The Shelby American (Summer 2022)

The SHELBY AMERICAN Summer 2022 4 Idling in Neutral. Every once in a while we see something on the Internet that causes us stop and think. On Feb- ruary 2nd we saw an item on Yahoo News about the theft of a Cobra in Northern California. It was described as a “continuation car” (it was not a Shelby CXS4000 series but a replica of unknown manufacture), stolen in the sum- mer of 2021, but recovered re- cently. It had been thoroughly trashed and dumped, in pieces, down an embankment near Red- ding, California near where it had been stolen. According to its owner, the Cobra had been in an enclosed trailer in a hotel parking lot just prior to being sold. A full-sized pickup had hitched it up and drove away. The car itself was later spot- ted being driven away from the area and the empty trailer was subsequently recovered. After about eight months the investi- gation was still active with the local police and once they discov- ered the car they were hopeful they might get fingerprints or DNA from the remains. Since many car thieves have criminal histories, there was a possibility this could lead to an arrest. Then we came to the nub of the story. “ However, there’s no guaran- tee the prosecutor or judge won’t go easy on these creeps if they’re caught. That factor alone seems to be helping fuel the out-of-control theft surge sweeping this nation and many others. ” Flying R-Model Price Revised 5R002, arguably one of the most historically significant examples of the GT350, also known as “the Flying R-Model” for obvious reasons, was re- stored from 2010 to 2014 and sold for a record-breaking $3.85M at Mecum’s Indianapolis auction in 2020. In 2022 it was placed in Mecum’s Kissimmee auction, and bidding for it quickly worked up to $3.4M, stalled, then closed at $3.7M. That’s higher than the $3.5M hammer bid that bought it in 2020, and the buyer’s fee would have pushed that above the $4M mark. However, Mecum reported the final price in 2022 as $3.75M, which likely means some fees were waved and ne- gotiated between parties behind the scenes. This Shelby has recorded the two highest prices ever recorded at auction for a Mustang, just ahead of the $3.74M paid for the Bullitt car two years ago. We think we may have found the missing 1968 Shelby that ‘68 Registrar Vin- cent Liska owned back in 1968. All indications point to it being this car. Liska’s ‘ 68 Shelby Found?