New Shelby Eleanors

Acknowledgement: This story was copied from Mustang Weekly.com.  The orginal is here

You’ve probably seen the film, "Gone In 60 Seconds." Doesn’t it seem like every teenager in the USA after a set of hot wheels wants a copy of Eleanor, the movie's customized version of the '67 Shelby GT-500? Now they can order one brand "new." Excuse us for putting the word new in quotes. The Shelby GT 500E, with the E standing for you know what, is all new. The car on which it is based has turned 35.

Old Mustangs never die, they just get continued - as Shelbys. With the extreme popularity of restomods these days, it was high time the tuners got into the business. Only you could say the GT-500E is "factory stock," being series produced and having a unique Shelby VIN. Already, Carroll Shelby manufactures Cobras in his facility in Las Vegas, along with the 21st century Series 1. With the escalating value of vintage Shelby Mustangs, and the urge to create state of the art hot rod Shelbys, the time was ripe.

We visited Shelby’s place last week during our annual trek to the SEMA convention in Las Vegas. Carroll held a news conference to announce the first Shelby Mustang in over 30 years (unless you count the handful of GT-350 convertibles he built in 1982 with Beverly Hills Mustang.) What you see here is the prototype which Doug Hasty of Unique Motorcars of Grand Prairie, Texas, built up from a body kit he purchased from Cinema Vehicle Services. That’s the same outfit that made the dozen (give or take a few) Eleanor movie cars.

Steve Sanderson, a Shelby dealer and president and CEO of Sanderson Sales & Marketing in Plano, Texas, met up with Hasty this past year and the what-ifs started churning and burning. Eleanor was so popular. Everybody wanted one, so what-if they started building them?  What-if they used state-of-the-art components for the fastest Shelby ever? What-if Carroll would get involved and they got the blessing and backing of the maestro himself? Shelby was delighted to come on board after looking over the quality of the operation. Although his new Shelbys  are currently built in Las Vegas, the "new" Shelby GT-500E will be built in Irving, Texas, home of the Dallas Cowboys in the Dallas-Ft. Worth metroplex and 130 miles west of Shelby’s old stomping grounds.

Prices start at $80,000, which seems a bit steep at first. However, when you are purchasing rust-free ‘67 fastbacks and going completely through them to make a car like new, costs can get pretty high. Plus, all materials are state-of-the-art to produce an uncompromising performance car.
Check out the charts for specs. Base GT-500s actually come with the 302, tuned with Shelby innards to produce over 400 horsepower. The Super Snake with the supercharged aluminum 427 will produce over 700 horsepower.

More "new" news will come in 2003 when Shelby introduces a "new" Shelby Mustang. We can only guess now what that will be. MustangWeekly.com 

More information can be found in the specifications below, and by visiting the Sanderson website here: 

Specifications: