Here's one for you Ponyrider. When Carroll Shelby shoehorned an American Ford V8 into a British AC roadster in the early 1960s and called it Cobra, the straight-talkin’ Texan created much more than just a wickedly fast Corvette-crushing sports car – he also created a high-performance legend. The Shelby and Cobra names became inseparable and inexorably tied to the Ford Motor Company, which backed the Texan all the way as part of its global ‘Total Performance’ strategy. The year prior to Shelby’s Ferrari-smashing season in Europe, Ford launched its new Mustang in the USA. Keen to create a performance halo around its new ‘pony car’, Ford commissioned Shelby to build some high-performance versions aimed directly at the enthusiast for road and track use. In 1965, the Shelby Mustang was born, starting a high-performance heritage which has created some of the most revered muscle cars in automotive history. Arguably the world's greatest 'special vehicles' operation, in its early years at least.