I got Richard M. Langworth’s “Complete Book of Collectible Cars” as a X-mas gift in-I believe-1986. This book has been in print for a long time and has gone thorugh numerous updates and revisions, and that’s probably a good thing, because it’s rather amusing to read some of the “values” and “projections” about these cars from 35 years ago. One of the remarks that strikes me as particularly droll is this little sidebar in the section about Shelby Mustangs:
$12,000-$15,000 for “the top cars!” How times do change!
Of course Carroll Shelby was an endlessly fascinating character, a true American hero, and I never tire of watching interviews with him and listening to his stories of being there in the glory days…and clearly I’m not the only one. I’ll never own a $4m mustang, but I have built some pretty nice versions of these classics in HO! At the moment I have 3 1965/66 Shelby GT350s in my fleet and it will soon be 4. This latest one is the 2nd release from Road Race Replicas with the “oil cooler front end” featuring the heavier looking molded-in front valance as seen the photo of the recent auction record car. This is one of the things that set the true track-bound racing cars apart of from the road-going versions back in the day. Of course, in the time since, several road cars have been built to look like this, but it used to be that this bumperless front configuration meant real business. This version I’ve just built is finished in a deep rich maroon with the classic racing stripes in gold. To enhance this look I added a set of RRR “Bullets” and painted them with a gold acrylic, and then finished it off with a gold racing number in one of the very few numbers left in my decal stash that was available to use. It sits on a rust colored Ultra-G chassis, which also offsets the dark colored body nicely giving it more visual interest than the standard black chassis. Low-profile silicone tires and a set of OS3 Black Dragons give it track performance worthy of Mr. Shelby’s name.
You’re still with us, Shelby…and where ever you are looking down from, I hope you know how much you are loved….and I hope you’re smiling!
One thought on “NEW BUILDS: The Ghost of Mr. Shelby”