- [Colin] 1967 Shelby GT500.
- [Craig] I purchased back in 1977.
- [Colin] This car gets really interesting under here.
- [Craig] With the Twin Paxtons and twin carburetors,
they're making six, 700 horsepower easily.
- [Colin] You just put it to 11.
My number's a little higher than yours.
(The Appraiser intro theme)
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(engine revving) (rock music)
- [Colin] Craig.
- Hi Colin, how you doing?
- Good, how are you?
- Good to see you. - Good to see you.
Thanks for bringing your '67 GT500.
- [Craig] No problem.
- [Colin] You're kind of foolish, I think,
for bringing a car like this in to me
to get an appraisal but...
- [Craig] Well, we've done a couple of projects together,
so why not? - [Colin] (chuckles) Right,
you're very trusting.
So tell me a little bit about your car
and your history with the car.
- [Craig] Well this car I purchased back in 1977
from a woman that was the sister of the original owner.
- 1977? I wasn't even born yet.
- (chuckles) Well, I was pretty young at the time
and I saw this in the PennySaver, which is
a little newspaper that towns had for resale.
It was just in there as a Mustang.
Went down and took a look at it
and saw it was a Shelby Mustang.
She said that this was a car
that her brother had bought new.
Unfortunately he got drafted, went into Vietnam
and never came home in '68.
So it was very low mileage, was sitting in this garage.
I purchased the car.
I had it for a few years and I actually sold it
to a good friend of mine to buy my first house.
And with the promise that I was able to buy this car back.
35 years later, I was able to buy it back.
- [Colin] And have you done anything to it
since you bought it back?
- Yes, some special things because my company
bought out McCulloch & Paxton about 20 years ago,
so I thought this would be a great car
to put two Paxtons on it.
- Two Paxton superchargers? - Yep.
- [Colin] A little bit's okay, a little more is good,
but you just went all the way.
You just put it to 11.
Okay, all right, well I'm excited to look at that.
Other than that, is it the original engine,
transmission, sheet metal, paint, what's going on here?
- Honestly, I took the original engine out
'cause I was gonna twin supercharge it
and put some power to it.
So I didn't wanna hurt the original engine
so I built my own 428 with a little bit of stroke in it
because it's gonna get plenty of air from Twin Paxtons.
It's really only about 445 cubic inches,
and with the Twin Paxtons and twin carburetors,
you know, they're making anywhere from six, 700 horsepower
easily and maxed out about 750.
That's all the air they can make on a big block.
- Basic premise here, as you know,
I'm doing an appraisal and while I do the appraisal,
because it's somewhat invasive and you don't wanna see it,
you don't wanna see how the sausage is made.
- (laughs) Okay. - So we're gonna usher
you away to a secure location, the soundproof booth,
and then we're gonna call you back out here
and have a conversation.
I'll tell you my number and see
if you fall down or you jump for joy.
(rock music)
So we're taking a drive in Craig's '67 GT500
with not one but two Paxton superchargers.
(rock music continues) (engine revving)
I finished my appraisal of Craig's 1967 Shelby GT500.
It's an interesting car.
He has a long history with it.
He originally bought it in 1977 like he told us.
That's pretty special stuff
but what I wanna start with is what's under the hood,
because this car gets really interesting under here.
Now originally this would've had a 428
which has dual quads on it and nothing else.
Now Craig, being in the business of building
Paxton superchargers for Shelbys,
wanted to show what he could do
so he put two of the bad boys under the hood of this car.
So instead of just a regular old air cleaner
that this car would've originally come with
and no forced induction, it now has double superchargers.
This is a very similar setup to the two Twin Paxton
supercharged Cobras that Shelby built in period,
which later became known as the Super Snakes.
In the middle of all of this insanity
Craig has done something pretty smart.
He's taken out the original numbers matching engine
for this car and put it on a shelf.
In its place he's built a hot-rod 445 cubic inch engine
to put all this forced induction onto,
so if something goes wrong and he blows it up,
he's not destroying value.
Beyond that, the car just presents as a really nice,
low-mileage, rust-free California car.
The Shelby serial number tag is here, it's number 984
so it's a very early car.
Now being early 1967, it has what is referred to
as inboard headlights.
These were later changed to what they call
outboard headlights, where they move them to the outside
of the grill because of lighting laws.
They were getting in trouble
for having these lights too close together.
Now let's continue our walk around
and I'll show you some other stuff.
(hood clicks closed)
So this car is Dark Moss Green.
Today it's a very desirable color.
They made a lot of them in period and while green
fell out favor for a little while, today people love it.
The other thing you can notice on the car here
is that it has what they call Magstar wheels.
This was an optional wheel for 1967.
The base wheel was a 15 by 6-inch steel wheel
with a Thunderbird hubcap that had a Shelby emblem
placed into the middle of it.
You could also get a 10-spoke aluminum wheel
or these Magstars, so there were three wheel choices
for '67.
Besides Paxton superchargers, Craig is in the business
of making new wheels for vintage Shelbys.
His company makes Magstar wheels
so Craig has made a special set of Magstar wheels
just for his own car.
He made 15 by 7-inch ones for the front
and 15 by 8-inch ones for the back,
because he wanted to put on some big tires
and try to get all that Twin Paxton power to the ground.
If we walk around the outside,
you see the original fiberglass scoops.
Everything's in place.
It looks essentially bone stock and untouched from new.
Now in the trunk, one of the casualties
of putting two supercharges under the hood of this car
means that the battery had to be relocated back here.
