Images: Northwest Auto Salon

We love historical cars here at StreetMuscleMag.com. No, we’re not talking about some ’77 Corvette that was the only unit painted in Taupe with the optional luggage rack and brown perforated faux leather interior. No, we’re talking about muscle cars that were instrumental in the development of the muscle car industry in and of itself. In fact, this is the exact premise to our bi-monthly “Muscle Cars You Should Know” segment. Cars that played a key role in forging the legend, the legacy and the allure of muscle cars…and we think we just found another. What you’re looking at is not just another ’65 Mustang that is somewhere in the middle of a restoration. Nope. This is possibly the most historically significant Shelby Mustang ever, the 5R002 – the first GT350 R-model ever to be produced (and the second GT350 in general).

Last week, in preparation for the annual Kirkland Concours d'Elegance, the NWAS team conducted an intensive three day mobile detail on some of these very special cars.

The Northwest Auto Salon is privileged to work on some really impressive car collections and this client is no exception. This particular collection (whose owner will remain obviously anonymous) has several historic Shelby Mustangs in his collection including several first production cars, including each Shelby Mustang with the serial number “002” produced for each year between 1965 through 1967. The collection also includes one of the 11 factory-supercharged 1966 GT350s (1 of 3 in red).

This car heralds the beginning of Shelby’s dominance in the B-production racing world. After changing hands a several times between independent racers, and winning the Southwest National Championships in B-production in 1967, 1968 and 1969, being abandoned in an arid Mexican desert, and doing a stint in an another  private collection, it’s now on loan to the Shelby American Collection, a private museum in Boulder, Colorado, where it will stay until its sent off for a complete restoration back to its original glory.