1966 Ford Mustang GT350 H fastback

This car, Lot 16, sold for $253,000, including buyer’s premium, at the Bonhams Scottsdale Auction held at the Westin Kierland Resort & Spa on January 18, 2018. The car was offered with no reserve.

This 1966 Shelby GT350 H was one of 999 Hertz Shelbys built for the 1966 model year — at least that’s the number most frequently quoted; however, various sources have cited numbers from 936 to 1,002. As such, they are not entirely rare, but finding one for sale can be a challenge, as they are very desirable and don’t tend to stay available for long.

Our subject car was one of the batch of Hertz “rent-a-racers” originally ordered by the Hertz corporation. While the vast majority of those cars were produced wearing the Hertz-branded color scheme of black with gold stripes, chassis S707 was built as you see it here — white with blue stripes. That was common for a GT350 and entirely uncommon for a GT350 H edition.

Chassis S707 was originally delivered to a Hertz location in San Diego, CA, in January of 1966. After being thrashed about and probably treated to a few ketchup-laden fries tossed about the cabin, it found its way to the first retail owner, Fred Johnson, on September 7, 1967. Sometime after that, Fred sold the car to Mike Shoen of Vancouver, WA, who modified it with a 1965 GT350 tach pod, R-model apron, valve covers, roll bar and R-model wheels.

Driven by Shelby

As reported by Bonhams, chassis S707 then found its way to its third owner, Mr. Carroll Shelby himself. That instantly transformed this Shelby Mustang from a tattered old driver to a tattered old driver with a great story to tell.

Until this sale, the car had never left the Shelby Collection. It was featured in Petersen’s Complete Ford Book and was displayed at the Imperial Palace Automobile Collection in Las Vegas. At some point, chassis S707 was brought back to its original specifications with the exception of the wheels.

One can quickly discern that our subject car is a bit tired and certainly showing its age. The engine bay is somewhat ratty, the paint appears to be heavily orange-peeled, the interior is soiled and the carpet is faded. Based on the condition of the very old Goodyear Wingfoot tires, I’d say the car hasn’t been exercised in a very long time. It was reported as a #3 example, but I’d dig a bit deeper and knock it down to a #4+.

That said, who cares? My take on it is pretty simple. If it was good enough for Carroll Shelby, it’s good enough for me. In fact, I love the car, warts and all. It’s the type of Shelby that is surely worn, but likely not worn out.

Being a West Coast car all its life, the body is very likely in great shape and hasn’t been invaded by the tin worm. It’s the best type of Shelby, if you ask me — one that you can lay into and enjoy for the street weapon that it is. Most GT350s have simply become over-restored garage furniture. That’s fine from an investment standpoint, but terrible for what the machine was designed to do.

The Shelby effect

So how did the sold price of chassis S707 fare in the world of 1966 GT350s? Did the Carroll Shelby provenance check the right boxes on the auction block?

Using the ACC Pocket Price Guide, we can see a median value placed on a typical, well-sorted GT350 H of $147,000, with a 20% ding for an automatic transmission. The transmission deduction is more relevant to a production GT350 (not an H model), simply because the Hertz models were more likely to be outfitted with an automatic — so we can toss that out for this evaluation.

Racing through the sold comps, I intentionally researched non-Hertz models because those cars will generally bring a bit more at auction than a Hertz edition — not a ton, but enough to give them a leg up. The three I selected sold (or bid to) a low of $143,000 and a high of $297,000.

Naturally, none of our comps were actually owned by Carroll Shelby. This is the only comp that was actually owned by the man who created them. Better still, he bought the car as the third owner (if you don’t count the Hertz ownership). That says a lot without ever knowing one more thing about the car. Carroll liked it enough to own it. And he didn’t own it for a year or two — he kept the car for many years and it was still part of the Shelby Collection when it was sold. It’s about as close as you will ever get to using a time machine and transporting yourself back to 1966 and buying a car directly from Team Shelby.

The fast take on the fastback

Bonhams’ pre-sale estimate on the car was $150,000 to $200,000. Most forums and conversations I managed to find online suggested that they thought the car would sell for more — some speculating $300,000 all in. But there’s a method to the Bonhams valuation. The low estimate likely fired up plenty of collectors thinking that they could be in the running and maybe even buy the car under $150,000. This quiet exuberance can quickly multiply the bidder activity, and Bonhams did a superb job of promoting the car, as articles about chassis S707 were all over the Web.

Given the overall condition and presentation, had this been an ordinary GT350 H in the uncommon white/blue color combination, I would have suggested about $110,000 to $130,000. But, we aren’t talking about just any weathered 1966 GT350 H.

Condition aside, given the provenance and the stories this Shelby could tell, it was wisely bought. Carroll Shelby may be gone, but his effect on our collective high-performance American-iron car culture lives on. And that, my fellow car aficionados, comes with a price.

The car was well sold but astutely bought for the collector who cherishes the unique Shelby provenance.
(Introductory description courtesy of Bonhams.)