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I heard the new owner is a STUD!

A scholar, a gentleman, and a lover of the fine arts... just what I heard 

Great find Great car.
9 months sitting at the dealer is not unusual for a special car. The dealers order them as bait to draw foot traffic into their dealership. Sometime they also use them personal cars until the next special comes along - it would be interesting to see the mileage when the first owner bought it. I can't see the dealer installing the back seat to call it a 66. More than likely a subsequent owner had a kid or two and the wife demanded a back seat. Also I can't see the Doctor wanting a back seat - this was not intended to be his family car. They took his wife's Lincoln when they went out. The dealer would have tossed the rear shelf - or one of the mechanics would have snagged it for his car....

All good, logical points.. but the story of the car differs according to the long term owner and the paper trail.

The BoS an letter from the bank in December of 1966 refer to the car as a 66. The car would have been registered by the first owner after his 3/1/66 purchase date...it wasn't the "correct" thing to do in registering a car as the year in which it was sold... but it happened from time to time back then and in certain states. Looser times.

 First owner certainly could have installed the backseat or the air conditioning which was on it when I got it.... but both were on the car as of December of 66 when purchased from the original owner. Donald Dunford bought the car specifically for those features as it was for his wife to drive. He raced SCCA on the weekends.

To be clear.. I wouldn't be so brash as to come on here and claim that the AC and backseat WERE dealer installed... but I also have seen enough on these cars to know that dealers pretty commonly installed accessories and features on aging inventory to make them more sale-able. A 65 GT350 was a tough sale when you had a brand new, current 66 model sitting next to it... WITH A BACKSEAT, and the option for different colors, "more" visual features etc etc.  I owned a 65 a year or so ago which has had quarter windows on it since as early as could be determined with photographs to back it up. Car wasn't sold till January of 66.. could have been installed by the now deceased 1st owner (who also owned the car for less than a year) or could have been installed by the dealer. No proof either way. It is being restored with louvers now

As for the package tray- it stayed with the car since new (which, i agree, is unusual).. it did come with the car to Dunford. If you scroll on the below link... you'll see it resting (in mint condition) on the top of the old RV... was in this spot until the "barn" was cleaned out in April. https://www.vernonestesclassics.com/#/1965-shelby-gt350-335/

Kind regards,
Vern

Thanks for posting this, JP! And thanks for helping to tell the story of the car to the world.

Doubt I'll ever come up with a more original 65... but who knows.

Kind regards,
Vern

Ill take the valve covers..will PM you

If it has a VIN stamped in the side of it starting with 5R09K then it MIGHT be an engine which originally came in a GT350. The C5AE-6015 was a generic 289 engine block..used in everything from lower powered C code cars all the way up to K Code cars. Have you verified that it is, in fact, a HiPo block or are you just assuming that because of a C5AE casting number?

Regardless, I think it is unlikely to be a GT350 block with a 4H date code. JMHO

Kind regards,
Vern

Both gauges and the pod are original..nice score!

No kidding, crazy town on the price. Originals are getting tough to find though anymore. Sort of interesting since 66 ten spokes used to be much more easily obtained. Used to feel like there was always a set or two floating around for sale.

I have a nicer set than what is listed which I would sell for a more reasonable price if anyone out there is looking. It is a full set of 5, too.

Kind regards,
Vern

Not implying this is the jacket by any means but wasn't one of these stolen out of someones car not to long ago while its was on display.

Wasnt it a garment bag that got stolen? Or did the garment bag have a jacket inside it?

I personally dont see anything about the offered jacket which leads me to believe that its anything but authentic...the price is pretty looney but the jacket itself looks legit to me.

I once found a perfect one of these in my grandpa's attic...he wasn't much of a "car guy" but i guess he must have rented something in the hertz sports car club at some point. He had passed before I had found the jacket.

Kind regards,
Vern

Figured I'd have a little fun and listing a piece of memorabilia on BaT. 

Feel free to take a gander at the below link!



https://bringatrailer.com/listing/cobra-chassis-instruction-manual/

Kind regards,
Vern

The Group 2 cars have always sort of been snubbed by people saying "they aren't a Shelby, they are a Mustang".

