Description
With a successful racing career, including a Le Mans win in 1959(!), the Texan Carroll Shelby was clearly impressed by numerous European sports cars, albeit less so by the reliability of their engines. So, in 1962, at the Los Angeles International airport “Shelby Automotive Inc” was formed with the aim of building sports cars with Ford V8 engines. Based on the English AC roadsters, the legendary Shelby Cobra made its raucous entrance and proved itself a reliable and successful racer for a number of years. From 1965, based on the then newly presented Ford Mustang, the Shelby GT350, initially only available as a fastback, was presented, followed, in 1966, by a cabriolet and, in 1967, by the new GT500 with its monstrous 7 litre V8 engine. At the end of 1967 Shelby lost the lease for his factory in Los Angeles necessitating a move to Ionia in Michigan where the factory was controlled by the Ford Motor Company. Our Shelby with its number 01939 stems from the Michigan plant and was ordered in December 1967 by the Ford agency Hemphill McCombs in San Antonio/ Texas. It was completed on the 5th February 1968 and invoiced on the 23rd February of the same year. The history of the rare Coupé is not known but apparently it was restored to its original specification in the USA a number of years ago before being imported into Switzerland probably in 2016. Since 2022 the Shelby has been in the vendors collection and spend most of its time in a heated storage. The rare GT350 fastback - only 528 coupe's left the works with the five litre V8 engine and a 4 speed manual gearbox - is in very good condition and will be sold with a Marti report, a copy of the delivery invoice as well as the last Veteran MOT from October 2024 to a new American muscle car enthusiast.
