1965 has gone down in motoring history for the Ford-Chrysler feud over the Race Hemi, the fabulous Chevrolet 396 big-block V8 debut, and the first Shelby Mustang. None less important than the others, and each a monument of automotive in its own right, all three have stirred countless debates and endless discussions over their significance. However, no amount of talk, big or small, will equal the thrill of uncovering a double-digit GT350 street car.
The Ford Mustang made landfall in 1964, and it was an instant sales hit, even though it failed to meet one crucial expectation of a certain segment of the car nut community: track performance. Ford’s brass hats turned to their in-house go-fast expert, none other than Carroll Shelby, to remedy the embarrassing wrong. The Texan aptly delivered, producing the first in a series of legendary heavy-punching Mustangs, the GT350 that would mop the floors with the competition in the 1965 SCCA championship.
The story of how the nameplate came to be is – as all things Shelby – filled with fast-paced drama and overdoses of adrenaline, but let’s cut to the chase. In late 1964 – by which I mean literally the last seven days of the year – a batch of 100 Ford Mustangs armed with the top-of-the-game K-code 289 V8 arrives at the Shelby facility in Los Angeles.
The plan was simple: in order to build race cars, Ford had to first present solid proof of a mandatory 100-unit-or-more production run of street automobiles. That was the easy part. The exciting bit about this is that all those 100 Mustangs had to be ready before the end of January. Shelby’s men did it, and on January 27, the GT350 dropped its veils in front of the public. The rest is history—and sometimes, a treasure hunt for Mustang fanatics.
The American Mustangs YouTube vloggers recently dug out one of those rare ‘Double-Digit’ cars from a 48-year single-ownership in South Charleston, West Virginia. The car sat undriven for the last dozen years under a tarp in a weather-protecting environment, and it has been cared for its entire life. The video is more than evident – the Shelby is a chef’s kiss, even after nearly six decades.
Easily distinguished by its serial number that puts it in that first production sequence, the rarity – it’s one of the 562 examples built for the model year, including the prototypes and race cars, and one of the 504 street cars assembled. The early GT350s – those built as homologation vehicles – feature unique details, like the cabin-stored spare tire right behind the two seats (the rear seats in a regular Mustang were canceled in favor of a storage platform), a sixteen-inch Shelby Cobra steering wheel, Koni adjustable shock absorbers front and rear, anti-tramp bars fitted above the rear axle, cables to limit rear axle travel, the driveshaft safety loop, the aircraft-style three-inch safety belts, and the Autolite battery in the trunk.
This car is not a survivor. It has been restored at some point, and the odometer reads 12,056 miles (19,400 km). However, we don’t know if it’s the original low mileage or the milometer rolled over.