'Little Red' 1967 Ford Mustang Shelby GT500 found after 50 years, could be worth millions

Fox News ^ | 18 Aug 18 | By Gary Gastelu

[SkyPilot]

Seek and ye shall find. Eventually.

A legendary Ford Mustang that many thought was destroyed 50 years ago has been discovered rotting away in a Texas field. And it could be worth millions.

Affectionately called Little Red, the 1967 model was an experimental car that Ford loaned to Carrol Shelby to use as a test bed for the development of performance parts. Little Red and a later car, unofficially known as the Green Hornet, were the only two Shelby GT 500 notchback coupes of their era, each sporting a snazzy vinyl roof.

Shelby’s crew tinkered with the cars, trying out different body parts, engines and transmissions. Little Red was primarily configured with a supercharged 428 V8 and 3-speed automatic transmission, while the Green Hornet was fitted with a prototype independent rear suspension that never made it into production, but remains on the car today.

Little Red made an appearance at a Ford preview event in Los Angeles, where it inspired the creation of the first California Special Mustang, which aped its styling, if not performance. Shelby eventually sent the cars back to Ford for a date with the crusher, as was standard practice for prototype cars, but they both stood it up.

The Green Hornet showed up at a Ford employee auction in 1971 and was resold several times until it ended up in the garage of Barrett-Jackson Auction House CEO, Craig Jackson, about 15 years ago. Little Red just disappeared.

A half-century of failed attempts to find it seemed to back up the prevailing view that it had been crushed. But like any good mystery, all that was missing was the right key to unlock it. Then Jackson got his hands on it.

[SaveFerris]

The guy that bought it changed out the transmission (for one of his Shelby’s) and painted it dark green - like Bullitt.

Yeah it was the same guy who had the GT500KR.

His company is long gone. Once in awhile I drive by the old small building where it once was.

He sold my car to someone else. They in turn sold it - I hoped to buy it back but really didn’t have money at the time.

One day, in another adjoining city, I was driving looking for something (can’t remember) and got lost in a residential neighborhood. As I was trying to get out of it I looked up and there sat my old 67 Fastback in someone’s driveway.

I didn’t really have any money then either. Nor did I knock on the door to at least get a number. Never saw her again. That was about 1979 or 1980.

[SaveFerris]

I had a late 1986 with the L-98(?) aluminum heads, BUT got the 4+3 (oops - I didn’t know). Supposedly only about 67xxx or 68xxx on it. Didn’t appear to have been wrecked, BUT that car had a lot of problems. Clear coat peeling off (all ‘vettes those years), LCD dash lights going out, transmission eventually broke (just bought a new one). I finally let her go several years ago (7-8 years ago). Didn’t get much money out of it.

I replaced the Gatorback tires with BF Goodrich. Rode much better and much more stable on uneven pavement. Car was fun to drive. Oh well.....

[central_va]

Not really, the belt is still turning on the compressor which places drag on the crank.

When the compressor clutch is disengaged i.e. the AC is turn off, there is negligible or 0 HP being used. If you are deleting A/C because of that reason then that is ridiculous. There must be other reasons. It looks cooler under the hood with no A/C?

[When do we get liberated?]

However, being from Eastern Virginia, if there is a war we will be toast lol.

[38special]

Less weight.