Neither do we because it never happened – not on the silver screen. 007 wasn’t a Ford guy; he wasn’t even a car guy. But one of his real-life namesakes, a doppelganger from Blodgett, Oregon, is a proper gearhead. And, until recently, he owned a first-year G.T. 500.
In the highly volatile environment of classic muscle cars, Shelby has a high seat of honor, and the cars bearing that name have the critical mass to spawn a new religion all on their own. But not all Shelbys are equal – though none are below extraordinary – and the Mustang-Cobra pairing would arguably get the center spot.
3,225 Ford Mustangs received the Shelby stamp of nobility for 1967; the high-performance manufacturer actually down-tuned his cars (just a little) to attract a broader buying audience. With the introduction of the big-block G.T. 500, Shelby cut away some of the race-borrowed muscle in favor of looks and comfort.
Not that the car was a grocery-getter with a venomous badge upfront; it was simply more driver-friendly than the rowdy 350. Of the 3,225 Shelby Mustangs built for the 1967 model year, 2,048 got the big-block power known in the Mustang circles as the Police Interceptor (PI). While they shared many components, the Q-coded Shelby V8 differed from Ford’s own P-code Police Interceptor.
The sales literature from the period (see it in the gallery) makes a clear distinction – albeit it takes some time to scroll through and get all the differences straight – between the various engine types with the 428 cubic-inch (7.0 liters) displacement.
Shelby American itself referred to the engine as the Cobra Le Mans 355 HP Engine, as we can see in this extremely rare – and consequently all the more valuable – original window sticker from one ’67 G.T. 500. Discovered in Oregon by Dennis Collins, the YouTuber with a long history of digging up forgotten piston-powered treasures, this Shelby has a story to tell.
Starting with its now-missing powerplant – blown up by one of the previous owners during high-revving antics – and ending with its 35-year-long temporary road retirement that began in 1982 and ended in 2017. As the video unveils, during its active career, this historic Mustang had a life that would have made Carroll Shelby stand up and give it a hats-off bow.The original owner handed the car over to his son – a 17-year-young gearhead with a right foot made of Supermanium, probably. This would be the only logical explanation of how this 1-in-150 – details on this in the following paragraphs – hit 160 mph (257 kph) during a police chase.
According to the folklore, that event wasn’t an actual pursuit but more of a shake-off-the-cops affair, as the Shelby pulled away with ease, leaving the red-and-blue lights far behind. As spicy as that sounds, it gets even better. The teenager was mature enough to pull over and wait for the officer to do his Police Interceptor duty. If the story is true, the policeman was secretly a professional gearhead of federal proportions because he issued a ticket for much less than the actual clocked-in speed of the #00948 Shelby Mustang G.T. 500.
At this point, everyone with a knack for internal combustion performance is wondering the same as Dennis: “What gears are on this highway criminal?” Unfortunately, and strangely, the owner doesn’t know. But we can rest assured it wasn’t the stock 3.50:1 heavy-duty, straddle-mounted deep-offset rear axle that accompanied the four-speed manual transmissions.
The original tranny is also long gone, but the window sticker – acquired in a separate deal from the one in which the car was sold – identifies this G.T. 500 as a four-speed manual car. And its Brittany Blue exterior over black interior makes it one of the 150 so-finished Shelby Mustangs G.T. 500s of 1967.
Despite the saddening lack of an original powertrain and gearbox, the car – covered in primer to keep it rust-free – has eight cylinders, eight barrels, and four forward gears to make it road worthy again. Not in their correct places but stored aside for a future project (one that Dennis-the-rescuer will see through).
The engine accompanying the car is a 427 V8 with dual four-throat carburetors that’s been rebuilt (but hasn’t run since 2020). A bunch of boxes full of new-old-stock parts will help rebuild this G.T. 500 to its deserved glory.
In ’67, a base Shelby Mustang with the big-block 428 would set the buyer back $4,195. That amount bought the 355-hp, 420-lb-ft V8 (360 PS, 570 Nm) and its extra cooling package. An integral roll bar, the competition handling package, the deluxe steering wheel, and the deluxe interior were included, along with tach, oil pressure, and current gauges.
The optional extras added more comfort and confidence: power for the steering and brakes (discs at the steering end, self-adjusting cast iron drums on the power-conveying wheels). The inertia reel shoulder harnesses for the front were a $64.77 option. Most G.T. 500s would get them – and our story’s hero is no exception.This car was not spared the go-fast life – the blown-up original Cobra Le Mans V8 would testify to that, were it still around – but after 15 short years on the road, it was demoted into a long-term decommission in 1982. It collected dust for three-and-a-half decades until the gentleman in the video (James Bond from Oregon) purchased it. It took another four years of back-and-forth negotiations to get the window sticker (a prized piece of automobilia in its own right), unlike in any James Bond movie.