The world’s largest historically Shelby Mustang sold for $ 3.5 million!
As expected, the 1965 Shelby GT350R prototype auctioned off by Mecum on Friday broke the record for the most expensive Mustang ever sold. Known as the “Flying Mustang”, this 1965 Shelby Mustang was brimming with provenance with the title of the first ever Shelby Mustang competition ever to be held, the first Shelby Mustang to compete and the first Shelby Mustang to win. As such, it is no wonder that the “historically most important Shelby Mustang in the world” has made $ 3.5 million, which is $ 100,000 more than what Bullitt sold earlier in the year.
Image credit: Mecum Auctions
This Mustang was created to be the car of the American factory racing team Shelby, as well as a test mule for the production development Shelby GT350R, and was driven, competed and tested by legendary names such as Ken Miles, Bob Bondurant and Peter Brock. This race car had more than 10 first places in its first year of racing, including its first start on February 14, 1965 at Green Valley Raceway with Ken Miles behind the wheel.
In March 1966, Shelby American sold this car to Ford Performance engineer Bill Clawson for $ 4,000 who continued to compete with the car, and after an engine failure, transplanted a race spec Ford GT40 experimental engine. Four years later, Clawson then sold the car to a buyer in Mexico, where it ran for another two years before it was painted gray and parked until 1989. It changed hands a few more times after that, but it wasn’t until 2014 when this Legendary Mustang finally received the restoration it deserved. This car was exhibited at Pebble Beach and Amelia Island, and was exhibited at Ford’s world headquarters and at the 2016 Detroit Auto Show.
Unlike the circus surrounding the original Bullitt Mustang auction, which broke Mustang sales at $ 3.4 million in January, the auction for this Shelby Mustang was surprisingly discreet. The auctioneer hopefully started bidding for $ 5 million, but the car didn’t get its first bite until $ 1 million. From there, bidders slowly raised the price to a record-breaking hammer price of $ 3.5 million, resulting in a total price of $ 3.85 million after buyer’s fees.
Watch the action here:
