Pair of Shelby Mustangs Discovered Incredibly Well-preserved in Dust
Shelby GT500 and GT500 KR combo might just be the nicest barn finds we’ve seen to date.
While it seems like we come across some amazing barn find on a weekly basis, most of them are what you’d call worse for wear. Rarely do we see any notable muscle car emerge from storage in great shape. And that’s to be expected for something that’s been sitting around, getting eaten by mice for decades. But when Classic Cars of Sarasota unearthed a pair of Shelby Mustangs recently, they were astounded to find them in pretty amazing shape.
Better still, both cars are incredibly rare and valuable finds. The first, a Raven Black GT500, one of just six built with its combination of options. The other, a highly-desirable 1968 Shelby GT500 KR. Classic Cars of Sarasota found both cars in the same urban barn, owned by the same man. Apparently, the previous owner purchased both of them back in 1980 while he was living in Colorado.
Sadly, the man fell sick seven years later and was no longer able to drive the Shelby Mustangs. Thus, he parked them in the garage in 1987. In 2002, he moved them to a more permanent storage, where they’ve been ever since. All it took to get these machines roadworthy again, save for a good cleaning, was some fresh gas, new gas tanks, and new batteries.
The Raven Black GT500 has already been sold to a private party for an undisclosed sum of over $100,000, according to Daily Mail. The lime Shelby GT500 KR, however, is currently up for grabs on eBay with a buy it now price of $135,000. Incredibly, that car’s original paint still looks fantastic, and it’s got only 12k miles on the odometer.
“I’ve been doing this for 30 years and found some nice stuff in garages, but never two Shelbys and especially not a KR,” Classic Cars of Sarasota told Daily Mail. “The KR is extremely rare to find especially with original paint. The car runs, drives and everything works, even the air conditioning. Believe it or not the dust was so thick it preserved the paint and kept it nice. Later we gave it a great scrubbing. The reason the former owner sold them was because he is 87-years-old and wants the money donated to charity. He has no family or kin, never married nor had children. These were cars he always wanted, they were him and his brother’s dream cars.”
An incredible find, indeed. And proof that there are still plenty of amazing Shelby Mustangs still out there waiting to be discovered!