America’s wealthiest car collectors descended on Scottsdale, Arizona this past weekend for one of the country’s largest and highest-dollar auto auctions. The big Barrett-Jackson Collector Car Auction event drew thousands of bidders and spectators, as well as hundreds of collectible cars that among them were dozens of Mustangs both classic and contemporary. Can you guess which Mustang drew the highest bid? Hint; it wasn’t the first production 2015 Mustang.
We’ve put together a list of the five top-selling Mustangs from Barrett-Jackson’s 2014 Scottsdale event, and we’ll start with an original, unrestored Boss.
#5) Unrestored 1969 Boss 429 Mustang – $176,000
Survivor cars are all the rage these days, as the number of all-original, unrestored vehicles grows smaller by the day. A 1969 Boss 429 Mustang is in and of itself a valuable vehicle, even in crummy shape, and while mint, totally-restored versions have commanded as much as $250,000 on the market, this unrestored original still brought in an impressive $176,000. While not as clean as many other cars on the block, it showed that value is as much about originality as it is about perception.
#4) Fully Restored 1969 Boss 429 Mustang – $291,000
While originality certainly has a value all its own, the collector car market still seems mostly motivated by desirable makes and shiny paint jobs. This 1969 Boss 429 Mustang has both name recognition and an incredible paint job, and has been fully restored to Concours specifications. Outfitted with an early NASCAR-spec 429 engine and every performance option, when the hammer fell someone’s bank account was $291,000 lighter.
#3) First Production 2015 Ford Mustang GT – $300,000
You would have thought that a car billed as one of the highlights of the Barrett-Jackson auction would have drawn some of the highest bids. After all, the first production 2014 Chevy Corvette sold for $1 million when the hammer fell. But the winner of the first production 2015 Mustang GT, which will come with a 5.0 V8, and the customer’s choice of color and transmission, sold for just $300,000. Then again, that’s probably about 10-times the actual cost of this car, all of which money will benefit JDRF. Makes a little more sense when you look at it like that.
#2) 1968 Shelby GT500KR Convertible – $308,000
So what kind of Mustangs are more valuable than the first 2015 Mustang? Just one kind of Mustang, the Shelby Mustang. When the hammer fell, someone laid out $308,000 for this 1-of-43 Bright Yellow 1968 Shelby GT500KR convertible. The name might be a mouthful, but this car is a real rarity, and fully-restored to boot. The market for Shelby Mustangs hasn’t slowed down in the least.
#1) 1965 Shelby GT350 – $374,000
The Shelby GT350 is the car that made Carroll Shelby’s name synonymous with performance, and with less than 500 produced, it’s also among the rarest Mustangs in the world. The price of Shelby Mustangs has increased across the board since Carroll’s sudden death, and the $374,000 paid for this numbers-matching, fully-restored example is among the most paid for a GT350.
It’s clear that Shelby’s name has lost none of its potency, even in death, and we expect Shelby Mustangs to dominate the collector car circuit for many years to come.