All original two owner car and a real deal early 67′ Shelby GT500 4 speed! with the inboard lights and in the highly desirable Brittany blue metallic paint! And the famous 428 FE police interceptor big block engine. One of the best looking Shelby’s ever produced for sure.

This car was an original bar-find! With only 61000 original miles on the odometer. It was found by its second owner who found the car sitting in a barn still with its first owner, who purchased this rare beauty from new at Stewart Ford in Chicago Illinois, as is all noted in the Shelby registry that is present in our shop. The first owner had the car for well over 36! years but at some point, the car had some minor issues and was placed in his garage in the early seventies and stood there untouched for well over 30 years, until it was discovered in 2003 by the second owner who, after some long and hard negotiations was able to purchase the car and took it home.

It was still in very good condition and after removing several layers of dust ( see the pics of that below) he found that this car was more or less 100% factory original. He gave the car a minor restoration, a fresh new paint job and upgraded the engine and all the fluids and some other details and decided to not restore the car completely but just drive it as it was. He took the car to several car shows and at one of these events he met Carrol Shelby who was very pleased to see this car still being alive and so original. He autographed the sun visor ( see the below pictures as proof of that ), which was a very special event, to say the least, and of course, the handwriting is still present there today. At some point in late 2017, he decided to put the car up for sale and that’s how we found and got this great car and took it home with us to Europe.

Seeing the car was already repainted and had some other work already done, we felt the survivor aspect of the car was already lost and many details were getting really old and worn. So we decided, with respect for all its original peace’s to give the car a complete cosmetical and technical restoration and upgrade all other details of this unique and rare Shelby. Besides the paint ( which was still in very good condition and in the correct color ) we completely dismantled the car and started the restoration process.

Besides all the cosmetical details, some new wiring and interior restoration, mostwork was done to the car’s underside, the rebuild of the complete engine and transmission and all brakes and fuel system that were all rebuilt in our shop and everything on this amazing early 67 is in immaculate and original condition after more than 50 years !. So its a real and very original car.

Its also completely rust free and the body panels are all original and straight, damage free. A true icon so to speak. This is also when we found out that the Vin stamp on the transmission was still there ( in 1967 ONLY the 4- speed cars got a Vin stamp on the transmission !), and the engine appeared to be the original piece as well with correct date stamps and code’s and also the factory original intake and rare dual BJ/BK coded carburetors and correct exhaust manifolds also all still in place. You could understand that we were very pleased to find out that this car was indeed completely “numbers match”.

And although we have restored several customer Shelby’s as well as restored and sold some very rare Shelby’s in the past, we can honestly say that this car was one of the best and most original car’s we ever saw until now, or maybe will see ever again.

In this amazing Brittany blue metallic, which is a one year only! factory original color, which we feel is the best-looking color combination ever for any Shelby. Combined with its desirable 4-speed manual top loader transmission, and in its amazing undamaged original condition, this car is unique and very desirable, to say the least. It’s for sure one of the best looking and most wanted classic Muscle cars in the market today. Its also very rare that the car is not equipped with the so-called Shelby stripes, which many Shelby GT owners added to their cars because the felt it looked good, but in fact are NOT original to these car’s as Shelby never offered these stripes in their option packages.

As you might know, the term “Early Shelby” stands for the fact that the first batch of cars that were produced in late 1966 and early 1967 was equipped with some rare and special item’s that the later production models didn’t receive or were changed at the production line. Of all those changes the biggest eye-catchers are the highly desirable “inboard lights” in the centerpiece of the grill. On all later production models, these were placed “outward” because of problems with regulations of some States in the US.

A feature that just makes the car look more “aggressive” and cleaner, which is the reason why many owners of the later model cars that no longer had the inboard lights from the factory, still changed them back from out to inboard. Also, the side air scoops, that on this car are really functional and give extra cooling to the rear brake’s, was dropped on the later production models and the scoops were than only left there as a design feature. With this car being a true “Early ” production model it just makes it more desirable seeing it has these features original from the factory.

With around only 5% ! of all the GT500’s that were produced in 67′, came from the factory in this great color combination and with a manual 4-speed transmission. This combined with the fact that this car is a true “Early” production car and equipped with several special options, it’s estimated that its one of only around 4-5 cars ever produced !. So very rare indeed. And how many of these 5 cars produced have survived like this for more than 50 years? And are also still completely original and numbers match? Well, who knows but it won’t be many.

This means that besides the fact that any GT500 is already a very rare and exclusive car, this car is even more unique as maybe one or two of them are still in existence today The car also has Caroll Shelby’s signature on the sun visor and we have a picture that show’s him signing it in person! on a car show, how awesome is that! It is additional proof that this car is the real deal.

As you might now, Shelby GT’s also received a special Shelby Vin number beside’s the Vin number that Ford had given these cars when they were delivered at the Shelby plant. This means the 67 Cars have two numbers, a Ford Vin and the Shelby Vin. Something that on later cars (as of 1968) was no longer the case. The car also still carries its original Shelby. This car has all its correct and original Vin stamps still in place and even more rare, it has the original Shelby fender tag code tag still in place as were most restored cars have reproduction version of them installed. The original stamped Vin number is also to be found on the passenger side inner fender. Underneath the Shelby tag the car also still carries its original Ford Vin code there as well. It’s all proof of this cars original pedigree and rust free and damage free survival after more than 50 years.

