1966 Ford Mustang Shelby Group II Racecar

#12 of 16 Produced

In late 1965, Henry Ford II put in a call to Carroll Shelby. The lure of winning the Manufacturers Trophy in Trans Am racing was strong, and Ford saw this as an opportunity to win a Pro Racing series and would make for great marketing until Fords "Total Performance" theme of the day. Shelby created 16 race cars, all based on the Mustang coupe with the GT-350 R model spec modifications completed with certain concessions made such as leaving the steel hood and all four seats in order for them to qualify for Trans Am. The would prove to be quite successful with Ford winning the 1966 Manufacturers Award.

This 1966 Shelby Group II car is #12 of the 16 cars produced; it was originally built for legendary racer, Ken Miles. Before Miles was able to pickup the Shelbyhe was killed while testing the new GT-40 prototype. The car was invoiced to Turner ford in late August 1966, and sold to local racer John McComb. In Johns first race with the car he finished 1^st in SCCA Midwest Division, 1966. Less then a month later John raced the car in Pan-American Trans-Am where he also finished 1^st place. John went on racing the car all over America with great success. With the combined points of his two race cars he finished 1^st in the Midwest division. In June 1967 John decided to sell car # 12 to Keith Thomas. The next race John showed up in his 1967 Shelby group II car and finished 1^st place with Keith right behind him in the #12 car. Keith raced the car for 6 more years running in the Trans Am series and the SCCA Series. The car raced over 15 races during these years and won a significant amount of the races he entered. In a SCCA national race in 1968 Keith finished first and also set a lap record for the A/Sedan class and tied with Don Yenko in his corvette for the A/Production lap record. The car was owned by 2 owners over the next 13 year then sold to Gary Spraggins of KingwoodTexas in 1986.Gary kept the car for the next 26 year and during that time had it restored back to 1966 specifications.