Vintage Cartoon Shelby Mustangs and a real one, too

The other day, my brother was nice enough to loan me some of his comic books.  He’s been checking in on my blog periodically and thought I’d get a kick out of a series called The Highwaymen.  It’s a comic about a couple of guys who have retired from some type of work as government agents or super secret special agent couriers who get called back into service and bring with them a pretty sweet ride from when they were in their prime.  Lots of explosions, gun fights, and fast, crazy driving ensues -it’s pretty cool.

As near as I can tell from the drawings in the comic books, what these guys have is a 1967 Shelby GT350... Or sometimes a 1967 Shelby GT500.  I landed on that particular model and year based on the outward look of the car, with its rocker and Le Mans racing stripes, the placement of the auxiliary lights in the grill, the side scoop and rear window covers, and the shape of the tail lights.  In the comic books, they’ve rendered the car a couple different ways -a subtle lapse in continuity.  In some frames, the car has ram air type scoops in the hood which would tell me it’s the GT350, but in others, it’s got a cowl hood, featuring a bit of a hump type bulge that would suggest GT500.  The placement of the auxiliary lights in the drawings also changes from book to book, and from cover art to inside art.  So, my assessment of what specific model we’re looking at is just a guess.

Shelby Mustangs came about in 1965 as a kind of cross promotion of Ford’s Mustang with Carroll Shelby’s company, Shelby American, which made a highly desirable car known as the Cobra.  Shelby’s Cobra used a Ford engine as its power source, and so it seemed like a good fit to have Shelby tweak a Ford product for racing and consumers.  This is also why these Shelby Mustangs are sometimes called Cobras and often feature cobra badges.  In 1965, these little racers packed 306HP.

Initially, you could only get a Shelby GT350 in Wimbledon White with blue stripes or blue with white stripes.  Most of the original cars only came with rocker stripes, though the Le Mans racing stripes have become kind of synonymous with these cars, and so it’s hard to find an example of a Shelby Mustang that doesn’t have them added.  It wasn’t until 1966 that Shelby GT350s were offered in other colors. 

In 1967, which is the year I think the Highwaymen have, the GT500 was offered with a 428 cu in engine with an output of 355HP.  Apparently, the Highwaymen have made some modifications on their Shelby, because in the comic, one of the characters claims that Shelby they have is packing 925HP.  Seems like overkill, and one has to wonder how they get all that power to the ground, because the rear wheels of the comic book Shelby look pretty much stock.  Usually, when dealing with crazy amounts of power like that, cars will have “tubbed” rear ends, wherein the wheel wells are dug deeper into the car so that wider wheels and tires can be mounted on the vehicle.  Otherwise, you’ll flake off a lot of that power in wheel spin and lack of traction before you ever get to use it.  Whatever, though.  It’s a comic book, and the car looks really cool.  That’s all that counts when we’re talking cartoon cars.

I have seen Shelbys in person, and in fact, saw one recently at the Ellingson Classic Cars in Rogers, in red with white stripes, even.  They’ve got a 1968 Shelby GT500KR sitting in their showroom.  The KR stands for “King of the Road”, and 1968 was the year that saw its introduction.  The KR used a 7L V8 called the Ford Cobra Jet GT.  Originally, the manufacturers claimed it only had 335HP, but word has it that was a myth perpetuated to keep insurance costs low.  The actual performance figures on this car place HP rating at around 450, which is mind-blowing for 1968.  If you’ve seen that movie Gone in 60 seconds, then you’ve seen a modified, nitrous-infused version of a GT500KR called Eleanor. 

Just to give you some perspective here: back in 1967, a person could purchase a GT350 for $3,995, or a GT500 for $4,195, or a 1968 GT500KR for $4,473.  The Shelby sitting in the Ellingson showroom is priced at $169,950, and even just to get your hands on a GT500 of this era in lousy shape, needing a total restoration would cost you between $70,000-$90,000.  Kinda wish you could time travel and buy one, don't you?

So, what accounts for the difference in horse power between our comic book car and an actual Shelby GT500 or GT350?  Probably just reality when you get right down to it.  However, these days one can buy a car called the Shelby 1000.  It’s essentially a new Shelby GT500 Mustang (already rated at 662HP with a base price of around $55,000) that you send back to Shelby American along with an extra $150,000 (for the street legal version) or $200,000 (for the non-street legal Track Pack racing version), and they rebuild your car into a ridiculously powerful, take-no-prisoners warhorse armed with 1,100 HP.  If the Highwaymen ever decided to update their ride, the Shelby 1000 is what they would drive.