Original Shelby GT350s roll into Utah for car show

3 of 4 cars shipped here in 1965 will be at the convention

TOOELE — If the 1960s fury Ford Motors created with its new Mustang could be compared to a chocolate sundae, the 1965 release of the Shelby Mustang was the cherry on top. And the whipped cream.

Many of the original Shelby GT350 Mustangs, with their trademark Wimbledon White paint and twin blue stripes, are storming Salt Lake City and the Miller Motorsports Park this weekend during the 32nd Shelby American Automobile Club National Convention.

Ford shipped only four of the original 1965 Shelbys to Utah, an event Clyde Madsen remembers well. As a kid, he worked at Bennett Ford detailing cars alongside his dad, Milo, who worked there in sales for more than 26 years.

"Dad called me one day and told me the new Shelbys had arrived and asked if I wanted to go for a ride in one." Madsen took the hourlong bus ride from home to the dealership. "It felt like it took three days to get there."

Designer Carroll Shelby configured the GT350 at Ford's request for a street-legal race car that could compete with rival Chevrolet's Corvette. With out-the-door prices running all the way up to almost $5,800, the Shelby GT350s were so expensive the dealership found them hard to sell. Several moved from the showroom to the back of the lot, where Madsen would sit behind the wheel and dream of owning one someday.

Madsen, now living in California, was already a show-car owner when he was contacted by someone who knew Madsen wanted a Shelby. Madsen bought the car in 1997. He and his wife, Janice, now take their picture-perfect Shelby to car shows and enjoy a vast fraternity of other race and show car owners.

A magazine article about Madsen's Shelby caught the attention of the owner of one of the four Bennett Ford Shelbys. Now the owners of all four Utah Shelbys are acquainted. Three of the four are in Utah for the weekend Shelby event; the fourth, Louis Escolais, would have come from New Mexico except his son is returning from military service in Iraq this weekend.

The Shelby owners with Utah cars all have stories to tell.

Mike Steed bought his Shelby new from Bennett Ford and still has it. He raced it for many years. "Racing has been really good to me."

The Utah Jazz currently pay Steed to keep the Shelby's trademark paint job under a blue advertising wrap that has the Jazz logo splashed across the hood. Steed offers his car for Make a Wish patients and is busy, especially this month, on the parade circuit. "I have 15 parades to do for Larry (Miller,)" he said. Make-A-Wish is a charity that helps very ill children to realize a favorite wish.

Steed gets lucrative offers at least once a year from people who want to buy the car from him, but he says he's having too much fun with it to let it go.

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