A couple of years ago I had the chance to spend a few minutes talking to retired Ford designer Gale Halderman. Among the things I asked him was whether the '69 Shelby design came primarily from Shelby or from Ford. He said 10% Shelby, 90% Ford. I asked if he could name anything specifically that came from Shelby, and he said "primarily logos and such." I mentioned that Larry Shinoda is generally credited with the design of the Boss Mustangs and Cougar Eliminator, and I asked if there was anyone that deserved similar credit for the '69 GT350 and GT500. He said no, it was very much a team effort with a lot of people contributing. "But I was responsible for the team!" I suspect he was being overly modest, based on some of his sketches.
Many of the signature design features, such as the extended front fenders and grill shape, front fender vents and central exhaust are present in his work.
I wish I'd had a way to record our chat, and of course I thought of many more questions later on, but I still found his responses most interesting.
Note: Sketches and captions (I have no idea why they're the same) from his book "Mustang by Design."
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