1965 Shelby Mustang GT-350

Ford celebrated the legendary Mustang's first birthday on April 17, 1965 by introducing the 'GT Equipment Group' package that added the Hi-Po 289 cubic inch, 271bhp V8 engine, front disc brakes, 5-dial instrument cluster, fog lamps, dual exhausts, special badging and sportier suspension.

The Mustang's early transformation into a GT was a move that would create a huge bank of parts, styling ideas, appearance items, paint schemes, mechanical components, wheels, race bits, spoilers and cabin items that would keep the Australian Falcon GT at the forefront of local high performance models.

The really big news, however, was the launch of the Shelby GT-350 Mustang Fastback in January. The first batch of these Shelby-American enhanced vehicles were all painted white with wide blue racing stripes from front to rear, a paint scheme familiar to local Cobra hardtop owners. Other colours would follow later. The galloping horse grille badge was replaced with a tri-colour one on the left side of the grille. The interior was all black with a 3-spoke wood-rimmed steering wheel and a central dash-mounted instrument pod. On the racetrack, it would win the national title in its class, three years in a row.

Along the rocker panels, there were GT stripes featuring G.T. 350 designation behind the front wheel arch, just like the ones that would appear on Australia's first Falcon GT. Local variations of the GT-350's five spoke alloy wheels, bonnet scoop and bonnet-locking pins would also appear on Australian Falcon GTs. Ford Australia made no secret of its local Falcon's Mustang heritage introducing the new XR series in 1966 as Mustang Bred, which in hindsight, made a GT version inevitable.