Ford Mustang GT500 Super Snake

The first Shelby Super Snake was a 600-horsepower one-off built to promote Goodyear tires, and Ford turned down the chance to put it into production. Four decades later, Shelby brought the name back as a real conversion program, and this Las Vegas-built GT500 is one of the results. Here is the story behind the badge.

The original Super Snake almost never existed at all. Carroll Shelby built it as a one-off favor for Goodyear, chasing a tire promotion rather than a production car, and when Ford took a look at what it would cost to build, they said no thanks. That prototype ended up sitting on a showroom floor before two airline pilots bought it for a fraction of what it cost to create. Forty years later, Shelby brought the name back for good, and this Las Vegas-built car carries that legacy forward. What actually happened to the original, and what does earning the Super Snake badge take today?

Built to Chase a Tire, Not a Sales Target

The whole thing started in 1967 when Goodyear asked Carroll Shelby to help promote its new Thunderbolt tire, and Shelby’s chief engineer Fred Goodell answered by tearing into a white GT500, chassis number 00544, and rebuilding it around a 427 racing engine. This wasn’t a mild upgrade, it got aluminum heads, an aluminum water pump, a forged crank, Le Mans-spec rods, and the same “bundle of snakes” exhaust system used on the GT40 Mk II, all built to survive sustained 6,000 RPM running.

⚑ Featured Gear

Start Car Conversations →

As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

170 MPH and a Pass From Ford

Out on Goodyear’s high-speed test track near San Angelo, Texas, it hit 170 miles per hour, producing around 600 horsepower. Shelby pitched it to Ford as a possible production model instead of the 428-powered GT500s already on sale, but Ford passed, and only that one prototype was ever built.

The Nameplate That Wouldn’t Stay Dead

Shelby revived the Super Snake name in 2007 for the 40th anniversary of the original, this time as a factory-supported conversion program rather than a one-off. Owners of 2007-2009 GT500s could bring their cars to Shelby for the treatment, choosing from supercharger options along with upgraded exhaust, intake, and drivetrain components to push output well beyond stock. That’s the program this particular Las Vegas-converted car belongs to, a genuine Shelby American build carrying real engine, suspension, interior, and badging work rather than a dealer-lot decal package. It’s a direct descendant of a car Ford never wanted to build in the first place.

The Modern Shelby GT500 That Makes This Build Possible

None of this happens without the factory Shelby GT500 as a starting point. Ford revived the GT500 name for the 2007 model year, pairing a supercharged 5.4-liter V8 with a six-speed manual in a Mustang built specifically to carry Shelby’s blessing. That factory car already outran anything else in the Mustang lineup at the time, which is exactly why Shelby American picked it as the platform for reviving the Super Snake conversion. Without a factory car built with genuine performance credibility, the whole modern Super Snake program would have nothing to build from.

What a Genuine Shelby American Conversion Actually Touches

A real Super Snake build goes well past a supercharger and a decal package. Shelby American’s shops typically rework the intake and exhaust as a matched system, retune the engine management to handle the added boost safely, and upgrade suspension components so the chassis can actually use the extra power instead of just spinning the tires. Interior touches and unique badging come last, marking the car as a documented Shelby build rather than a dealer add-on. That’s the difference between a Super Snake and a Mustang wearing a Super Snake sticker.

Carroll Shelby’s Long Run of Turning Fast Cars Faster

Carroll Shelby spent decades building a reputation for taking an already-quick car and finding more in it, starting with the AC Cobra in the early 1960s and continuing through the original GT350 and GT500 Mustangs later that decade. The Super Snake was never a one-off idea in his career, it was consistent with everything else he built: take a platform with real bones, strip out anything holding it back, and push the number on the dyno sheet as far as the chassis could reasonably handle.

Why Documentation Matters More on a Shelby Than Almost Any Other Car

Shelby American has long assigned serial numbers to its genuine builds, a practice that traces back to the original Cobra and GT350/GT500 production runs. That paperwork trail matters enormously in the collector market, because it’s the difference between a certified Shelby American conversion and a car that merely looks the part. Buyers shopping for a Super Snake specifically seek out that documentation, since it’s what separates a genuine collectible from a well-modified Mustang with similar power on paper.

The Super Snake Name Has Kept Climbing Ever Since

Shelby American didn’t stop building Super Snakes after the 40th-anniversary revival. The company has continued offering Super Snake packages on newer generations of the Mustang GT500 and GT, each time pushing the ceiling higher as Ford’s own factory outputs have climbed. It’s become less a single product and more an ongoing tradition, one where Shelby keeps proving there’s still room above whatever Ford ships from the factory floor.

Where a Car Like This Lands in Mustang Collector Culture

A documented Shelby American Super Snake occupies a strange middle ground at car shows and auctions: not a numbers-matching factory original, but not an anonymous aftermarket build either. It carries a lineage straight back to a program Carroll Shelby personally started, built on a factory car Ford was already proud of. For collectors chasing that specific mix of pedigree and raw output, a genuine Super Snake like this Las Vegas-built GT500 checks boxes a stock car simply can’t.

How Shelby American’s Las Vegas Facility Fits Into the Bigger Picture

Shelby American’s Las Vegas facility handles far more than one-off Super Snake conversions, it’s the same operation that builds and certifies a range of Shelby-badged Mustangs sold through dealers across the country. Having a dedicated factory-adjacent shop rather than a scattered network of independent tuners is part of why Shelby American conversions carry more credibility than a typical aftermarket build, since every car passes through the same quality process regardless of which dealer ultimately sells it. That consistency is exactly what buyers are paying for when they choose a documented Super Snake over a comparable independent build.

Share your thoughts in the comments below.

Republished by Blog Post Promoter