Some cars are engineered. A rare few are conjured. In 1967, when Ford widened the Mustang just enough to swallow its muscular 390/320-horsepower big-block, the move cracked open a door. Carroll Shelby, eternal hot-rod alchemist, kicked the slightly ajar door off its hinges. The GT500 arrived as the natural evolution of performance, its Police Interceptor 428 already massaged to 355 horsepower. The public devoured it, outselling the GT350 by nearly double. But beneath Shelby’s trademark Texas grin, another idea was forming - larger, louder, and impossibly ambitious.
And as in so many moments of automotive destiny, it took only a spark to ignite a legend.
Early ’67 found Shelby wearing several hats. One of them was West Coast distributor for Goodyear. The tire giant asked him to flog their new Thunderbolt economy tire in a high-speed endurance test on their five-mile proving ground in San Angelo, Texas. To most, the assignment called for a mild-mannered test mule. To Shelby, it called for the next chapter in the saga he’d been writing since the Cobra first breathed fire.
The spark came courtesy of Don McCain, former Shelby American sales manager, then peddling horsepower for Dana Chevrolet and Mel Burns Ford. McCain proposed something outrageous even by Shelby standards: install a full-race 427 into a GT500 for the test, let him sell the prototype, and - if lightning struck - build 50 more.
Shelby didn’t merely approve.
He accelerated.
Fred Goodell, Shelby American’s chief engineer (and Ford’s trusted emissary), chose GT500 No. 544 as the foundation. But what emerged from the shop floor was scarcely a GT500 anymore.
Goodell explained calmly, as engineers do:
“We rebuilt it with a special lightweight 427 racing engine; special rear axle, special transmission and, of course, Thunderbolt tires.”
But the truth was even more intoxicating than the technical summary.
McCain remembered the engine with reverence reserved for saints and saints of speed:
“The mother of all 427s… aluminum heads, aluminum water pump, forged crank, Le Mans rods… everything inside built to run a sustained 6,000 RPM - to race at Le Mans.”
This was no warmed-over FE big-block. This was the GT40 MkII’s 600-horsepower Le Mans heart - repurposed for a production Mustang. The “bundle of snakes” exhaust snaked beneath the chassis, the symphony of eight cylinders exhaling in perfect, predatory harmony.
Supporting modifications completed the metamorphosis:
GT500 No. 544 was becoming something Shelby never officially built again:
a big-block Mustang infused with the soul of a Le Mans champion.
Its name would be Super Snake.
The last week of March 1967, the Super Snake touched Texas soil. Journalists from Time, Life, and other national outlets climbed aboard for demonstration laps, during which Carroll Shelby himself wrung the car out to 150 mph. The Thunderbolts were thin, modest, almost comically narrow by performance standards. Yet, they held firm.
Then came the official test.
Myth long claimed that various drivers took stints, but Goodell eventually set the record straight on the TV show, My Classic Car. After the demos, Shelby handed him his helmet.
“I’ve got to go to Washington,” Shelby said. “You go ahead and drive the test.”
And so, Goodell did.
For 500 miles.
At an average speed of 142 mph.
With total tire wear of just 3 percent.
The Thunderbolts passed.
The Super Snake transcended.
When the car returned to Mel Burns Ford in California, McCain attempted to generate interest in a 50-unit production run. The response was respectful admiration followed by sticker shock. The Super Snake cost more than double a baseline GT500, and even out-priced Shelby’s own 427 Cobra.
The verdict was unavoidable:
The world wasn’t ready.
Above: 1967 Shelby Cobra 427 S/C - Semi Competition roadster specifications:
Instead, the lone prototype made its way to Dallas, purchased by Braniff International Airways pilots James Hadden and James Gorman, who installed 4.10 gears for quarter-mile thrills. Years later, Texas enthusiast Bobby Pierce preserved it for a quarter century, ensuring the car survived unmolested - and nearly mythic.
Above: 1967 Shelby GT500 Super Snake specifications:
By the time collector Richard Ellis acquired the Super Snake from Charles Lillard, the odometer showed 26,000 miles and the car exhibited scarcely any wear. Ellis approached the restoration as an archaeologist, not a modifier:
As Ellis explained in Auto Enthusiast Magazine: “The Thunderbolts were for boring family cars. That’s why no one reproduced them. Finding that set… I couldn’t believe it.”
The Super Snake would later grace the pages of Colin Comer’s Million Dollar Muscle Cars before joining the curated collection of Shelby aficionado John Wickey.
From those unlikely ingredients emerged the only car Shelby ever fitted with a Le Mans 427 for public consumption - a single Mustang that roared once at full fury and left behind a legacy disproportionate to its lone production number.
There is only one Super Snake:And the Super Snake remains, to this day, the most intoxicating “what-if” Mustang ever built.
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Above: Those Goodyear Thunderbolt radial tires on the 1967 Shelby GT500 Super Snake are seriously narrow! A Ford GT40 Mk II 427 engine, built specifically for this car, made 540-horsepower and had a top speed of 170 miles per hour! The Super Snake was purpose-built for the Goodyear Thunderbolt tire test. For the test, the Super Snake drove 500 miles at an average of 142 MPH and retained 97% of the original tire tread on whitewall Goodyear Thunderbolt street tires. To distinguish the car, there's unique Guardsman Blue (mfg. code A-1630) LeMans stripes over Wimbledon White (code 4) paint. At the Mecum Spring Classic Auction of 2013, the Super Snake sold for $1.3 million! At the Mecum Kissimmee, Florida auction in January 2019, the Super Snake sold for $2.2 million! The prototype first sold in August 1967 for $5,000! The Shelby Mustang GT500 Super Snake images were supplied courtesy of Mecum Auctions.