Carroll Shelby might no longer be with us, but his spirit still lives in the automotive industry and the legacy of his work is still there. To commemorate his ingeniousness, muscle car enthusiasts worldwide try to recreate some of his famous works in restomods. The lucky few preserve some of his most sought-after collections in garages and private collections.
Tyler Hoover of Hoovies Garage YouTube channel recently got to hang out with two automotive legends of our time, Jay Leno and Craig Jackson. While shooting a soon-to-be-released CBS segment of Jay Leno's Garage, he checked out Leno's collection of cars and got behind the wheel of his rare 1972 Mercedes-Benz 600.
If that wasn't enough of an early Christmas bounty of luck, he also got to drive along with Barrett-Jackson's Chairman and CEO, Craig Jackson, in his 'Racing Chrome' finished 2014 McLaren P1, as well as a Batmobile scheduled to go under the hammer at the 2023 Barrett-Jackson Scottsdale Auction.
The icing on the cake was a tour of Jackson's Carroll Shelby Car collection. This collection is world-famous for housing two rare Shelby Mustangs.
"I love buying cars, restoring them, chasing the history. I grew up restoring one-off classics, but I grew up around muscle cars, so a large part of my collection is ultra-rare muscle cars," Jackson said, introducing Hoover to his private car collection.
A large part of Jackson's car collection is ultra-rare classic muscle cars. But he also loves modern supercars. His McLaren P1 and the new Corvette Z06 say a lot about that fascination.
Two cars stand out in his classic car collection. A one-off 1967 Ford Shelby GT500 EXP prototype, aka 'Little Red,' and a 1968 Shelby Mustang EXP-500 Prototype, aka 'Green Hornet.'
The story behind the recovery of the two coupes is as fascinating as the legend behind their design.
Little was known about the two rare coupes' whereabouts until recently when the auction house CEO and his team took it upon themselves to solve the mystery of their disappearance.
Jackson got the Green Hornet first through Steve Davis, President of Barrett-Jackson. During its restoration, the elusive history of 'Little Red,' the one-off 1967 Ford Shelby GT500, came up. The rest, as you already know, went down as one of the most epic classic car hunts of our time.
According to Jackson, 'Little Red' was presumed crushed, wrecked, or stolen. It was a hot topic among muscle car enthusiasts and the holy grail of missing classics in the industry. And after what seemed like an eternity of looking for a needle in a haystack – they found her (in a not-so-good condition).
Jackson revealed, despite the cars hiding in plain sight, most classic car prospectors missed the opportunity to find these rare exotics because they were looking for the Shelby numbers. In their quest to find both cars, Jackson and his team discovered neither car had Shelby numbers, but VINs attached to them.
Little Red was built by Shelby America in Los Angeles, while Shelby Automotive developed the Green Hornet in Dearborn, Michigan.
Craig Jackson restored the two rare coupes and added them to his private Carrol Shelby collection in Scottsdale, Arizona.
Apart from the two ultra-rare coupes, the collection also houses a 1968 Shelby GT500 EFI Prototype, a one-of-four 1966 Shelby GT350 Convertible, and a 1966 Shelby Cobra 427 Roadster.
Humphrey is a car enthusiast whose love and passion for automobiles extended into collecting, writing, driving, and working on cars. He got his passion for cars from his Dad, who spent thousands of hours working on his old junky 1970 E20 Toyota Corolla. Years later, he would end up doing the same with a series of lemons he’s owned throughout his adult life. Full profile
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