Dear Mustang Monthly,

I read your article in the June 2008 magazine on the $1000 Shelby GT500 Amazing Find with a lot of amusement.  You see, I am the guy who sold Randy Sizemore that Shelby at Carlisle in 1999.  The story of that car is even more interesting than Randy or you may have thought.  It was an “Amazing Find” twice.  Once for me, and once for Randy.

But first let me tell you how I came to read your article.  I no longer play with Mustangs and haven’t for years.  An avid Mustang nut friend of mine, Gordon Coggings, called me up yesterday and started asking me questions about a Shelby story I had told him a few years back.  He asked me if I sold the car in 1999, if I had sold it to a guy named Randy, and if the body had sold for $1000.  I said yes but how did he know those details?  He said” John, you made the cover of Mustang Monthly! The car has been restored and is the subject of a rags to riches story”.  So he sent me a fax with the article and I realized that it was truly my old car that Randy has restored.  Nice job Randy.  I wish you the best of luck with the car and couldn’t be more happy for you.

Sometime around 1983 I found a newspaper ad for a Shelby GT350 in running condition.  I went to look at it and drove it around.  It had a big block engine and 4 speed in it but the owner said it was a small block car.  He wanted $5,500 for it.  I noticed that the Ford VIN was engine code Q.  Big block Shelby for sure. Over the next two weeks we bargained, but couldn’t come up with a deal.  Then he called me up one night and said he was losing his lease on his storefront and needed the cash right now.  I told him that I only had $1,800 around and that I would give him that and an N case rear end to fix his Bronco that had a broken pinion.  He reluctantly agreed and I towed the car home.  I later sold some non Shelby parts off it for $400 so in the end it cost me $1400 cash and the rear end.  So this was my “Amazing Find”.

The car sat in my garage as I slowly collected parts for it over the next 16 years.  Slowly because I am extremely cheap but I like good quality parts.  In 1999 the business I had started folded and forced me to go back to being an engineer instead of an entrepreneur.

I was selling off my Mustangs and parts and looked at the economics of the Shelby.  I had about $5,000 in it at the time with the parts and such.  It looked like about a $15,0000 to $20,000 restoration was needed and at the end (in 1999) the car would probably be worth $40,000.  So there was $15,000 profit to be made if I invested $20,000 more.  I didn’t have the money and decided to sell the car.

I made up a detailed list of everything on the car and the condition and sent the list around to all the big Mustang dealers.  In it I said that I wanted to get $10,000 for the car.  I sent it to Branda, and Perogie, and about 4 or 5 others.  No one wanted it.  I advertised it in the paper for $10,000 and no one wanted it.  I knew that the car had over $10,000 worth of parts on it alone.  So I stripped it down to a rolling chassis and loaded the parts in my truck (old Ford 150, not the Dodge Randy remembered) and hauled it to Carlisle.

Randy actually got to the truck late.  By the time he got there the underdash gauges, steering wheel, and two thirds of the parts were gone.  And I had $11,000 in my pocket.  It had been a feeding frenzy by the Mustang dealers.  Randy bought the rest for $2,000 and just like he said, he found out I still had the rolling chassis.  $1,000 more, a little trip down to Maryland with a car trailer, and he had the car and title and was on his way.  

After it was sold some of the dealers at Carlisle came up to me and asked why I had parted a Shelby.  They asked me why I had sold the parts so cheap.  I reminded them that I had offered the car to them complete for $10,000 and they weren’t interested.  But I sold it as parts for 40% more than that.  And all that stuff sold to the dealers that wouldn’t buy the car in the first place.  Hence my amusement over how all this turned out.  

The guy that sold me the car said that it had 57,000 miles on it.  That agreed with the title, the instrument cluster, and the condition of the car.  The upholstery in the car was original and near perfect.

I think Randy got a steal and he has done good with it.  I was, and still am, happy with my deal and the cash I walked away with. The Mustang dealers were disappointed by what happened so in my eyes everything worked out perfect.

So there you have it.  I got an “Amazing Find”.  Randy got an “Amazing Find”.  And the cash I got allowed me to restart my life so I could probably buy that Shelby back now if I was so inclined.  If you see Randy tell him to drop me a line.  I would like to see more of the photos of the car and I might have some old photos of it myself.

Thanks,

John Carpenter  

John,

Thanks for providing us with the "Rest of the Story." I'll certainly tell Randy to get in touch with you - I'll probably see him at the Carlisle All-Ford Nationals in a couple of weeks. Also, if you'll e-mail your address to me at donald.farr@sourceinterlink.com, I'll send you some copies of the June issue so you'll have something better than a fax.

Donald Farr
editor