Members of Carroll Shelby’s “Original Venice Crew” including Ted Sutton, Jim Marietta and Duane Carling, were on hand in mid-February at California’s Willow Springs International Raceway for the 50th anniversary of the Mustang GT350R’s first victory. In a celebration put on by the Los Angeles Shelby American Automobile Club (LASAAC), attendees got a special treat: to see what could have been….
Ford’s Chief Engineer, Klaus Arning, originally penned an independent rear suspension for the 1965 Shelby racecar, and Ford had actually planned to offer the IRS as an option. Due to budgeting concerns, however, the program was dropped, and the racecars ran a live axle despite the IRS being tested by Shelby. Not until the 2015 model year would IRS be incorporated into the popular pony car.
With backing from Jim Marrieta and support from Randy Richardson, president of LASAAC, Pete Brock and the Venice Crew took two donor ‘65 K-body Mustangs and built identical live axle and IRS GT350R versions. In these builds—begun in mid-2014 at Brock’s BRE in Henderson, Nevada—they hoped to incorporate all the elements they felt would have made the 1965-’67 SCCA B Production championship-winning cars even better.
Fifty years to the day that the first GT350R drove to victory at Texas’ Green Valley Raceway, the engines of the two Venice/BRE GT350Rs came to life for the first time in public. Former Shelby star drivers John Morton and Allen Grant gave a wonderful display of mastery in the amazing new/old machinery.
According to Richardson, “It was a great event to reveal two completely unique Mustangs and to be present to experience the sights and sounds of these cars at speed. Shelby fans experienced 50 years of history, all topped off by Shelby American employees and a dinner program. We even had Jerry Schwarz on the phone to greet everyone and talk about working with Ted, Jim and Peter on the original R-Model 50 years ago.”
