And it’s finally seen the light of day once more…
For almost 40 long years, a beautiful 1967 Shelby GT500 sat undisturbed in a garage until the Shelby Research Group recently pulled it out. The classic American muscle car hadn’t seen the light of day for decades, however once it was outside it looked far better than feared.
Watch a Mustang take out a crowd in Florida here.
There’s a story behind this Shelby and why it’s sat. The owner, Reggie, said it belonged to his brother-in-law since the late 70s or early 80s. That brother-in-law passed away recently, but for almost four decades the car he loved sat in Reggie’s garage with clutter covering it up. Unfortunately, without the title in hand the family is having a difficult time transferring ownership legally to the son.
Complicating things further, Reggie had a certified automotive appraiser come to the house, but there were problems. The appraiser couldn’t certify that the car was a genuine Shelby, only that it came from a Ford factory. Also, the door tag doesn’t match the car, so it was probably a replacement door from a Dearborn-built coupe instead of a San Jose-built fastback.
As you probably already know, 1967 was the first model year for the GT500. While the GT350 started showing what could be done with a “secretary’s car” starting in 1965, it wasn’t until Ford enlarged the pony car enough for 1967 that it could hold a big-block V8 that the GT500 was born.
People were excited about the Shelby Mustangs, in part because Carroll Shelby had proven himself to be one of the best around. After all, the Cobras were legendary on the road and track, plus Shelby was able to turn Ford’s fortunes in the 1966 24 Hours of Le Mans. The Trans-Am series provided proof that the Shelby-built Mustangs were also the real deal, so winning races translated to strong demand for the hopped-up pony cars.
