Automotive: GT 350

Showing posts with label GT 350. Show all posts

1984 GT 350 Mustang, the 20th Anniversary Special

Ford execs apparently didn’t have any big plans to make a big splash for the Mustang’s 20th birthday, but cranked out 350 1984 20th Anniversary G.T. 350s that carried a lot of options to make them unique — including the G.T 350 moniker made famous by Carroll Shelby in the late 1960s.

The trouble with the plan was that Shelby owned the rights to the G.T. 350 name. And no way he was going to waste that legacy on a turbo four with 145 hp

Ford didn't think they'd have to give way, and were wrong. They had screwed a lot of small people through the years (intermittent wipers for example) but hadn't tangled with a legend like Shelby before. Hell, they used him to teach Enzo a lesson, you'd think they would have realized he wasn't going to take any shit from them.

Carroll didn't use the GT 350 badge until 2011, when the car was finally competitive.

http://www.oldcarsweekly.com/car-of-the-week/car-of-the-week-1984-ford-mustang-g-t-350
https://www.thoughtco.com/1984-ford-mustang-anniversary-edition-gt350-2464614

Fidel Kunz was a painter back in 1967, a few miles north of the border town Porthill, Idaho.

Fidel's local Ford dealer didn't have any Shelbys in stock and wouldn't take Fidel's requests for one seriously. Fidel was fed up. One day he walked into the showroom with the required amount of money to buy a Shelby. The dealer saw all that cash in Fidel's hand and changed his mind

Fidel immediately set about racing his new car as well as using it as a daily driver, the GT-350 carried Fidel to his various job sites during the week. It was on the job that the car caught the attention of a young kid. The kid wanted a ride, and Fidel obliged. The young kid was wowed and became a racer in his teens. He later switched to engine building. One of his engines won the Indy 500 years later.

Before he knew it, the whole experience came to an abrupt end in the early 1970s when the car was stolen because the GT-350 had extensive engine work done and was known in the area. The thieves couldn't sell the car without attracting attention, so they pulled the engine to sell it out of town. The body of the car was abandoned in bushes, destroyed. Sadly, the car had to be written off.