Barn Finds
Prototype Shelby Mustang emerges from the desert
How does a CEO of one of the US’S biggest classic car auction companies fill his spare time? By hunting muscle car unicorns – unique prototypes from Shelby American. Craig Jackson of Barrett-jackson declared in August that they had identified ‘Little Red’, a 1967 Shelby GT500 prototype, resting in a field of junked cars in rural Texas.
This car, one of only two notchback Mustang coupés produced by Shelby American (Jackson already owns the other, known as Green Hornet) was thought long since destroyed. It was used as an experimental hack at Shelby with body changes and a Paxton supercharger added to the big-block V8, but after a year or so it seems to have been sent to storage and lost. Jackson’s colleague Jason Billups explains how the car came to light, ‘After our initial research we realized that we were using the wrong search criteria. Everyone looked for Little Red using the Shelby serial number, which eventually led to a dead end. We took a different approach and located the car’s original Ford VIN number, which wasn’t easily found. That VIN led us to its original registration and eventually to its last owner.’
The car’s identity has since been crossreferenced and confirmed in various ways, but Jackson is keen to fill in the gaps in the history. Anyone who can add personal memories of the car can contribute these via