Billion-To-One Odds

What are the odds of a 1965 Shelby G.T. 350 and its original matching number 289 Hi-Po engine being reunited?

- Jim Smart

SFM-5S505, a 1965 Shelby G.T. 350, arrived at Shelby American in Los Angeles on June 15, 1965, as a Wimbledon White fastback hot off the truck from Ford’s Milpitas, California, assembly plant. They began work on the car June 22, and SFM-5S505 was ready to ship by rail to Archway Motors Ford in Baltimore, Maryland, June 29 bearing optional Cragar wheels and Le Mans stripes. Richard Wiley of Bowie, Maryland, bought the car from Archway Ford.

Wiley sold the car years later to Bill Puck of Arvada, Colorado, who brought this car to its first show, the Second Annual Shelby Owners Association (SOA) convention held in Pennsylvania during 1973. A year later, Puck sold SFM-5S505 to Dr. Wayne L. Harvey of Englewood, Colorado, who sold it to Craig Sutherland of Kansas City, Missouri, who sold it to Ken Young of Green Bay, Wisconsin in 1983. The next owner, Dave Cawthorne in San Diego, restored the car and fit it with a Cobra cast-iron bell housing and R-model Shelby heads.

During 1997, Michael Cohen of Rye, New York, bought the car and had it shipped back to the East Coast with the original Blue Dot spare tire and dealer plates. Craig Conley of Paradise Wheels, a well-known Shelby expert, believes this was when he saw this car for the first time. Paul Moyer, retired Los Angeles KNBC and KABC new anchor, asked Conley fly out to New York to examine SFM-5S505 nearly two decades ago. Conley confirmed the car’s condition and suggested Moyer buy the car. He considered SFM-5S505 a wise investment, though it did not have the original 289 High-Performance engine.