Lot 049: 1965 FORD MUSTANG 'SHELBY GT350' RACECAR

Introduced at the New York World's Fair on April 17th 1964, the Ford Mustang was primarily aimed at the post-WW2 'baby boomer' generation. Backed by an enormous publicity campaign that included television coverage beamed to over 30 million homes and some 2,500 newspaper advertisements, it proved an instant hit (the millionth car selling inside two years). The brainchild of senior Ford executive Lee Iacocca, the newcomer borrowed heavily from its Falcon and Fairlane compatriots. Based on a 'torque box' reinforced monocoque bodyshell, it was styled in-house by David Ash and Joseph Oros of the Lincoln-Mercury division. Initially available in either coupe or convertible guises (though, a fastback variant was soon added), the model was equipped with independent coil-sprung front suspension, a 'live' rear axle and hydraulic drum brakes. Powered by a range of straight-six and V8 engines mated to a choice of manual (three- / four-speed) or automatic transmission, the Mustang could be had with a bewildering range of factory options to suit almost every taste / budget. The first car to receive the Tiffany Design Award, it also undertook pace duties at the 1964 Indianapolis 500. Responsible for creating the 'pony car' class (despite being named after the WW2 P-51 Mustang fighter plane), the sporty Ford has long been revered as an American cultural icon. As always the best of the road cars are soon converted into cars for the track and the Mustang went racing with the best of them - and beat them all. Carroll Shelby's long standing relationship with Ford ensured that he further developed the car with the introduction of the 'Shelby' Mustang which had distinctive differences to the body styling, it was lighter and had more power. One of the most significant marketing moves that actually worked was for Hertz - the rental car people. They ordered 200 Ford Mustangs in their distinctive Black with a Gold stripe livery in November 1965 and a further 800 cars just a month later as they had become the car to have for the weekend - and a lot of them were actually raced the whole weekend and taken back to the rental company on the monday morning. This car is not an original Shelby GT350 and never raced in period however it has been built as a racecar to a very exacting standard by the well known historic racer Jo Harding. It is a recreation of the Hertz cars and painted in their very distinctive colour scheme and sits on a new set of Dunlops with a new extinguisher and with a new set of belts. It raced many times in the States and the specification sheet including the dyno report is in the paperwork in the history file with the car. It is sensational to look at and we understand ready to go and has quite a number of spares with it including the original seats, a spare set of heads, steering wheel etc. It is eligible for a whole host of events and the paperwork includes an extremely rare set of the new HTP papers but it has not as yet been registered in the UK.