I had been looking for about 6 months in various places in the U.S for a 68 Shelby when I came across this example. Unfortunately there aren't too many 68 Shelby's in Australia so I had to find one the hard way. For me, a big Block Shelby is as good as it gets.

There are many places in the U.S who specialize in selling Muscle cars (especially Shelby's) and had come across a 3 in about a 6 month period at a place called "Tango" (www.shelbymustang.com). But by the time I had received enough information and pictures, unfortunately I was always missing out!!

I received an email from the owner of Tango in early September 2005 to advise that they had a Candy Apple Red 68 GT500 (428 Big Block motor) that would be coming up for sale in the next week. Tango specialize in restoring and selling Shelbys and the owner of this car gave it to Tango at the beginning of 2005 to have the restoration finished. Sadly he suddenly passed away in August 2005 and as Tango already had the car, had been instructed to sell the car on behalf of the estate. Because of this I had more time to get detailed pictures and have the car inspected.

I had tracked down a SAAC Club member (Shelby American Automobile Club) who only lived about an hour from Tango who agreed to inspect the car for me. He owned 2 68 Shelby's himself and I had spoke to him on a couple of occasions about previous cars. After he inspected the car I told him what the estate was asking for it and he told me it was about $20k USD under priced. That made the decision easy...

The owner spent just over $30k USD on the car at Tango that included a full mechanical rebuild, engine bay restoration, and various other things. The car was painted on a rotisserie about 7 years ago but had never seen the road, so the paintwork is still excellent, as is the undercarriage. The interior is largely unrestored but still in excellent condition.

Due to transport and Christmas period, it took the car until late January until it arrived here in Australia. Even though I had the car inspected and had many phone conversations with Tango, I was still a little nervous about the condition of the car and whether it was up to my expectations. I was very pleasantly surprised and the condition ended up being better than I was expecting. A nice surprise.

The car is awesome to drive with an abundance of tyre frying torque. Anyone who has driven one knows what I mean... What is also surprising is the number of people over here in Australia know what the car is and are in awe of Shelby Mustangs.