GT 350 (what's the 350 for)?

prpony · Jun 26, 2005

Does anyone know what the "350"on the shelby GT's stand for? I have read the history of Carroll Shelby and have never come across why Shelby named his Shelby Mustang's 350 and 500. Obviously it is not because of engine size nor horse power. I ask because I have a GT 350 clone which I just finish building and am now enjoying the summer with. People always ask me why the 350 if it is a 289 engine in it. I always respond with "its a model name"; I lie a bit to those chevy guys that come around and say "hey.. Ford did not build 350 engines" to which I respond "no, but the Shelby GT 350 model with a 289 engine did 350 HP" and since they obviously have no idea, I usually get away with it. However I would like to be honest and know the true history of the car I am trying to replicate. Thanks to all.

65ShelbyClone · Jun 26, 2005

This will be tough to get a definitive answer for. The best I've ever heard was Shelby's auto shop was 350 feet from the office. Others say it was just a model name he thought up.

Ronstang · Jun 26, 2005

The story I seem to hear the most is the one about 350 steps between buildings but I have also heard it was just a random name. Just to mess things up a bit the G.T.350 R models had hopped up GT-40 spec engines which made 350 HP. Someone needs to just ask Carroll.

my66coupe · Jun 26, 2005

Ive heard this story many times.....Caroll was asked for the name....and caroll said that where ever he was standing at the time, the distance from there to a shop...put gt in front of it and bingo.

Mike

rbohm · Jun 26, 2005

yep in a meeting shelby asked how far it was from the office to the production shop, and ray miller(i think) paced it off at at 350 ft. shelby then said "then that is what we will call it, the GT-350. if the car is good the name wont matter, and if the car is bad the name wont help it". as for the GT-500 being named as such, shelby said it just sounded right.

65racecoupe · Jun 26, 2005

65ShelbyClone said:
This will be tough to get a definitive answer for. The best I've ever heard was Shelby's auto shop was 350 feet from the office. Others say it was just a model name he thought up.

350 feet or steps, something like that.

The 500 as in GT 500 was used because Shelby wanted the largest number on his car, 500 being larger than 454, etc.

65up2d8 · Jun 26, 2005

I have heard that the designation was related to the class rules according to which these cars ran in the SCCA races. Could be nothing but a wive's tale, however, and I must admit I don't know the "true" answer, if any such answer exists, I'll let you know.

bnickel · Jun 26, 2005

rbohm said:
yep in a meeting shelby asked how far it was from the office to the production shop, and ray miller(i think) paced it off at at 350 ft. shelby then said "then that is what we will call it, the GT-350. if the car is good the name wont matter, and if the car is bad the name wont help it". as for the GT-500 being named as such, shelby said it just sounded right.

that's the story i hear most, except i think it might have been peter brock, but it could been ray miller. it's also the story i see printed the most in the mags and i believe several of the articles were interviews with carroll himself.

as for the gt 500 i have also heard the "it just sounded right" guote most often as well.

in actuallity i doubt if the man himself actually remembers exactly how it went down, as i seem to remember one of the interviews quoted him as saying something like " well, if i recall it correctly we were having a meeting and the question came up of what we were calling to the car, and i asked 'so and so' how far he thought it was from the office over to the shop and he said oh about 350 feet i guess". at least that's something the way i remember the quote reading.

Hack · Jun 26, 2005

bnickel said:
that's the story i hear most, except i think it might have been peter brock, but it could been ray miller. it's also the story i see printed the most in the mags and i believe several of the articles were interviews with carroll himself.

as for the gt 500 i have also heard the "it just sounded right" guote most often as well.

in actuallity i doubt if the man himself actually remembers exactly how it went down, as i seem to remember one of the interviews quoted him as saying something like " well, if i recall it correctly we were having a meeting and the question came up of what we were calling to the car, and i asked 'so and so' how far he thought it was from the office over to the shop and he said oh about 350 feet i guess". at least that's something the way i remember the quote reading.

I read a book about Shelby and I'm fairly certain that the story in the book went this way also. Of course it's been maybe 10 years since I read that book.

stangjunkie · Jun 26, 2005

yeah and the name cobra came to him in a dream according to him along with the emblem he used on th cars, however years before while he was still a driver he used to race cars with a little known company specializing in copper brass engines... they called the engine the CoBra for copper brass and had a cobra head customized on the race engines manifold his was 7 or so years before the first concept of the cobra... some dream he had..... sounds a bit like reusing an idea to me

rbohm · Jun 27, 2005

bnickel said:
that's the story i hear most, except i think it might have been peter brock, but it could been ray miller.

actually i think you are right, i think it was pete brock now that you mention it.

chepsk8 · Jun 27, 2005

Here's another fun story...

The KR designation was going to be a Camaro option, but shelby "stole" it when he was about to produce the KR's, and wanted spme extra name to differentiate the cars.

The 350 is the distance, like above.

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