Spotted these on Ebay today.

I know that Eleanors have a way of dividing the Mustang community. You either love them or hate them. I didn't like Eleanor when it first came out, but it quickly grew on me. If I won the Lotto today, it would be the first thing I bought.

These cars have the added distinction of being even more controversial. These two are Shelby licensed continuation cars, and are included in the Shelby registry as real Shelbys. Head over to the SAAC forums to see what original Shelby car owners think about continuation Shelbys - they'll have some choice words on the subject ...

And as if that weren't enough, these continuation Shelbys were made by Unique Performance. These guys ended up discovering that making high quality licensed retromod Shelbys was more expensive and harder than they thought. Their ran out of money to build their cars (let alone develop them to get rid of bugs) and ended up using deposits from new customers to cover the costs of building previous cars. Customers were waiting well over a year to get a car that had barely even been started to get built. Lawsuits started, and the end was near for UP. Bad business practices all round at UP, until eventually they were caught messing with the VIN tags by the police. Some of the unfinished cars were completed by 2 other mod shops, and still recognized as official Shelbys.

Of the 475 Eleanors they planned to build, I think they finished ~100 eleanors and ~24 Super Snakes. I also think they finished ~25 G.T.350SR cars.

If you wanted an Eleanor that you could legitimately call a Shelby, this was the only way to go. Now the closest you can come is the G.T.500CR that Classic Recreations builds. These are also official Shelbys and included in the registry.

Looking at the pics posted in the auction, these cars really look spectacular! Immaculate, muscular and beautiful. You may be one of those that hate these cars, but the work that went into them should be appreciated. Too bad they never sorted them out properly. Revved Auto Concepts (run by former employees of UP) specializes in getting these cars street worthy.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/Iconi...orcev4exp=true

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/1965-...orcev4exp=true

 

G.T.500E with performance package:

 

G.T.350SR 40th anniversary:

 

Someone needs to write a book about all the continuation Shelbys.

Are these all the continuation Shelbys?

- G.T.350 convertibles from Shelby themselves (I think)
- CSX4000 Cobras from Shelby themselves
- G.T.500E, Super Snakes, G.T.350SR and G.T.500SR from Unique Performance
- Shelby Terlingua by Bill Neale
- G.T.500Cr and G.T.350CR by Classic Recreations
- G.T.500SE and G.T.350SR by Riley Performance Motorcars and Kustom Classics

Any others?

 

Looked through all the ebay pics and that 350 is a BAMF.