Lot 238

Monterey 2017

1965 Shelby GT350

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$451,000 USD | Sold

United States | Monterey, California

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Chassis No.
SFM 5S490
  • A Shelby American company car and Western dealer demonstrator
  • Remarkable original, unrestored condition, including original drivetrain
  • Filled with amazing preserved details
  • Formerly part of several noted private Shelby collections
  • The ideal GT350 for the connoisseur of original muscle

Completed by Shelby American on 29 June 1965, this GT350 was assigned as a company car to Jack Khoury. It was subsequently shipped through Shelby’s famed Hi-Performance Motors of El Segundo, California, to Kansas City dealer Broadway Motors as their demonstrator, then to the Horn-Williams Motor Company of Dallas, reportedly for the same use and now equipped with a radio.

The car was subsequently purchased by its first private owner, an Army officer, then passed to Harry M. Strawser Jr., of Arkansas, and in 1969 to Ray Kitten. The car has a “#13” decal in the rear window, reportedly from an exhibit at the New York World’s Fair of 1964, where the Army officer purportedly bought the car. After known further Arkansas history, the car was purchased in 1991 by Bob Gaines, returning it to Kansas City.

Len Perham of Saratoga, California, was the GT350’s next owner, passing it in 2006 to Shelby historian Colin Comer, in whose ownership it won the Chairman’s Award in Division 3 Concours at SAAC-31 in Virginia that same year. It was then sold to Howard Cox of Southlake, Texas, then passed in 2008 to Chad Odom, before joining its current owner’s noted Shelby collection, having been sourced by his good friend, Carroll Shelby.

The car remains remarkably original, including at least 80 percent of its factory Wimbledon White paint, with a spectacular patina, on all of the original undamaged sheet metal. The original Shelby “confidential number” on the right front fender well is among the clearest that has been seen, and appears elsewhere throughout the car, with all numbered components matching. Even the original hood is in remarkable condition. Further, the car retains its original engine and properly date-coded T10 aluminum transmission, as well as the original master cylinder, valve covers, intake manifold, carburetor, fan, and radiator. Correct tires are mounted on the 15-inch Cragar wheels. The seats were reupholstered some years ago, and the rear package tray is a reproduction, as are the oil pressure gauge and line.

Otherwise this Shelby is much as it left the factory, with originality that is, if not unparalleled, almost impossible to match, down to the Shelby decal on a rear quarter panel and the Detroit Locker installation sticker inside the trunk lid. It is among the most pure GT350s on the market today, and an ideal car for the Shelby enthusiast who knows originality when he sees it.