The fourth year for the Shelby Mustangs was 1968. The lease was up on the Los Angeles airport facilities. Obtaining quality fiberglass was problem and more volume was going to be needed. Sales of the ’68 cars was expected to be high enough to warrant a larger and more efficient production line. John Kerr who was a Ford guy became the General Manager at Shelby American. He knew of a company near Ford in Michigan that just had just lost their contract with Chevy for building Corvettes. This company had the production facilities to handle the expected sales and they could offer high quality fiberglass. A deal was made to move the production to AO Smith in Ionia MI.
The cars were shipped as Mustang GT’s just like the 1967 cars. This year a convertible was going to be offered. The Mustang GT cars got the Shelby touch with some modifications. The front end and rear tail cap were fiberglass. Roll bar welded to the floor like the ’67’s had. One other big change was mid year when Ford introduced the 428 Cobra Jet engine, Shelby used that engine in the GT 500 KRs.
I have a stand alone 1968 Shelby Cobra web page I put together for my sister about my personal GT350. So these links are to those pages. So you will be leaving TheShelbyCars.com.
Table of Contents
- Main landing page of 1968ShelbyCobra.com
- The 1968 Shelby Cobra Mustang story – the bigger story, what was going on with Shelby American. Why the move to Michigan?
- My GT 350 – this link is to info about my personal 1968 Shelby Cobra (Mustang)
- The 1968 GT 350 – about the small block 302 cars
- The 1968 GT 500 – the ealry ’68 big block cars powered by the same engine used in 1967. The Police Interceptor 428 engine with two-four barrel carbs. Awesome.
- The 1968 GT500 KR – Ford introduces the 68 1/2 Cobra Jet 428 engine. Basically a 428 block with some 427 parts. Shelby put it in his big block car, did more mods to the suspension and called it GT 500 KR for King of the Road.
- 1968 Specifications – table that shows the different specs for the 1968 cars
- Serial Numbers, VIN and Production
- 1968 Shelby Cobra Ads