Ken Miles’ Shelby Is Now the Most Expensive Mustang Ever

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The 1965 Shelby Mustang GT350R Prototype driven by legendary Brummie racing driver Ken Miles is now the most expensive Mustang in existence, selling for a whopping $3,850,000US ($5.85m NZ) at Mecum Auction’s Sale at Indianapolis on July 17th.

This means the original racing Shelby Mustang just pipped the $3.4 million US record set by the famous highland green Mustang GT390 Fastback from Bullitt. This 1965 GT350R, model number FM5R002, was genesis for Shelby’s Mustang Racing programme.

The GT350R the first Mustang to be tweaked by Shelby, Pete Brock and Phil Remington. The intention was to enter it in the Sports Car Club of American series (SCCA).

The Prototype also turned a wheel in anger in the hands of Bob Bondurant and of course, Ken “Sidebite” Miles. Miles was racing this GT350R at Dallas. A photographer got a shot of the car flying over a crest with all four wheels in the air. This earned it the nickname “The Flying Mustang’ in newspapers and magazines.

FM5R002 was also a rolling test bed for development and production ideas. It is said Miles put as much 50,000 miles on it during this period.

The Shelby competed SCCA events until 1966. The car was sold to Ford Engineer Bill Clawson who continued to race it until 1970. After this it was sold again, ending up in Mexico where it sat for 17 years in hiding.

After a few more owners, it was fully restored to original condition. This allowed SFM5R002 to win a number of Concours events including Pebble Beach in 2015.

Its safe to assume one particularly lucky Mustang owner is going be jumping for joy for some time yet.

By Ben Selby

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