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We "lost" Willow Springs last year after it went private. It was $200 for the weekend. Now it's $400 a day but the real killer was their demand that the host of a track day event assume any and all liability with no insurance being available from the track.

I'm always amazed by how many people prefer the Gulf colors of the Mirage on their Ford GTs.......
When Ford bailed out of racing the MKII GT40s in late 1966 (to build a new J class car completely in the US) they basically gave Ford Advance Vehicles to John Wyer and John Willment. Their JWA revamped the original GT MKI small block car and created the Mirage. It was those Gulf sponsored JWA cars that won LeMans in 1968 and 69. After 69 FIA had again played with the rules so JW took is Gulf money and bought Porsches.

On January 1, 1967, John Wyer―master strategist and veteran of many of the world's great racing battles―opened the doors of a new racing organization, J.W. Automotive Engineering (JWA). The purpose of the new firm was to fill a recent void in the FIA World Manufacturers' Championship caused by Ford's withdrawal from international sports car racing. With modest sponsorship funding from Grady Davis of Gulf Oil Corporation, Pittsburg, JWA built three Prototypes to contest the Championship.

Called M1s, the new Mirages retained much of the successful Ford GT40 concept but utilized a revised roof section featuring a narrower windscreen, with a lightweight, more aerodynamically efficient body. Just four months after the opening of J.W. Automotive the M1s made their debut at Monza in April 1967 with encouraging results. At the following race, the Spa 6 Hours, Jacky Ickx and Dr. Dick Thompson drove their Mirage to victory in the rain at an average speed of 120.5 mph beating the works Ferrari P4 by two laps.

Follow along
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F6jx8J_E8dI
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GWKzkwt4k8I
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e2oC-SmmPJY
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eQt1V92lXQ0
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WyrrsLqxs58
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_2pgf-2F61s
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dyo9dYtEPUI

This vehicle is being sold at the Indy Fall Special 2023 as Lot No. F39. Shelby no. 00244- Shipped to Jack Loftus Ford in Hinsdale, Illinois- 428 CI Police Interceptor V-8 engine- 4-speed manual transmission- Red exterior with White stripes- Power steering- Power brakes- Black convertible top- Black interior- History listed in the Shelby Registry- Part of the Burbach collection since 1997

Sold $79,200 - https://www.mecum.com/lots/1095307/1968-shelby-gt500-convertible/?aa_id=483624-0

....Are the historical and restored vehicle facts not important any more to buyers? Times have changed.

Absolutely no longer important. The value is now in how many points the car scores not in the stories that were removed to return it to day 1 condition. Buyers today only look at the rarity not the accomplishments of the Marque.

VIN: OK1857912823
scam 

Oklahoma assigned VIN. There was a problem with the original VIN on whatever chassis they started with so the state gave it a new one. The car could have been stolen and the numbers cut out or the panels were rusted and replaced.

other ads same car - more photos

https://www.hemmings.com/classifieds/listing/1970-shelby-gt500-fenton-mo-2962935
https://www.classic.com/veh/1970-ford-mustang-gt500-ok1857912823-nKNvvg4/
https://www.classic.com/s/west-port-auto-center-MWRXA4l/lots/1970-shelby-gt500-Wb6V5rW

Your only hope is to track it back through the previous owners to see what changes were done. Your best bet will lie with finding whoever did the original assembly work. When the continuation cars started it was illegal for SA to produce a turn key car that did not meet current safety and emissions laws. So there was a process where SA built the roller and then it was sent to a final assembler to install the drive train. Sometimes these "assemblers" were next door and only separate on the paperwork. In 2015 the feds created a law allowing a manufacturer to build up to 325 cars per year that replicated a 25+ year old car.

I'm at a loss why bat didn't insist on posting a photo of the Shelby vin stamp and bidders have not insisted on seeing it.

The less BAT knows the better they like it. If they insisted on a pic of the VIN and someone said it was fake that could affect price. The owner could say he lost money because they required it and sue them. It's a real Caveat emptor environment and BATs involvement seems to be helping to write bulletproof descriptions that really lack any proofs.

I've gone to an LED in my Model A dash. I found it much better. Yes Apples to Oranges to some extent but the old bulb gave off the typical yellowish incandescent glow where the LED has a much brighter blueish white output (It's bright enough I'm thinking of swapping it out for a red one that won't effect night vision). The down side of LED conversions is using them in turn signals. They don't draw enough current for the flashers to work right so you have to change that to an electronic one.
Check prices on FleaBay or one of the LED suppliers. Small bulbs are $2-3 each on those sites. You can find a chart online that will tell you which bulb you need if there isn't a direct replacement number - you'll need to know diameter, pin location, contact placement, voltage.

A shame he put the ford vin out there

Not as big a deal as you'd think. The way they were batch built at Ford then stored and pulled to be built at SA was a real crap shoot. Toss in the colors for 66 and you really reduce your chances to guess the Ford/Shelby number. That minimum wage lot boy grabbed the nearest car to stick on the line he didn't care if there was an older one a little further back in line. There was no pattern that would allow you to guess and create a "missing" car without having the ledger in your hands. Even if you knew every SA and Ford number of the cars that still exist I'd wager the odds of guessing a number correctly would be less that 20%. It would be fun to make a list of the Ford numbers and sort them as to the date they got built. 40+ years ago I did have the original ledger in my hands for a few minutes and noticed there was no rhyme or reason to how the Ford numbers connected to the Shelby numbers.

I think only the steel frame hoods retained the stock latch.

About 25% of all the '67 Shelby's were Lime Gold - very popular color that year...

The total number shocked me - too bad the car in the article isn't yellow or burgundy.

I was going to drag out the registry and look through the lime gold ones. My thought was there weren't many. AI says 798 500s in Lime Gold - far too many. I guess I let my dislike of the color taint my thought on how many would be built.

Might help if we could date this issue. When were the valve covers pictured available?
R.R.

Probably sometime after Shelby lost the trademarks to Ford (mid 1967) and created "Carroll Shelby Accessories".
There is a little smoke and mirrors in the first section. #1 Shelby American ceased to exist in the eyes of Ford. Ford started and wholly owned Shelby Automotive to build the cars. Carroll sat as a member of the board directors and was paid $40,000 per year. #2 The parts company was his and sold the CS branded stuff. Anything in his catalog with Cobra, GT350, GT500, etc was bought and resold under license from Ford. #3 Racing Division - this was created from a Ford contract to run in the TransAm series for 2 years. Ford provided the cars and spares. The first couple races "Shelby Racing Company" did their own engines. Ford then insisted he run them as received and we know the results. CS didn't really care he saved the money of having to tear them down and build them right. I don't know what happened to the 68 cars. They were Kar Kraft builds (in 67 he was allowed to build his own cars but Ford required they use the Kar Kraft specs). When CS's contract ended with the 69 TA season he sent the cars he had been loaned and spares to Bud Moore who continued in the 70 season. Moore also ran in 71 with the cars but as an independent. Factory backing of TA was done for the Big3 - AMC was the only factory team in 71. The 69 season ended CS's racing for Ford. Shelby Automotive basically died in 1969 but was kept on life support until the renumbered 70s were gone. Beyond that it existed only on the corporate books as a column for the accountants to list any warranty claims.
As a side note Carroll's son Patrick was SA's president when the 2 of them dissolved the original Shelby American as a California corporation in 1988.  15 years later a new Shelby American was incorporated in 2003 as a subsidiary of "Carroll Shelby International, Inc.

162? What does it say on the shirt? That may narrow down the magazine it was in.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZllpZ0PmrYs