BEFORE THE KING,
THERE WAS CARROLL.

1962 · The Cobra begins

Shelby American began operating in Venice, California, in 1962. The Cobra combined an AC roadster with Ford V8 power. It established the name before Shelby’s Mustang program arrived. Shelby Racing timeline ↗

1965 · The Mustang becomes a Shelby

The GT350 brought Shelby’s performance approach to the Mustang. The GT500 followed for 1967 with big-block power. The Cobra, the Ford GT racing program and the Shelby Mustang were distinct cars and programs; a shared name does not make their histories interchangeable. Shelby American history ↗

1968 · King of the Road

The GT500KR introduced the King of the Road name in 1968 with the 428 Cobra Jet V8. Its advertised rating was 335 horsepower. For a buyer today, the badge is the beginning of the investigation: chassis identity, factory records, installed components and later modifications each need their own evidence. Shelby American on the original KR ↗

1,571 produced. One record per chassis.

KR68 uses a production baseline of 1,571 cars: 1,053 fastbacks and 518 convertibles. The counter currently represents 37 distinct chassis documented in our public-source collection, not 37 newly discovered cars or independently authenticated survivors. The remaining 1534 have not yet been documented here. They are not all known to survive. Production reference ↗

Part of a larger research community

SAAC, the official Shelby registry and specialist researchers have documented these cars for decades. KR68 brings linked public records together in an accessible format. It does not replace their archives, claim exclusive discoveries or certify authenticity.