55 Years of the Shelby GT500: Taking the Snake for a Walk Down Memory Lane

It’s amazing, isn’t it? 2022 marks the 55th year since 1967, when the first GT500’s appeared out of Shelby American. A year later, the car gained the Cobra Jet engine and the nickname of “The Snake.” It feels like it was only yesterday that the classic fastback look, the long hood, the subtle but muscular wheel arch flares, and the roar of that engine as the car laid down two lines of rubber was the talk of pretty much every town in America.

Yet, it has been five and a half decades. The Snake nickname has widened and covered a variety of Mustangs throughout those decades that were not GT500s or even GT350s. When one is present in the market, however, it always regains its title as the biggest, baddest muscle car on the road and yanks the name back to where it belongs: on a Ford Mustang GT500.