Those of you with your fingers on the classic car pulse will know that the outright sales record for the world’s most expensive Mustang was set in January. You will probably also know that this was the legendary “Bullitt” Mustang driven by the late Steve McQueen in the movie of the same name. That record stands at $3.74 million, and there were plenty of people that believed that the record would stand for a very long time. Well, possibly not. There is a vehicle set to hit the auction blocks in May that has the potential to shatter that record and many of those people who are “in the know” believe that it will. The car in question is a 1965 Shelby GT350R. However, this isn’t just any Shelby, but it is, in fact, the prototype. The GT350R is located in Indianapolis, Indiana, and is listed for sale here on Mecum. If you have a lazy $4 million or so, this truly significant car could very well be yours.

The GT350R, which was assigned the Shelby designation of SFM5R002, was built in 1965. It served as a test-bed for many of the development ideas and components that found their way into the 34 examples of the customer GT350R which were built to compete in the SCCA Production Sports Car Series. Even though it carried the “2” designation, it was the first GT350R to be completed and was also the first Shelby Mustang to both race, and score a competition win. It accumulated a list of pretty illustrious pilots, including Bob Bondurant, Chuck Cantwell, Peter Brock, Jerry Titus, and the legendary Ken Miles. In fact, this was the only Mustang that Miles ever drove in competition. When the GT350R was homologated for SCCA B Production Car racing, it was this vehicle that was not only presented by Shelby for that process, but is also the car that is illustrated in the official Homologation  Papers. It remained in competition for a number of months before SFM5R001 was brought in to replace it. The car then served as a test mule for the production GT350, as well as a mobile sales tool for any competitors that might be interested in purchasing a GT350R for competition. It returned to competition for Shelby later in 1965, before eventually being sold in 1966. From there it continued racing for a number of years with great success, before finally being retired in 1972. At that point, 5R002 was placed on a trailer, painted in grey primer, and then parked in an open shed.

Having been left at the mercy of time and the elements, it would have been conceivable that the car could have deteriorated to a state where it was beyond help. Thankfully, it was discovered in that open shed in 1989, and with money changing hands, 5R002 had a new owner. The car was displayed in “as found condition” for many years, including a 14-year stint in the Shelby American Museum. Eventually, the vehicle underwent a full restoration, a process that took an incredible 4-years. The process took the car back to its roots. As it stands now, the Shelby is in exactly the same configuration that it was in when it made its competition debut in Green Valley, Texas, on February 14th, 1965. That means that it wears the correct Wimbledon White paint, the correct signage, and the distinctive Cragar Shelby 15″ magnesium-centered wheels. Under the hood rests a correct 289ci V8, backed by a 4-speed manual transmission. The restoration work has been completed to the highest standard, and there were a number of former Shelby engineers brought in to ensure that every aspect of the build was undertaken with as much accuracy as possible. This process was also aided by the availability of the SCCA Homologation Papers because as previously mentioned, it was this car that provided all of the information for that process. As a blueprint, that represented a pretty decent starting point.

Given the Shelby’s competition history, it’s no surprise to find that the interior is about as “bare-bones” as you are ever likely to find. In fact, you can be pretty sure that if SCCA Class B regulations hadn’t required it, there would have been no front passenger seat fitted. There is certainly no rear seat, and because regulations required the vehicle to carry a spare tire, there is one secured to the rear parcel tray. Any item surplus to requirements was removed to save weight. This included the carpet, all upholstery, the kick panels, radio, and even the door for the glove compartment. As anyone who has ever raced will be happy to tell you, every ounce counts in the quest for speed. The interior has a true sense of purpose about it and is also spotlessly clean. For those who might doubt the provenance of 5R002, it comes with a raft of documentation tracing its history right back to day one. It is this sort of information that makes the difference between a potentially good find, and a truly great one.

This vehicle poses one truly vexing question, and that is; Can the very first Shelby Mustang race car command a higher price than the “Bullitt” Mustang? That’s a difficult one because the Bullitt Mustang is such an iconic vehicle, and it remains legendary and instantly recognizable some 52-years after it first graced the big screen. However, the Shelby GT350 marked that moment in time when the Mustang graduated from being a pony car that could produce impressive performance, to a raging stallion with attitude and muscle. This is the vehicle that served as a prototype test-bed for the GT350 road car, making it potentially the most significant Mustang to ever emerge from the Shelby factory. When you consider that one of the 34 GT350R customer cars recently sold for more than $1 million and that the 1967 GT500 “Super Snake” sold for a cool $2.2 million back in 2019, that makes a new sales record seem like a possibility. One thing that could potentially negate this is the current economic uncertainty, but if the right buyers do emerge, then it could still happen.