So Craig's moved the battery to the rear,
much like a 1965 Shelby so that's one modification
that would be easy to reverse if you decide to put back
in the original engine and take the blowers off of it.
You can see he's having a little bit of a rummage sale here
in the trunk with these taillight covers.
He must have had to do a little wiring repair
or replace some light bulbs,
but what I do like to find is this kind of stuff.
I like the fact that he has a stack of paperwork,
original California registration receipts,
some old pictures, the original owner's manual.
He has some Mel Burns license plate frames
from the original selling dealership,
and also there is a magazine back here that this car was in.
Craig used this car for a motor trunk classic article
so the car has also got some press, which adds to its value.
When it was in the magazine,
you can see it had the correct 10-spoke wheels on it
so you can see the difference.
There's also kind of a neat picture back here of the car
years ago in a garage covered with junk next to a Pantera,
so I would assume this is where he purchased it.
(car trunk slams shut)
So we walk around the other side of the car here
and there is one feature that I noticed,
that the rear quarter panel is covered in tire rubber,
which is odd because I wouldn't think a guy
that put Twin Paxtons on his car would drive it like that
but I guess to each their own.
More of the same over here, you can see some flaws
in the original paint, not a big deal.
It's actually nice to have that level of originality.
On the interior from this side, we can see
has original seat covers, what appears to be
the original carpet, the original factory roll bar
and the factory shoulder harnesses in here.
Everything's where it should be
and it's all correct 1967 Shelby stuff.
And let's get behind the wheel
and see what it looks like in there.
So there are a few little modifications in here obviously
that have been done for the Twin Paxton installation.
It has this triple-gauge mount on the steering column,
which is not original.
Has a vintage Sun fuel pressure gauge,
a vintage Stewart Warner boost pressure gauge
and a modern digital Wideband air/fuel ratio monitor,
because when you put that kind of pressure
into a big block Ford with the two blowers on it,
you probably wanna make sure it doesn't blow up,
so Craig is keeping tabs on it with all this.
The car shows 28,000 original miles.
The original aluminum dash applique is, you know,
fading a little bit, which is common of these cars.
It has a really nice original steering wheel on it.
This is hard to find, one of these wheels this nice.
The factory gauges under the dash are all there.
I did take a look in the glove box
and found something very interesting.
I found a couple of pictures in here,
which I believe are Craig,
and these look like they were taken last year.
He's wearing a different shirt than he is wearing today.
Same car and it looks like maybe
he was doing a little work on it, so like I said,
I think these were within the last 12 months
but maybe I'm wrong, they could be older.
Kind of cool to have stuff like that.
(engine turning over) (engine rumbling)
So it has a little lumpy idle and a little louder exhaust.
The car does have headers on it
so it has a little tinnier sound to it but really,
just sitting here idling, you wouldn't know much
of what's going on under there unless you hit the gas
and you hear the supercharges wind up.
(engine revving)
So a big block Ford with a pair of Paxtons on it
is never a bad thing.
So I finished my appraisal of Craig's GT500.
I have my number, I'm gonna call him back out here
and tell him that number and see if he becomes
as pressurized as this engine
or if he's nice and cool about it.
Let's go get him.
(rock music)
Hey Craig, welcome back. (chuckles)
- [Craig] All right.
- Can we still be friends no matter what happens here?
- Of course, Colin. (chuckles) - Okay.
How much is that gonna cost me?
Well I like your car.
As you know, I've gone over it, I've checked it out.
I have a number.
Before I give you my number I want your number,
'cause just like when you go scrapping,
like you never wanna throw out the first number,
so it's your turn.
You get to throw out the first number.
- [Craig] Well, you know, besides the current market
which may be a little bit, I don't know, inflated right now
but I think this car is probably a 200 to $225,000 car
in today's market.
- Yeah, I mean not that you would sell it obviously
because you have a pretty good history with it
and you let her get away once.
- [Craig] Yeah, special car.
- I like your number.
Would you sell it for 200?
- [Craig] No. - [Colin] Are you sure?
My number's a little higher than yours.
Like you said, I think today's market is,
you know, going pretty well,
cars are trading for a lot of money
and this is a special car.
You know, you have a unique thing, you have a car
with this hot-rod Twin Paxton setup
that not a lot of people have.
You pull into a car show, just pop the hood,
- That's pretty cool. - I'm sure people crowd around
but if you wanna go back the other way,
you throw the stock engine back in it.
So you haven't really destroyed any collectability
by just plugging in your hot-rod engine.
- Right, that was the idea.
- So I think today, I think the car is worth more
like $250,000.
- Wow, that's pretty cool.
- I like how you're unfazed by it, that's good.
I was ready to jump back. (Craig laughs)
- If I was in the mood to sell the car
then maybe I would be more into it
but you know what, it's kind of an heirloom.
It's probably gonna be in the family forever.
- I did find that recent photograph of you in the glove box
- Uh-oh. - [Colin] And I mean,
looks like you got lots of time left
so thanks so much for bringing it, really appreciate it.
- Thank you, Colin.
- Always good to see you. - Have a good day.
Yeah, you too. - Buh-bye.
(engine turning over) (engine rumbling)
Colin's assessment I think is pretty spot-on
from my assessment.
I mean, I've been in this industry for many years
and so has Colin and he appraisees a lot of cars
and he sees a lot of stuff,
so I think he's pretty spot-on.
It's a pretty special car to me.
(engine revving) (rock music)