A BLIND SQUIRREL FINDS A NUT
When I attended a charity car show in my community two weeks ago, I set out to find some stories to help take the Ride Of The Week Feature into winter. Never, in my wildest dreams, did I ever think I would stumble upon a museum piece!
There it was, with the sign to tell the story, the LAST 1967 Shelby. You see, in 1968, Ford moved the conversion of Mustangs from Shelby American’s facility in Los Angeles, CA to Michigan. So, this is the last California-made Shelby. On top of that, it was a 428 Cobra Jet powered GT500!
Dan and Lynnette Hartmann of Butler have owned this rolling piece of automotive history since 1973 when Dan “borrowed” money from their house fund to buy, what had been advertised in the local paper as simply, a 1967 Mustang. “I felt like a blind squirrel that found a nut,” Dan tells me of when he saw that it was a Shelby GT 500 instead of a plain Mustang GT. “The guy was selling it to fund a Corvette restoration.”
Dan set about fixing up the Shelby and he wrote a letter to the Shelby American Automobile Club that included his VIN to get some info on the car and help with his work. “I went back and forth with these folks for about 2-3 months. I’d get letter after letter that asked, ‘if I had this number on this part and that number on that part’. I started to get concerned that maybe I bought a clone.”
The SAAC was able to confirm through those letters that this car: VIN 67400f4a03225 was the 3,225th Shelby Produced in 1967 and the last from California! It has also lived its entire life in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. According to the Marti Report, It was sold new at Jack Beasley Ford in State College, PA.
Over the years, Dan has modified the car, swapping out the original 428 Cobra Jet for a fuel-injected 427 for better drivability. “I have the original engine at home. We just retired and are probably gonna sell the car so we can travel.” Dan continues, “I’ve been in talks with auction companies about consigning the car.” Firsts and lasts are always big draws. I can imagine that both Dana & Frank Mecum and Steve Davis & Craig Jackson would each love the opportunity to have this Final California Shelby cross their respective blocks!
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