2006GT500

Are you guys going to be selling individual body panels or just conversion cars? I'm interested to see what your KR is going to look like. Some build up pics of your cars would be appreciated so that we can get a better idea of what parts are actually going on the car.

retrobuilt

Here are some pics with the new hood...Tony

retrobuilt

These are turn key cars because they are steel conversions, the fenders, doors and quarters are in the die process now, the conversion is a bit involved. Nothing on our cars will fit a conventional mustang.
The KR is really cool, we of course start with a Shelby 500 base, refit the sheetmetal and utilize the 68 shelby front end components, modify, stretch and fab those pieces to work on the new chassis. The Shelby tailpanel is one of it's best features as we actually created the full sequential taillights for the car, they start on the trunk lid and continue out as original Shelby's did. The chrome bumpers are also a nice touch. The KR model is pushing 600 HP Dyno'd at the rear wheels. They won't let me post any pics of these cars until the legal work is done..blah, blah, blah. So, it will be a couple weeks unless they let me sneek one in. 5.0 Magazine is covering these cars as they come out so you can see them there also. Thanks again, Tony

2006GT500

So none of the pieces you guys are using will be available for individual purchase? I'd really be interested in doing GT500 tail lights on an S197 if they were made correctly. I really look forward to seeing the KR. I'm suprised you guys are going to use S197 GT500's to make your KR's. I personally wouldn't hack up a GT500, but you might have someone with some serious money interested. Any idea on what these conversion cars are going to cost?

retrobuilt

Your correct, no parts will be available aftermarket at least for a while.
In order to market the car as a Shelby we have to use a Shelby for legal reasons, this is the upper end of the spectrum for these cars. The KR's will be over 100K with all the upgrades, base models are in the 70's. We can only build so many of these as they are labor intensive, so our market will be somewhat specialized and limited. We feel that by producing a steel component car the added value is there. It's definitely not the car for everyone, T

2006GT500

Well you pretty much take out most of the Mustang community that's for sure. Oh well cool fab work. Sucks you guys aren't using a different target market.

retrobuilt

Yeh, there is just no way to steel fab a car like this, pay for tooling and stampings, cover labor etc. and keep the price low. Unfortunately the costs associated are huge, the legal work on this alone was almost as much as the car cost to build. T

2006GT500

Why not do urethane parts?

retrobuilt

The tooling cost is comparable for urethane parts. We don't want to produce anything "add-on", we want to produce a product that will last and not cause us a bunch of headaches a couple years down the road with plastics for body panels. Most of our feedback has been to do the car in steel...Thanks, T

Deric

I for one love the 67/68 bodystyle which is why I love the S197 so much. I am a big fan of the Eleanor cars and I was building one at one time. Anyway - I love the rear end treatment of this car. The frontend looks too conflicting however. The Shelby Gt350R / Eleanor influenced frontend looks too angled. It does look better lowered and with the front valance longer (see attachment). If the rear panel was ever available I could see you selling several of those. They are so reminisent of the 67/68 panel and flow well with the retro theme. I think there is also a market for the modern retro mustangs. I mean look at the SN65, if that was available there would be buyers for that. I think it gets too busy if you mix the modern and retro lines externally. You can have updated modern pieces based off of their retro counterparts but when you blend both sometimes they conflict. The fab work your company has done is amazing and I'm not trying to downplay that. I think it needs a bit more refining on the front is all.

Deric

Also as already mentioned blacking the panel out would look killer as well.

retrobuilt

Yup, that tailpanel is available in black and black and silver edge. The hood has changed as pictured in the earlier post. I like what you did with the nose, we left it short for a reason so the actual production cars will be lower, thanks for the input, Tony

AndrewM

i saw that car at a show a couple weeks ago... looks so awesome! it looks 100 times better in person.

2006GT500

That tail panel looks sweet.

Well where are the pics Andrew?