Phil Walker's 1966 Shelby Mustang GT350H: Our shed

Date: 24.01.2011

Phil Walker's 1966 Shelby Mustang GT350H: Our cars

Phil Walker's 1966 Shelby Mustang GT350H: Our cars

Phil Walker's 1966 Shelby Mustang GT350H: Our cars

Phil Walker's 1966 Shelby Mustang GT350H: Our cars

Phil Walker's 1966 Shelby Mustang GT350H: Our cars

Phil Walker's 1966 Shelby Mustang GT350H: Our cars

Phil Walker's 1966 Shelby Mustang GT350H: Our cars

Phil Walker's 1966 Shelby Mustang GT350H: Our cars

Phil Walker's 1966 Shelby Mustang GT350H: Our cars

Phil Walker's 1966 Shelby Mustang GT350H: Our cars

Phil Walker's 1966 Shelby Mustang GT350H: Our cars

Phil Walker's 1966 Shelby Mustang GT350H: Our cars

Phil has owned a lot of Mustangs but he will never sell his Shelby. It’s not a city runner, but it Hertz so good

Phil Walker's 1966 Shelby Mustang GT350H

1966 Shelby Mustang GT350H

Phil Walker must have been due some good Karma back in 1996 because the gods smiled on him the day he bought his dream car. Naturally, it’s perfect and is now worth a mint.

"It was built in December ’65, but first registered in 1966 so it’s a carry-over car," Phil says. "If you’re a car head you aspire to own a proper muscle car and I always wanted a Shelby. A friend in the US knew the guy who owned this car so I went over and approached him, but he was very reluctant to sell.

"He was a ship’s captain so I left him a $1000 deposit and said ‘when you’re at sea next, you might realise that I need the car more than you do’.

"A month later he rang and agreed that I did need the car more, so I went back to Lake Tahoe and bought it and it’s been my pride and joy since. It’s a genuine manual car and one of only 49 – most of these Hertz models were autos."
The Shelby is used sparingly. It’s rare and valuable, of course, but it’s also not the easiest thing to drive around city streets dotted with potholes and emasculated by speed humps that require Phil to come to a complete stop and cautiously inch over. Phil is about as anal as you get about his cars but even he didn’t have to do much to the Shelby after it landed in Melbourne.

"All I’ve done is put tyres on it and fit those later Mustang race buckets – I kept the originals," he says, "I mothballed the original steering wheel because it’s worth about $6000. That’s it. It’s done 54,000 miles and I’ve done 8000 of them."

Phil rations his Shelby drug fix, but when he turns the key, the high is always intoxicating.

"When you start this thing up, it’s the best adrenalin rush … I’ve owned over 300 cars but this is the only car that still lights my fire, even though I only drive it once a month.

"There’s just something about it. It’s not the fact that it’s a Shelby, which is a plus, but everywhere you go people look at it. You could be driving a Ferrari. It’s an asset but I’ll never sell it. Hopefully my little grandson will have it."

1966 Shelby Mustang GT350H

Purchased 1996
Mileage 54,000 miles

+ "It’s fun!"
- "It’s noisy, very harsh, and has no creature comforts"

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