In 1967 it was the last year for the true Shelby produced cars because as of the end of 1967, the production facility was closed and from then on all Shelby cars were produced in Ford’s own plants. This is one of the reasons why 67′ Shelby’s are wanted as many people see them as the last of the real Shelby designed and build cars. The fact that this is an Early production car were it also still has features that were canceled on the late 67 cars is an added bonus for most collectors or car fans.

Another thing that almost nobody knows, or at least don’t realize, is that the Pre ’67 Shelby’s weren’t Ford Mustangs but there, in fact, are real Shelby GT cars. Just like many other car brands that were named after there owners, like Ferrari and Porsche’s. So it’s not a Ford product although of course these cars were built and designed based on Mustang fastbacks. As of 1968 however, these cars were no longer produced by Carrol Shelby’s plant’s, but at Fords own facilities and the cars were as of then named Shelby Mustangs , or Ford Mustang Shelby’s this meant the end of a very special era as Shelby as an independent car brand stopped building there own cars.

Another fact is that in 1967 the only car that used the 428 FE Police interceptor engine was a SHELBY GT, as Ford didn’t offer them in any of there Mustangs until 1968 ! Which makes this GT500 even rarer as Carrol was the first ever to use the FE 428 Big block in a pony car. He also made changes to the engines for more performance such as a special intake with dual 2×4 carbs and other upgrades. And although ford underrated the 428FE with “only” 335 factory HP, the fact was that even without Carrol’s additions and upgrades, these engines made closer to 375hp easy! As was proven by many independent car magazines and tests done on several drag strips in the country.

But besides the HP ratings, which are nice for high-speed drives, the huge torque of these famous big block’s gave the Shelby 500 GT’s their real fame as unique cars that could be driven in any gear and RPM range and when you hit the throttle the would pull up hard and fast. And an additional great feature of that high torque was that these cars could also be perfect for easy cruises and long highway drives as power was available at any RPM range, against for instance the small-block equipped car’s who needed much higher rpm’s to feel there performance.

And if you add the fact that a 4-speed car made up to 30% more power at the rear wheels than an automatic car, because of power losses to drive the hydraulics in the automatic transmission, a 4-speed manual trans Shelby GT500 is one of the fastest and strongest Musclcars of its era. Also, a 4-speed manual trans car is just way more fun to drive because you can up or downshift it on any given any Rpm you like and choose, instead of the automatic trans doing it for you. This is also why 4-speed cars are normally more desirable and can cost up to 25-30%% more than any automatic car equipped with the same engine, options, and colors.

The reason why Ford rated these 428’s so low was that this way the could enter some race classes that didn’t allow factory HP ratings to be higher. It was also done to keep insurance costs down for there future owners. We believe that with the additions Shelby made to these engines, 400 hp would have been a much better and more realistic HP rating, but again the humungous torque was there true hidden secret. The FE428 police interceptor engine is legendary in its own kind.

As of1968, the 428′ big blocks were no longer exclusively for Shelby Mustangs only, but there were also available in all Mustang bodies Ford offered. This makes a 1967 Shelby GT 500 a very special breed of sports, race and muscle cars. And although the 67′ Shelby GT’s were no longer officially raced by Shelby’s own factory team, these cars were still built and designed as racetrack cars and many private teams used them for some serious use in all sorts of races and the had a very good reputation and up until today these 67 Shelby’s have real race pedigree and history.

Besides all that we personally feel that the 67 Shelby GT500’s are the most iconic and best-styled muscle cars of the 60’s and many car designers took parts and details of that car and used them in there own later car designs. The car was also the foundation and base car for the very popular Eleanor movie car’s designs with actor Nicholas Cage behind the wheel. And although a lot of people think that the Eleanor is a real and true car brand ( which it’s not..), the car is a GT500 based replica with some added design features and style elements all based on Carol’s GT500 production car. And although the Eleanor has its absolute strong points in design and its special feature, and has a huge share of fans, nothing beats a true and original factory build a classic iconic car like the real deal GT500 car we present to you here.

Finding these highly desirable Shelby cars, especially 4 speeds and the Early inboard grill lights cars with there functional side scoops in there original rust free, undamaged condition and equipped with there original drive trains has become a real challenge, if not impossible. Finding one that still carries almost all of its factory original peace’s, details and driveline is a needle in a haystack. But we managed to hunt one down and were very proud to be able to offer this car to our clients soon and for a very interesting price.

The car we present to you here is now in Concours condition and highly detailed and correct as you can see on the pictures and the video. But the car wasn’t only restored in our shop to look good or as a trailer queen that’s only good to shine and show, no sir!, this Shelby was also completely restored in all technical aspects of the car and the complete drivetrain, and steering and suspension, as well as the brake system rebuilt with driving in mind.

More than 150k was invested in its restoration alone and if your looking for one of the best and most rare Shelby’s in the market today, that’s priced very attractively and can also be driven and enjoyed, well than here is your change in owning it, but call us today as we can only sell it once and probably won’t ever find one just like this again. And besides all that we have stated above, it’s also a nice extra bonus that this car is also highly collectible and a superb investment for your hard earned money, with values of these icons that will keep on rising and rising as they have done for the last 50 years……