This is my favourite body style of the Mustang, the fastback from the years prior is a close second but still comes in second place to the flatter fastback.
The original GT500 cars were sweet, but I almost prefer the look of the more basic GT350. When Gone in 60 Seconds came out in 2000, that heavily customized Eleanor car looked perfect. In the original Gone in 60 Seconds from 1974, they used the newer, flatter body style Mustang as the chase car. It wasn’t a Shelby though, as they didn’t exist in that body style, at least not in North America.
I hardly take a second glance at a Roush or a Saleen, but I always stop for a Shelby. They’re just something different, something special. It’s not hard to fake the look, but it’s easy to spot a fake, as they’re usually beat just enough that you know they’re not legitimate. People with the real deal seem to treat them like they’re the real deal, something with value. I can’t say that I’ve ever seen a 1971 Shelby Mustang, nor have I seen a clone. The reason for that is the simple fact that the real ones don’t exist, and you can’t clone something that doesn’t exist.
Sure enough, I was wrong, but not totally wrong. When Shelby was dropping out of the Mustang scene after 1970, Claude Dubois, a car dealer from Belgium, felt he couldn’t let that happen. He’d sold over 120 Shelby Mustangs all over Europe and wasn’t ready to quit. He talked Carroll Shelby into sending him fourteen Mustangs that he would transform into legitimate, licensed Shelby Europa cars. Of the fourteen cars, two were actually convertibles, the remaining twelve being fastbacks. Both convertibles got the GT500 treatment, along with one of the fastbacks, the rest being GT350’s.
From what I can tell, ten of the eleven GT350 fastback cars got the M-Code 351 Cleveland, rated at 320 horsepower. The GT500’s featured upgraded Holley carburetors, Mallory ignition systems, an aluminum intake manifold, and a raunchier camshaft, bumping them up to 360 horsepower. The single GT500 fastback even got the J-Code 429SCJ big block, pumping out 410 horsepower. Claude Dubois didn’t care for big block power due to the negative effect that it had on handling but still equipped one car that way. All the cars featured unique Shelby styling, badging, aluminum slotted wheels, a custom steering wheel, and upgraded suspension. How many of the fourteen are left? An impressive nine are accounted for, but sadly, the big block fastback isn’t one of them yet, anyways.
Have a question or comment for Kelly? Post it at lmtimes.ca/kirk
