302ci OHV V8
Holley 4-Barrel Carburetor
250bhp at 5,000rpm
4-Speed Manual Transmission
Coil Spring Front Suspension, Semi-Elliptic Rear Leaf Springs
Power-Assisted Front Disc with Rear Drum Brakes

*Consecutive Unit Number with Lot 183
*Owner History Known from New
*Ready for Show or Go
*Entered into the Shelby Registry

THE SHELBY GT350

1968 saw a number of changes for the Shelby Mustang program. While Carroll Shelby's own facilities were no long used to finish out the cars carrying his name, he was still very active in the design and development of those special edition pony cars. This year the Cobra name was officially applied to the GT350 and GT500 models. For the first time, customers could choose between Shelby's traditional fastback styling or a sporty convertible. And in January 1968, the new GT500KR with the 428 Cobra Jet V8 was released, the King of the Road had arrived.

However, the GT350 with the newly released 302 V8 was the most popular series with 1,253 fastback editions produced. It did lose a little of its power compared to the K-code 271bhp, 289ci V8's used the previous three seasons, but was blessed with at least 10% more power than the base engines found in regular Mustangs. A 600CFM Holley carburetor sat atop a special cast aluminum intake manifold from the Cobra. For dress-up there were the finned Cobra valve covers with matching oval air-cleaner allowing for a more unrestricted flow to that thirsty carb. Part of the Shelby GT350 package was the installation of were fuel pressure and boost gauges mounted at the head of the center console that also contain the transmission controls. While sales of the Shelby cars were only a small portion of the over-all market share that Mustang had captured, these are the cars that drove the traffic to the showroom, and if one couldn't afford the $4,116.62 base price of a GT350 fastback, they could probably afford $3,000 for a base V8 fastback.

Also new for 1968 was the way the Shelby Mustangs were serial numbered. Up to 1967, Shelby discarded the Ford issued Mustang VINs and added their own numbers. For 1968, the Ford issued VIN stayed visible on the car with an addition five digits added to keep track of the Shelby units. (Approximately, the first 150 Shelby Mustangs for 1968 used a longer complex VIN which was discontinued early in the model year).

THE MOTORCAR OFFERED

In mid-March 1968, the Metuchen factory received a batch of Shelby orders and as they were processed, both a Ford VIN was as well as a Shelby VIN were issued. Once the order had been entered into the system, the build orders were sent out. Sometimes, even identical cars might find a higher serial number being produced, or coming off the assembly line, ahead of lower numbers. Such is the case of Shelby unit 2803. According to the original buck tag on this car, its body was assembled in welding Gate #31 on March 18, 1968. It was finished in Lime Green metallic, had the standard Shelby black vinyl interior as well as power steering, power brakes (discs up front), the fold-down rear seat and rear bumperettes, among other items.

Even though consecutive serial numbers might be right next to each other, after they leave the order desk chances are they may never see each other once built. Such was the case with this car as it was shipped to a dealer in Troy, New York, and would eventually end up with a Mr. Henderson, at the time retired as an Engineer at Ford's "X-Garage" at Watkins Glen. Acquired by the present owner in 2009, the car had a fair amount of use but had been well maintained. After being brought back to our consignor's collection the car was given a complete restoration and brought up to show quality standards. At the time the speedometer was turned back to all zero's and that is where it remains to this day.

Then in 2011, one of our consignor's shop workers just happened to be detailing and cleaning this Shelby and a twin that was also in the same collection. At first he thought he might be seeing things, but after going back-and-forth between the two cars he realized, these two identical GT350 fastbacks carried consecutive serial numbers. Checked and re-checked 43 years after being assigned numbers one after the other, they had come back together.

Owning one of these GT350's would be an honor, to own the pair, would be a dream.