Not sure of the specific year or exact details, but sometime in the early 70's when Carrol Shelby and Ford parted ways and the racing operations were disbanded, Shelby had a garage sale and dumped all sorts of Mustangs, Cobras, and GT40's for peanuts. I recall reading that a number of these cars had serious racing pedigrees, perhaps even significant winners from LeMans, Sebring, etc., and they typically sold in the $5000 range IIRC.

Nowadays, the occasional barn find or survivor 289 Cobra without a racing pedigree is fetching almost a million. And I saw an episode of Legendary Motor Cars where a restored '66 GT40 street version, again no provenance, was going for over $3,000,000.

Like Bogey said in The Maltese Falcon, it's the stuff that dreams are made of.

 

Yeah this was an amazing weekend to sit on the couch... and drool.

 

Yeah but the Gulf Livery scheme one is still the best.

 

First Ford Shelby GT350R Mustang Sells for a Lot of Money





This past weekend, Ford auctioned off an all-new Shelby GT350R Mustang, VIN #001, to benefit the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation.


Read the rest on the TheMustangSource.com homepage. >>

 

Somebody told me it was white?

 

Yes the Mustang they pulled on stage at Barrett Jackson was white with blue stripes. I think that was just for show, however, as the actual car in question has yet to be put together as far as I know.

I do recall that about half way through the bidding the CEO for Ford informed the crowd that whoever won the car would be brought to Ford World Headquarters in Detroit where he would present them with the keys. So that tells us that the car on stage was not the actual GT 350 in question.

Also on a personal note, if it were me, going to Detroit to get the keys would not be an incentive. Detroit is not somewhere I ever want to go, period. For a million dollars Ford should have Jessica Biel present the keys in the lobby of Bellagio's in Vegas. In a bikini no less. lol

 

I had read somewhere (maybe on TMS?) that the winning bidder would be able to select color and options. A couple of weeks ago someone posted a pic of a GT350 being loaded on an enclosed trailer at Shelby American in Las Vegas. I'm willing to bet that it was the prototype headed to Scottsdale.

 

[QUOTE=3point7;6889849]Yes the Mustang they pulled on stage at Barrett Jackson was white with blue stripes. I think that was just for show, however, as the actual car in question has yet to be put together as far as I know.

I do recall that about half way through the bidding the CEO for Ford informed the crowd that whoever won the car would be brought to Ford World Headquarters in Detroit where he would present them with the keys. So that tells us that the car on stage was not the actual GT 350 in question.

The White GT350 with blue stripes that was on display at the BJ auction and on the stage during charity bidding was unit "VP2 001" with the VIN being 1FA6P8CF6F5299368.


All VP, TT, PP and MP cars will have VIN's that now start with the 299 series whereas prior years for the Mustang model all preproduction units started with a 199 series.


This being a "Variable Prototype" vehicle it would not be the vehicle that will be presented to the winning bidder and an actual production model will be presented to the winning bidder once production has been started.


All past "VP" cars have always been destroyed once they have served their purpose I and suggest that "VP2 001" will unfortunately meet the same fate down the road.

 

Senses a market top? Or health issues?

 

I'm concerned he senses another market crash on the horizon. :-/

 

It still doesn't explain his reason for selling the entire collection though