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Junkyard-Destined 1968 Ford Mustang Was Turned Into Vintage Terlingua Replica

Shelby’s Terlingua Racing Team is the stuff of legends told when icons gather around the bonfire and begin to recount tales of long past wonders. It’s the 1960s summed up in one phrase, or – in this automotive case – painted on a Mustang as a livery... complete with Social Director Caroll Shelby’s autograph.
1968 Shelby Mustang Coupe Racer AutotopiaLA 48 photos
Photo: AutotopiaLA/YouTube
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While some of the crazy stuff that happened in the small ghost town of Terlingua (Southwest Texas, right on the Mexican border, “population of seven, not including nine goats and two burros”) will forever remain shrouded in mystery, it’s common knowledge how the Racing Team came to be.

Shelby and Witts, the owners of the town, decided one day – alongside their drinking buddies (men that took seriously the work hard, party harder idea), that Terlingua’s City Council needed a coat of arms. The idea belonged to Ford public relations man Tom Tierney (Chief Justice of Terlingua) and the materialization to automotive artist Bill Neale (director of the Museum of Modern Art for the town).

Shelby then decided the famous “rabbit with the sun and three feathers” would be a great logo for a Racing Team and thus in 1965 his first Shelby GT350-R (5R002) that Ken Miles drove on Valentine's Day (and won the race) had the new Terlingua Racing Team coat of arms on it. Still, it was a white with blue stripes unit – not the famous “gawd-awful” yellow with a black stripe down the middle graphic, designed by Neale a little later, in 1967.

And this is precisely why the 1968 Shelby Mustang we see in the latest episode of the AutotopiaLA YouTube channel racing at Willow Springs was designed as a replica of a ‘67 Coupe. It’s all in the name of a fun tribute to the Shelby racing legend. And it’s also a story of never giving up... on a Mustang.

That’s because the current owner salvaged the car that was destined for the junkyard after a kid did what many youngsters do when presented with a vintage leaf-springed ‘Stang, parking it a little harder than usual directly into a brick wall.

Repaired and repainted into the Terlingua Racing Team colors, the Shelby Mustang has been under constant tinkering during the past six to eight months – even going through a couple of motors in the meantime. This is because the replica wasn’t built for the showroom, but for the track – and as such it’s third engine that was treated to is a nicer (and more reliable) Cobra 428 V8.

According to the owner it sports around 400 hp at the wheel – and we get to have a good look at it from the 1:50 mark before examining the interior (4:20). The latter sports a full roll cage and a couple of Sparco seats for passenger joyrides both on and off the track – as the Mustang is very much roadworthy.

With the latest work on the exhaust not yet done and the mufflers cut out recently, it’s confined to the track for the moment, which is of course a great excuse to see it doing a few POV laps of Big Willow from the 5-minute mark.

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About the author: Aurel Niculescu
Aurel Niculescu profile photo

Aurel has aimed high all his life (literally, at 16 he was flying gliders all by himself) so in 2006 he switched careers and got hired as a writer at his favorite magazine. Since then, his work has been published both by print and online outlets, most recently right here, on autoevolution.
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