Manoli Katakis 
Just in time for the road racing season to begin this 1965 Ford Mustang Shelby GT350R is getting ready to cross the auction block during Mecum’s Kissimmee auction.
It’s a story we’re all familiar with. Carroll Shelby turned the prissy pony car into a dominating SCCA production-based racecar, cementing the Mustang into automotive history almost immediately.
Serial No. 5R106 is just one of just 34 cars produced by Shelby, and it spent most of its competitive life tearing up Midwest SCCA National events at the hands of its first owner, Richard Jordan of Downers Grove, Illinois. At the time, Jordan was a veteran Corvette racer and had previously graduated from the Carroll Shelby School of High-Performance Driving at the now-defunct Riverside raceway in California. The car was originally ordered through Jack Loftus Ford in Hinsdale, Illinois. The total cost after tax was $6,188.
Built at Ford’s San Jose plant, Jordan’s Mustang 2+2 Fastback arrived at Shelby’s LAX shop days before Christmas in 1964, and six months later it wheeled out of the hangar as a competition-spec R-model. It sported a Shelby-tweaked 289 small-block V8 which kicked out a snarly 325 hp and shipped with an additional rear axle carrying 4.11:1 gearing.
Just 10 days after Jordan took delivery, 5R106 was entered in its first race at the storied Road America in Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin. It went on to race all over Illinois, Indiana, and Wisconsin for the next few years before Jordan began to wind down his racing career in the early ‘70s.
The 1965 Ford Mustang Shelby GT30R was then meticulously wrapped and placed into long-term storage, where it remained for years in near un-molested condition until it was sold in 1987. The car was given a full restoration and went on to win the Gold Award in the Competition Class at SAAC-18 at Watkins Glen in 1993. Several years later the car took the Second Place Popular Vote at SAAC-25 at Lime Rock Park.
According to Mecum, 5R106 has been meticulously maintained over the years, and it still looks as it did the day it showed up to Road America in 1965. Over the years the 1965 Ford Mustang Shelby GT350R has even managed to retain the scratch in the door handle from when Jordan went off track and buzzed the outside wall at Elkhart Lake.
The car has 4,930 total miles and has retained the majority of its factory components, with only NOS components being used where required. 5R106 still sports its original plexiglass windows and Shelby R-Model magnesium wheels. The car as it sits is a proper turn key vintage racer, all it will take to go racing is a cool $1.5 million. Yes. $1.5 million.
