Most classic Shelby Mustangs spend their lives hidden away in climate-controlled garages, rolled onto trailers for car shows, and treated like untouchable museum pieces. Mike Russell’s 1967 Shelby GT350 has lived a very different life.
Russell bought the car brand new on June 15, 1967, right after graduating from Air Force pilot training in Alabama. Nearly six decades later, he still owns it, still drives it, and still takes it out on track days whenever he gets the chance.
What makes the story even more remarkable is how original the car remains. The GT350 is unrestored, wears most of its factory components, and features one of the rarest Shelby options ever offered: a factory supercharger setup believed to have been installed on only around 40 cars.
For Russell, though, the Shelby’s value has never been about rarity or auction prices. It has been part of his entire adult life, from race weekends to family road trips and even the day he drove away from his wedding with his wife nearly 58 years ago.
Ordered New Straight From Alabama
Russell explained in a recent Heart and Horsepower interview that he special-ordered the GT350 through a local Ford dealer in Selma, Alabama. At the time, Ford had just begun allowing customers to order Shelby models directly through certain dealerships instead of going exclusively through Shelby distributors.
The timing could not have been better. Fresh out of Air Force pilot training, Russell already knew exactly what he wanted: a Shelby Mustang instead of the more common performance cars of the era.
He recalled being drawn to Shelby’s racing pedigree and the idea that these cars were built with real motorsport intentions. “Everybody in the world can buy a Corvette,” he said during the interview. “Not many people can own a Shelby.”
A Rare Factory-Supercharged GT350
The 1967 Shelby GT350 already came with significant upgrades over a standard Mustang. Shelby American modified the suspension, improved the brakes, tuned the high-performance 289 V8, and transformed the car into a proper road-course machine.
Russell’s car became even more special thanks to an optional factory supercharger package. Shelby rated the supercharged setup at 390 horsepower back in 1967, though Russell says the car later produced 410 horsepower on a dyno.
According to him, only around 40 factory-supercharged GT350s were ever built. That rarity alone would make the car highly valuable today, though Russell never treated it like an investment piece.
The Shelby currently shows more than 92,500 miles, many of them earned the hard way. Russell put roughly 25,000 miles on the car during the first year alone before leaving for military service in Vietnam.
This Shelby Was Built To Be Driven
Unlike many surviving classic muscle cars, Russell’s GT350 still gets used exactly as Shelby intended. He regularly participates in open-track events and enthusiast gatherings, continuing to push the car decades after it first rolled out of the factory.
The car even wears a few visible “battle scars” from its racing life. One mark on the fender came after Russell hit a pothole at nearly 90 mph during an autocross event in the 1970s while running old IndyCar tires.
Rather than repairing every blemish, he chose to preserve the car’s history. To him, the marks and imperfections are proof that the Shelby has actually lived a life instead of sitting untouched in storage.
The interior has also remained largely original aside from upgraded bucket seats installed years ago for better support during track driving. Russell replaced the original seats because he kept sliding around during hard cornering, which sounds exactly like the kind of problem Carroll Shelby would have appreciated.
Signed By Carroll Shelby Himself
One of the car’s most meaningful details sits directly above the glovebox. In 2003, Russell finally convinced Carroll Shelby to personally sign the dashboard during an event at Nashville Superspeedway.
Russell recalled spending time talking about airplanes with Shelby before the signature happened, as both men shared aviation backgrounds. Shelby reportedly noticed the odometer immediately afterward and told him how much he loved seeing the car actually being driven.
That philosophy perfectly matches the spirit of this GT350. It has never been treated as a fragile collectible, despite becoming increasingly valuable over the years.
At 83 years old, Russell says he still has no intention of selling the car. His family hopes to keep it, though he has also been approached by a Shelby-focused museum interested in displaying it alongside historically important Shelby vehicles.
For now, though, the GT350 remains exactly where it has been since 1967: in the hands of the man who ordered it new and still believes cars like this were made to be driven.