AutoTrader Find of the Week: This 1968 Shelby GT500 is the Real Deal

The heart wants what it wants. There’s just no getting around it.

Every car enthusiast, whether the most casual fan or dedicated obsessive, has a shortlist of cars for which they possess an irrational lust. Anybody who tells you otherwise is a liar and should be mocked ruthlessly as such.

For example, even though my personal taste in cars has changed significantly in the past 20 years — I’m far less interested in brutish American big iron and more enthralled by the pursuit of perfection from Porsche or the celebration of joy from Toyota’s Gazoo Racing — I don’t think I’ll ever shake my irrational desire for original 1960s Shelby Mustangs.

Classic Shelby Mustangs are not impressive performance machines by modern standards. They weren’t particularly well-made. And they are prohibitively, obnoxiously expensive — even giving off an air of blue-bloodedness, which sacrilegiously cuts against their original intent of high performance for the masses.

But I just don’t care. That fastback silhouette, racing-inspired graphics and body accents, menacing Cobra badges, Shelby heritage, and the essence of ‘60s swagger come together to make the coolest car of all time.

So when a real, honest-to-goodness Shelby Mustang like this 1968 GT500 comes up for sale, I can’t help but give it a spotlight.

Offered for sale on AutoTrader by the Summit Classic Collection in Toronto, Ont., this ‘68 Shelby is not only about as close to factory original as it gets, but also boasts a highly desirable options list.

Table stakes first. Under the hood is the original 428-cubic-inch “Police Interceptor” V8 engine (that still has the original Holley four-barrel carburetor, air cleaner, and aluminum Shelby valve heads), originally rated at 355 hp and 420 lb-ft of torque. Power is fed to a factory Ford four-speed manual transmission and translated through the renowned Ford nine-inch Trac-Lok (Ford’s answer to GM’s positraction) differential with a 3.50 gear ratio.

As is iconic for a Shelby car, it is finished in Wimbledon White exterior paint with blue GT side stripes (the only colour for which blue GT stripes were available, as all others had white). You may assume the original owner opted to delete iconic Shelby “LeMans” stripes. However, after ‘65, Shelby Mustangs were never actually delivered to dealers with stripes — they were a dealer-installed optional extra that many dealers didn’t bother with.

Inside, you’ll find all the standard Shelby goodies like the roll bar, shoulder harness, and Shelby-branded tilt-away steering wheel. Other options opted for by the original U.S.-based owner included air conditioning and AM radio.

Of course, there are many Shelby Mustang clones, tributes, and fakes out there. But this Mustang’s VIN puts all doubts to rest.

The first five digits, 8T02S, tell us this is a 1968 model-year car assembled in Metuchen, New Jersey (where all 1968 Shelbys were finished), fastback body with a big-block Ford engine. The rest of the VIN simply tells us this is Mustang unit #143491 for 1968. However, the VIN is extended by a Shelby sequential number of 01630 — further evidence of its authenticity

Though don’t take our word for it. Summit has all the proper documentation, including a Marti report and original owner’s manuals to back it up.

Keen enthusiasts will note that this is not a GT500KR model, which is much more often name-checked for ‘68 model-year Shelbys. This is just a “vanilla” GT500.

While it also featured a 428-cu-in V8 engine, the KR boasted a far superior “Cobra Jet” variant (code R in a VIN tag), of which Carroll Shelby himself was keen on, having apparently never liked the corporate “Police Interceptor” variant.

However, there were still plenty of regular GT500s with the 428 Interceptor available in 1968 — and actually Ford sold roughly the same number of standard GT500s as KRs that year. But it begs the question, why would somebody notopt for the KR model?

One possibility is that the KR models came with a price premium but advertised less horsepower — 335 hp over the standard GT500’s 355. Of course, that was a lie. The 428 Cobra Jet produced closer to 400 hp and gave the KR the ability to trade punches with even the top-tier Corvette of its day. But to the average Joe walking into the dealership, they may not have seen the benefit or known all the trade secrets.

However, a more likely reason is that this GT500 was ordered, purchased, and delivered many months before KRs were available. As unit 1,630 of an estimated 4,450 Shelby Mustangs produced in 1968, this car would have been delivered early on in 1968, while the earliest GT500KRs didn’t arrive until April of that year.

It’s a bit of a blessing in disguise, as this perfectly preserved GT500 can be had for a mere $249,000. A KR would probably add another $100,000 to that sticker.

Alas, it is a sum of money I will likely never be able to afford to spend on a car in my lifetime. It’s an idea, a fantasy that I really should move on from. But I suspect I never will.

Your favourite car of all time will always be your favourite car of all time. The heart wants what it wants.