Photo: Original Venice Crew
A visionary with a sense for business and an appetite for racing, Carroll Shelby changed the American automotive landscape forever when he obtained the license to import the AC Cobra. Shoehorning the Windsor V8 into a British car was just the beginning of Shelby’s close collaboration with the Ford Motor Company, with the GT350 Mustang following in the mid-1960s.
The magnum opus of the series is the GT350R, a race-spec pony made to dominate the racetrack. Only 34 production models and 2 factory prototypes were ever built, making it one of the rarest Mustang derivatives of all time. Automotive designer Peter Brock, known for his work on the Shelby Daytona Coupe, is responsible for many of the upgrades that made the GT350R what it is, and his company intends to build a continuation series of the original. But with a twist, coming in the form of Ford independent rear suspension.
His outfit, dubbed Original Venice Crew, received the necessary paperwork from Carroll Shelby Licensing and Ford to recreate the original GT350R in his own view, but he’s not alone in this undertaking. He’s joined by former Shelby American employees Jim Marietta and Ted Sutton, and the trio’s intent is to manufacture 36 examples of the continuation GT350R. The independent rear suspension, however, isn’t the only update on the original go-faster pony.
Redesigned front valance, lightweight Plexiglas windows, better airflow, and superior road holding, that’s what the retro-modern GT350R is all about. “During track testing, people began to ask if the car was for sale,” explained Sutton, former master fabricator at Shelby. “After a landslide of inquiries, we decided to see if there was a good case for offering a limited run of them.”
Don’t, however, dare ask how much the 289-cu.in. V8-powered monster costs. The OVC will make the 36-strong Shelby GT350R continuation series happen in Southern California, just like the boys did back in the ‘60s. The build begins with a 1965 donor Mustang, and each body shell is reconditioned before the OVC converts it to competition specification or for street duty.
The finished car will be shown at Monterey during the Classic Car Week.
His outfit, dubbed Original Venice Crew, received the necessary paperwork from Carroll Shelby Licensing and Ford to recreate the original GT350R in his own view, but he’s not alone in this undertaking. He’s joined by former Shelby American employees Jim Marietta and Ted Sutton, and the trio’s intent is to manufacture 36 examples of the continuation GT350R. The independent rear suspension, however, isn’t the only update on the original go-faster pony.
Redesigned front valance, lightweight Plexiglas windows, better airflow, and superior road holding, that’s what the retro-modern GT350R is all about. “During track testing, people began to ask if the car was for sale,” explained Sutton, former master fabricator at Shelby. “After a landslide of inquiries, we decided to see if there was a good case for offering a limited run of them.”
Don’t, however, dare ask how much the 289-cu.in. V8-powered monster costs. The OVC will make the 36-strong Shelby GT350R continuation series happen in Southern California, just like the boys did back in the ‘60s. The build begins with a 1965 donor Mustang, and each body shell is reconditioned before the OVC converts it to competition specification or for street duty.
The finished car will be shown at Monterey during the Classic Car Week.
Google News