The Shelby American (Summer 2022)

place. There’s no reason for any ’65 GT350 or regular production ’66 GT350 to have its grille missing at this stage of production at SA. • There’s no trim piece (grille joint cover) in the lower-center of the grille on that front car. That’s the way 1965 GT350s were delivered to SA. And that’s the way carryovers were deliv- ered because that new-for-1966 part was not available for installation at San Jose when the carryovers were as- sembled. This is further proof that front car has to be a 1966 carryover – not a regular production 1966 GT350. Now zoom in on the paper taped inside the windshield of that front car: •• The left and right edges are curled back making the full numbers impos- sible to decipher. •• On the upper part it appears to be “…x42…” (a short series of numbers whose beginning and end are not visi- ble; the x could be a 9, but it’s not clear enough to determine with any cer- tainty, so this research will treat that as simply another unknown digit.) •• On the lower part of that paper, is that “…S08…” or could it be “...508...”? Well, examining that photo cer- tainly yielded a lot of great informa- tion. We now know that the cars in that lineup are 1966 GT350s, and at least the one in front is a carryover. So it’s one of 252 cars – somewhere be- tween 6S001 and 6S252. Now let’s see if we can pin it down any closer. Let’s start by solving that riddle – Is that “…508…” or “…S08…” on the bottom of that paper taped in the windshield? The SHELBY AMERICAN Summer 2022 73 Ford and Shelby VINs No Grille Joint Cover Trim Piece No Grille Interior Panel Attachment Brackets Exposed No Rear Vent Louvers Rear Seats