Classic American Muscle with a 'Marti Report'.

1969 was, effectively, the final year for the Shelby Mustang.

By now assembly had shifted to Michigan from California where it was contracted out to the A.O.Smith Corporation.

Smith, an established Motor City contractor, had brought a level of serious manufacturing skill, supplier management, procedure, and standards never seen at Shelby’s facility where LAX met the vibrant (and sometimes extreme) subculture of Venice, California.

The 1969 Shelby Mustang was drastically different visually from the standard Mustangs, with a completely different nose and grille, a wide rectangular opening with blacked-out grille flanked by 7” headlights and with Shelby’s characteristic driving lights now smaller rectangular pieces below the attractive bumper.

The special Shelby bonnet had five ducts, three NACA-style surface ducts to supply cold air directly to the engine air intake and two extractors at the back of the bonnet relieving under-bonnet pre...