Average Joe Restoration

Consignment # 39-1106
VIN:   BD200F60A00016

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In 1964, the Ford Motor Corporation fired the first shot in the Pony Car Wars, introducing an adaptation of their popular compact Falcon that would change the American car market and even stood as a symbol of a revolutionary decade: the Mustang. Itself a compact sporty car offered at an attractive price and aimed at youthful starting car buyers, the Mustang immediately made a big impression and it sold very well; the original Mustang still holds the record for first-year new-model sales of an astounding 680,989 units between April 1964 and August 1965, when it was replaced by the 1966 model.

From early days, Ford's division chief Lee Iacocca still felt that the Mustang's image needed a boost, so he contacted former racecar driver and nascent sports car manufacturer Carroll Shelby, famous for the iconic Ford powered AC Shelby Cobra and also involved in Ford's GT40 racing car project. Shelby was asked to modify the Mustang in a way so it could win the Sports Car Club of America's national B-Production Championship Series. And so, early in 1965, a new competition breed of Mustangs came into life; finished at the Shelby-American shop in Los Angeles and topped off with Shelby badges and trademarks like the Cobra’s own logo and named the Shelby GT-350, the designation that would go on all small-block Shelby Mustangs until 1970.

While many muscle car enthusiasts would keep going with the performance bug and opt for Shelby’s GT-500 big block, the choice of SCCA and Club racers alike in the day up to today was almost invariably the lighter and peppier GT-350. Like its larger cousin, the car was available from 1968 until the end of production in 1970 as a fastback or a convertible. Naturally the fixed roof car offered greater stability with the car’s solid build quality and this example is no exception to that rule. While never raced or used in any sort of competition, the 1968 Shelby GT-350 before you exhibits all the same qualities that made the car a consistent hit in its day. Finished in brilliant Candyapple Red with Black Décor bucket seats, it remains the same 302-4V configuration with no air conditioning yet extra-cooling package, wheel well moldings, sport deck rear seat, power steering, power front disc brakes, tachometer and trip odometer, a heavy duty battery and more were ordered as options for its original retail sale. Naturally, the four-speed manual transmission with a 3.89:1 rear axle were selected as documented with the above in a Deluxe Marti Report on the car.

Just one of 1,053 GT-350s for all of 1968 and a very rare one of 67 in this paint and trim combination oft duplicated but infrequently original, the example of the GT-350 seen here is undoubtedly rare and very correctly restored to better than new condition.