The Ford Mustang sports coupe was first launched in 1964, it was an immediate success however Ford knew the car had serious potential and only a year after its launch, ace performance specialist Carroll Shelby was asked to step in and turn the pony car into a car with some serious muscle, he succeeded by making it a Classic of its kind.

With a lot of cars it is natural to have high expectations, owners want to make the first model of their car to be a signature mark and ultimately be a success, when it meets every ones expectations it has a special significance.

The 1965 Shelby Mustang was a true high performance Mustang and had the Shelby name just to leave its mark, not much was done to the Shelby to make it distinctly different to the mustang, all of the usual Mustang emblems were removed apart from a Mustang horse badge which was on the left side of the grill opening. The stock petrol mustang cap was used and some of the cars came with a GT350 emblem on the left side of the tail light panel. The most distinctive visual characteristic of the Shelby was the wide blue racing stripes that ran along the length of the car, these stripes were optional and were put on at the dealers. The only other visual difference was the glass fibre bonnet, which incorporated a functional scoop. The engine used on the Shelby was a modified version of Fords 4.7 Litre, V8 High Performance Engine, as it stood this engine produced 271bhp at 6000rpm, after further modifications by Shelby the car was capable of 306bhp at 6000rpm, 0-60 in 6.3 seconds and a top speed of over 120mph. Shelby wanted the Mustang to handle as well as it accelerated, which he succeeded in doing – even today the Shelby Mustang is considered to be a legend and therefore it is still a Classic Car of its time.