The Shelby American (Winter 2021)

cidence) and the second competition car would have been 003. This is one of the idiosyncracies of these first three cars. Another is that the cars received Mustang door data plates which were riveted to the driver door during as- sembly. They were left off all subse- quent production models (with a couple of exceptions) because the cars were not Ford products – they became Shelby American products. The door plates were subsequently removed from the competition cars but in prob- ably what was an oversight, the plate remained on the street car. The three cars were also shipped with stock Mustang firewall-to-shock tower braces. All production GT350s would be built with a one-piece “ex- port” brace. This part was standard on all exported Mustangs because chassis stiffening was required due to the sub- standard roads in most other coun- tries. The brace was used on the Mustang coupe rallye cars built by Alan Mann for European road rallyes. The export brace was added to 001 and 002 later. As soon as the street car was fin- ished it was photographed so that black-and-white 8˝ x 10˝s could be sent out with press releases to the automo- tive magazines to announce the car. Some of these photos were also used in factory press kits and handed out at car shows and dealerships. The car was photographed in three separate photo shoots, which are immediately recognizeable to knowledgeable Shelby enthusiasts. Today they are known as the LAX airport shots, the Benedict Canyon shots and the Venice shots taken outside of Shelby Ameri- can’s Carter Avenue facility where Peter Brock’s office was located. Brock was responsible for most of the photog- raphy and also composed several full- page ads for the car using the Benedict Canyon photography. The airport and Benedict Canyon pictures are notable because 5S003 had steel wheels on the driver side and optional Shelby/Cragar 5-spoke wheels on the passenger side. This al- lowed the car to be photographed with both types of wheels without having to change them out. The airport pictures featured CSSHPD head instructor John Timanus “driving” the car in a racing helmet with the car near some rubber cones so as to appear to be on a race track or autocross course. By the time the photos were taken at Carter Avenue the car had Shelby/Cragar wheels at all four cor- ners. Another unique feature of the first GT350s – 002 and 003 – was that the “GT350” rocker panel designations were hand-lettered. Cars which fol- lowed would have 3M adhesive-backed letters and numbers. The actual stripes were painted on all 1965 mod- els. 5S003 served as a public relations The SHELBY AMERICAN Winter 2021 30 Benedict Canyon photo shoot [ left ]. LAX photo shoot [ above ]. John Timanus driving.