Yes, they were classified as a Ford Mustang because Ford wanted to win the Trans Am series...but pretty much everyone still considers the cars Shelby products...which is why they are in the registry.

They are such a vastly misunderstood Shelby product. Mechanically identical to an R Model in a different bodystyle, twice as rare, and in some ways more extreme while in other ways less extreme in their modifications.  The entire program for the Group 2 cars was done in house by SAI and specifically Chuck Cantwell from start to finish...ordered by SAI, delivered to SAI, sold by SAI, supported by SAI..... point being, it's technically true that Ford didn't want the cars to appear as Shelbys and be referred to in that manner.....but the only reason Ford had to go out of their way to insist on that is because they WERE Shelby products.

Whatever someone wants to call them is cool, I've just always been bothered (even before owning one) that people are so quick to say "they arent Shelbys". They are. In my opinion, they are more "Shelby" than any Shelby American produced street car made from 1962-67. (insert sound effect of can of worms opening)

Kind regards,
Vern

I will not comment on the current $263k bid or what the car is or is not. That train is on autopilot 

I will comment that I am surprised that nobody on BaT (or here) has researched the BaT seller. His history with the Cunningham LeMans Corvette, Key Bank and NextGear financial judging by a simple Google search and what was published in many articles in Sports Car Market by Legal Files columnist John Draneas is interesting reading.

Certainly I'd suggest the winning bidder, if there is one, complete this transaction with a trusted escrow service. Which, is good advice with any high dollar car from an unknown seller, right?

Attached is a screenshot from one of the SCM articles. Also, since the seller owned this GT350 prior to these proceedings, was it declared as an asset? If not would the creditors have a claim to the car or sale proceeds? I'm not an attorney but it seems maybe that's a question one would ask.

Should be a fascinating and entertaining conclusion in any event!

I'm impressed you found out so much. I see the seller. A private seller so how did you find out who he was? Dealers are easy for the most part. Kudos on your sleuthing.

Lots of us have plenty to say on the subject.

No interest in wasting time on BaT trying to educate the sheep though.  Been there, done that..not worth the grief.

Best of luck to the winning bidder. Life is all about the journey..Hope his/hers is a smooth journey from here on out.

I made a somewhat brief comment on the auction because I don't wanna go out of my way to cast doubt on someone's object if I dont KNOW that it's a made up deal...but there are many aspects of the sign that sort of raise an eyebrow or two given the seller's claim that it is an original 1966 produced sign.

Just as with the cars...lots of wiggle room here via semantics but the implication made by the seller thus far is clearly that the sign was used at a Hertz desk in 1966 and has always had the GT350H verbiage on it.

Meh...like I said, I can't say for certain that it wasn't...but I have serious doubts.

Kind regards,
Vern

I shared an article. I put no comment up about it personally. Someone else on this thread believes that I think the sky is falling. I never said that. I never said anything. I simply shared an article.

Post corrected

Just to be clear........


I'm falling on the knife for you all and offering BIG money currently on great cars.  I'm calling it the "END OF TIMES BUY BACK BLOWOUT EVENT"!!


Hagerty is totally correct..... THE SKY IS FALLING.


Get out NOW.... I'll take the LOSS for you!


This offer even applies to original Cobras, 65 GT350s, GT40s etc etc...... the bigger the value the bigger the potential loss now that the world is coming to an end! Get rid of em while someone (me) wants to buy them!


Wish there was a little emoji I could insert here of a guy laughing himself out of his chair.   

Nonsense articles written about the general market which is made up mostly of mediocre/subpar cars. Mediocrity has been selling for too much for the last 10 years...everyone in the business knows it. And many dealers exclusively deal in mediocrity and are benefited by the wild swings.  Sell it for too much today to an enthusiast who doesnt know his head from a hole in the ground...buy it back a few years later for much less...rinse, repeat.

The great stuff hasn't seen much if any change from the last few years and I highly doubt it will outside of a sizable macro economic event. Even in that case, just as it always has been in the past, that event would be temporary.

In closing.... always best to throw in the mix that classic cars are not great investments. You should buy them simply because you love the cars. At BEST, they are a good place to "Park" cash....but they aren't "investments" contrary to the information which sources like Hagerty are constantly cramming down the hobby's throat. 

Kind regards,
Vern