A one-off Ford Mustang Shelby GT500 built by Shelby American and Ford Racing as a tribute to the late Carroll Shelby sold at auction over the weekend.
The tribute car, called the Shelby GT500 Cobra, garnered much praise following its debut at the 2012 Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance, so its final bid of just $200,000 at this past weekend’s Barrett-Jackson auction in Scottsdale, Arizona, is a bit of a surprise.
Mustangs with less pedigree than this tribute car have sold for considerably more at auction in the past. What’s more, all proceeds from the sale were to be donated to the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation.
The 2013 Ford Mustang Shelby GT500, which this tribute car was based on, was the last Mustang to be developed under the direction of Shelby.
Starting with the stock 662-horsepower model, a group dubbed the ‘Friends of Carroll’ contributed to this remarkable car. They tweaked and enhanced everything, including lifting output from the supercharged 5.8-liter V-8 to more than 850 horsepower.
That much power required 13-inch wide rear wheels wrapped in massive 345-section high performance tires. All of that rubber is covered by new wide-body fenders and the entire car is finished in the same Guardsman Blue with Wimbledon White stripes that graced many of Shelby’s original 1960s Cobra roadsters.
After it was introduced at Pebble Beach, the unique tribute car toured many top enthusiast events in the U.S. before ending up on the auction block. The Friends of Carroll chose to honor Shelby’s commitment to charity by auctioning the car to raise donations.
