The Ford Shelby GT500KR was unveiled at the New York International Auto Show on Wednesday. (Keith Bedford/Reuters)The performance guru Carroll Shelby introduced, or rather reintroduced, the King of the Road Mustang at the 2007 New York auto show. Shelby introduced the original King of the Road model in 1967 — at New York show.
The GT500KR, or just KR, was the most powerful Mustang when it was first introduced back then, and it sold in limited quantities; it is a valued and sought-after six-figure collectible today. The limited (to 500 initially) edition 2008 model introduced here ups the ante in its claim as the most powerful Mustang ever, with 540 horsepower from a supercharged 5.4-liter V-8.
Shelby said the King of the Road designation came about quite suddenly in 1967, when he was told by a manager at Ford that Chevrolet planned to announce a King of the Road Corvette within a matter of weeks. Shelby immediately called his attorney and had him find out whether the King of the Road name had been trademarked. Turns out Chevy had dropped the ball on that little detail.
“So we had it trademarked by the next morning,” Shelby said. “We had all the GT500’s we had in stock rebadged as GT500KR’s, and within two weeks we had 50 of them ready to go.”
Whatever happened to those King of the Road Corvettes?
