GT350 (Shelby Mustang GT350)

Homologation, Not Marketing Ford had a Mustang that sold in enormous numbers and won nothing. Lee Iacocca's remedy was to ask Carroll Shelby whether the car could be given a competition image, and the answer took the shape of an SCCA B-Production homologation programme approved in August 1964. In late December Ford's San Jose plant shipped incomplete Wimbledon White K-code fastbacks to Shelby American's Venice shop, where they were rebuilt: lowered upper A-arm pivots, an export brace and Monte Carlo bar, over-ride traction bars, a Detroit Locker axle, glasspack side exhausts, a glassfibre bonnet, and the rear seat removed so the car could be registered as a two-seater. The engine gained an aluminium Cobra inlet, a Holley 715 and Tri-Y headers for a quoted 306 bhp. The class rules, not the customer, dictated the specification.

The R-Models and What They Won Alongside the street cars Shelby built a competition version, the R-model: caged, stripped, plexiglass-glazed, with the interior and most of the trim simply absent. Sources put the number at 34, 35 or 36. What is not in dispute is the result - the GT350 took the B-Production national championship three years running, which was precisely what Ford had paid for, and the R-models have since detached from the street-car market entirely.

Carryovers, Colours and a Fleet of Rental Racers For 1966 Shelby American bought 252 leftover 1965 K-code Mustangs to keep the line running through Ford's San Jose retooling shutdown. Those carryover cars, serials 6S001 to 6S252, wear 1966 bodywork over 1965 mechanicals and are the most sought-after of the year. The rest of 1966 saw the car softened: four extra colours, a fold-down rear seat, an automatic option, quarter windows in place of the extraction louvres, rear-exit exhaust. The defining event was Peyton Cramer's proposal to Hertz, which became an order of around a thousand GT350H rental cars, mostly Raven Black with gold stripes. Renters treated them as advertised, raced them at weekends and returned them with components missing.

Ford Takes the Pen The 1967 car was the first designed with Ford's involvement rather than around a rulebook. A glassfibre nose, bonnet, spoilered boot lid and functional brake ducts lengthened and softened it; the 289 stayed at 306 bhp but headers and straight-through silencers became options. It was outsold nearly two to one by the new big-block GT500. By mid-1967 Shelby American's quality and capacity problems, plus the loss of its airport lease, had persuaded Ford to move the work: in August 1967 it went to A.O. Smith at Ionia, Michigan, where matched-metal moulding finally produced glassfibre panels that fitted. The 1968 cars came part-built from Ford's Metuchen, New Jersey plant, wore Cobra badging, offered a convertible for the first time, and swapped the K-code 289 for a hydraulic-cammed 302 rated at 250 bhp.

The End, and the Cars That Were Not Built By 1969 the GT350 had a 351 Windsor, a three-scoop bonnet, imitation teak trim and a tape deck, and Shelby's involvement had thinned to a name; he asked Ford to end the agreement in the summer of 1969. That left unsold cars in stock and no 1970 model. Ford's answer was to re-serial them: the leading VIN digit changed from 9 to 0, new door and windscreen plates, revised distributors, a chin spoiler and two black bonnet stripes - carried out, every source agrees, under FBI supervision. How many cars were treated this way is not agreed.

The underlying car is a mid-1960s Ford unibody and it rusts where those rust. Overlapping lap joints trap moisture and salt, and specialists single out the shock towers and frame rails as the repairs hardest to put right and easiest to disguise; floors, door bottoms, boot lid and the surrounds of both screens follow. Water ingress at the windscreen is routine, usually thin replacement glass and poor-quality seals rather than a structural fault, though it becomes one if ignored. Brakes are the mechanical weak point: the original front discs and rear drums are undersized, which is why upgrades to 1967 Thunderbird front rotors and larger truck rear drums are so common on driven cars. Suspension is better than its reputation provided the original specification is respected; several reproduction parts use pressed-in rather than spot-welded ball joints and are a downgrade. On 1967 and 1968 cars the glassfibre is a maintenance item in itself, hand-fitted and wavy when new on the California-built cars. The 1965 cars have their own quirks: the early boot-mounted battery was abandoned mid-year after complaints of fumes, and Detroit Locker axles, while durable, are audible in a way that unsettles anyone expecting a normal differential.

Identity comes before condition here. The Shelby serial appears on a plate riveted to the inner wing, and the SAAC Shelby Registry carries a serial-by-serial history for every 1965, 1966 and 1967 car; a car whose registry entry does not match what is in front of you is a different proposition from one whose entry does. Check that the Ford VIN and the Shelby number agree with each other and with the title, and that the engine block number matches the chassis. On 1965-67 cars the T-10 case should be aluminium rather than cast iron, a quick and useful tell. Establish which sub-group the car belongs to, because the money follows the group: a carryover sits at serials 6S001 to 6S252; a Hertz car is worth less than an equivalent private-sale car of the same year; a documented period Paxton installation is worth having and a later retro-fit is not. On a 1970-titled car, look for the re-serialling paperwork and the changed plates rather than taking the VIN at face value. Structurally the priority areas are shock towers, frame rails, floors, door and boot bottoms and the metal around both screens; glassfibre repairs or heavy filler there are a reason to walk away.

As of August 2026 classic.com records a benchmark of roughly $331,500 for 1965-66 GT350s, average near $338,600, rising, with tracked results from about $68,300 for a 1966 car in August 2025 to $1,100,000 for a 1965 car in May 2026. The Hertz cars sit well below that: a benchmark of about $198,800 and an average near $192,600 as of August 2026, with a high of $462,000 at Scottsdale in January 2026. The Ford-built cars are cheaper again: as of August 2026 an average of roughly $162,500 for 1967-68 cars, topping out at $275,000 in May 2026, and a benchmark of about $103,300 with an average near $107,600 for 1969-70 cars, high of $187,000 in May 2026. Competition cars are a separate market: the GT350R benchmark stands at roughly $1,753,800 as of August 2026, with a 1965 car at $2,750,000 at Mecum in May 2026. Individual results follow the pattern: RM Sotheby's sold 5S137 for $500,000 at Monterey in August 2025 and the carryover 6S176 for $351,500 at Monterey in 2023, while the ceiling for a non-R 1965 street car was set by 5S039 at a $1 million hammer, $1.1 million including buyer's premium, at Mecum Indianapolis. Premium sits on top of hammer at these houses.