King of the Road, Twice

Ford has called a car the King of the Road exactly twice. The first time was 1968. The second time was forty years later, in 2008, when Ford revived the Shelby GT500KR nameplate as a tribute to the original. That is the entire list. No other Mustang, in any decade, has worn the name.

The 1968 KR arrived mid-model-year, the last Shelby actually assembled by Shelby American before Ford brought production in-house for 1969. It landed on top of an already-serious GT500 with Ford's 428 Cobra Jet V8 underneath, and the KR badge — King of the Road — was Shelby's way of saying this was the one to have. It was, briefly, the fastest production Mustang Ford had built.

This example carries a Marti Report confirming it as a genuine GT500KR, not a clone built up from a lesser car after the fact — a distinction that matters enormously in this segment, where the badge has been added to far more cars than Shelby ever built. It came out of Florida well-worn, the way real drivers tend to be, and has since been refined rather than restored: the upgrades are the kind you don't see, chosen to make it a stronger, more confident car to drive without disturbing the way it looks or reads as a period-correct 1968 Shelby. It has spent most of its recent life stored indoors and has been shown twice.

There will be more Mustangs. There will not be another King of the Road for a long time — Ford has made sure of that.