The mystery of car 0176

[Brian Styles]

Car #0176 is believed to be the Lime Gold '67 concept/advertising car (per the published information found in the 2011 SAAC Registry).

#0176 was built at San Jose on Sep. 1, 1966

Factory paint/trim was Clearwater Aqua with an Aqua interior.

There is no DSO on the Shelby microfilm for car 0176 - this car was not ordered like the other 3,224 Shelby G.T. cars were. The car may not have even been ordered by Shelby (perhaps given to SAI by Ford). Since 0176 was not DSO-ordered as a "Shelby," it would have not had any Mustang parts deleted from the stock build. It would have been built and delivered to SAI as a 'complete' automobile.

Through my interviews of Paul Kunysz (far left in photo) and Lonnie Brannon, I learned that these were the two guys primarily responsible for building the '67 photographic/advertising cars (call them 'prototypes' if you prefer). Paul Kunysz forwarded me a copy of the commendation letter he received from Frank Martin (SAI's controller). This letter was dated 9/30/1966, which allows us to conclude with reasonable certainty that the two '67 advertising cars would have been created in September 1966. From what Paul has told me, he and Lonnie pulled a 3-day marathon, without sleep, to build the two cars (the other being Lowell Otter's red G.T. 500).

As stated above, 0176 was built on 9/1/66 and therefore would have been built early enough to have been transformed into a Shelby in September 1966 for the required SAI/Ford approval and subsequent advertising purposes. 

Earlier this year, I came across a couple photos published in an old article of Mustang Monthly Magazine. The black and white photos showed a GTA-badged '67 Mustang Fastback. The car appeared to be assembly-line complete. The article stated that this complete GTA Fastback was transformed into Eric Johnson's G.T. 500 #0100. 

Additional observations from the photo: steel wheels, GT appearance package, exterior decor group, interior decor group, and perhaps most importantly -- the rear lower valance was NOT the dual-exhaust GT-style.

From what I understand, the GT appearance package could be ordered on any V8-4bbl powered Mustang, which included A, C, K or S code. The Hi-Po S & K coded cars received the dual-dual real lower valance.  I believe the "A-code" 289-4v or "C-code" 289-2v received the turned down exhaust tips and 'solid' valance instead of the dual-dual exhaust with formed GT style lower valance.

I have communicated to Eric that I believe the article is wrong. I DO NOT believe that the GTA Fastback photographed near the SAI loading dock is car #0100. Rather, it is my theory that the complete Mustang GTA Fastback in the photo became the Lime Gold '67 advertising car in September 1966 and a couple months later (circa Dec '66) the car received serial number #0176.

It is my opinion that the GTA in the photograph is not a red car. It's a lighter metallic color, quite plausibly Clearwater Aqua.

Both this GTA and the advertising car (0176) cars have steel wheels. Shelby wheel covers were added to the Lime Gold advertising car.

To date, not much is known about #0176, other than what the registry has published , including "current owner/whereabouts unknown." 

It is very possible this car still exists. Cars with stripes, wings and special styling have a much lower attrition rate than non-descriptive cars of the same period. 

Maybe the Shelby American VIN plate is missing?  Maybe a Shelby American VIN plate was never even installed? It wouldn't be the first Shelby to NOT RECEIVE a SAI VIN plate (the only GT500 Coupe, 0131 - Little Red, has also been confirmed to never have had a Shelby American VIN plate riveted to the inner apron).

Maybe this car hasn't been found because someone just assumes they own a 1-of-17,391 Mustang Deluxe Fastback (metric lower when you factor in the GT/GTA equipment group). If the car still exists and still wears Shelby fiberglass, the owner may simply think they simply own a 'Shelby clone.' It may not even be in the USA.

Perhaps another important question would be: If this car (1) was not ordered as a Shelby, and (2) never received a Shelby VIN plate like the other advertising car (V-738-2), does that make it any 'less' of a Shelby? Why or why not?

[Brian Styles]

Some photos of the engine bay from a Jan-1967 Road & Track article that feature a Lime Gold G.T.  500. Could this also be 0176? 

In my opinion, this car appears to be the same G.T. 350 as the advertising car. No antenna is one indicator...

The following photos are enlarged engine bay photos from pages 25 & 26 of the magazine

Aren't those 2-piece shock tower braces the standard type that you'd get on non-Shelby? Didn't all '67 Shelbys get the 1-piece "Export Brace" (it was specified on the DSOs) 

Could that be a telltale sign that this car wasn't ordered as a Shelby?

Can anyone tell me if they see any other AC remnants of the AC system on the cowl or anywhere in the engine bay?

[Eric Johnson]

Brian and all,

Here are some thoughts on the lime gold GT350/GT500 which is probably car number 0176.  I believe it was built as a 289 car and was badged/striped as a GT350 for the promotional photo shoot(s) which were done in September and early October of 1966.  I believe this car, still with its 289 engine was badged/striped as a GT500 probably in mid to late October.  The "GT500"  version of this car is "featured" in the December 1966 issue of Popular Science and the January 1967 issue of Road and Track.  The car was "featured" in these two magazines, but it was not actually driven and road tested.  It appears that both magazines used the same photographs which were probably provided by SA and those photographs probably had some "editing" done to them.  I don't believe either magazine article shows any photos of the car's interior.  So, no clues there.  I believe the photos which show the big block engine are actually photos of V-738-2's engine compartment.

The opening paragraph of the Road & Track article states: "Our cover car, the new Shelby Mustang GT500, was to have been the subject of a road test in this issue.  But Carroll Shelby's very own optimistic promises couldn't produce an operating example by press time".  This leads me to believe Popular Science and Road & Track never even saw the lime gold GT500.  They simply used information and photos provided by SA for their articles because a "real" 1967 GT500 was not available in time to be featured in articles which appeared in December and January.  A "real" GT500, car number 0100, would become the first GT500 to actually be loaned to the automotive magazines for testing.

Thanks,

Eric 

[Brian Styles]

Plausible theories Eric.

Though the one I guess I disagree with, if I'm understanding the car parts correctly: 

Car 0100 had an export brace. The engine shots of what's believed to be the lime gold car have the regular 2-piece shock tower braces. Doesn't that lead us to believe that the Lime Gold car wasn't ordered as a Shelby, since all cars ordered "as Shelbys" itemized an export brace?

Here's an engine pic of 0100 from Car & Driver, Feb 1967.

[Eric Johnson]

Hello Brian,

I agree with you that if the car thought to be 0176 had been ordered as a Shelby, it should have an export brace, but I am not understanding where you are going with the focus on the export brace.  I was responding to your idea that the lime gold was photographed as both a GT350 and a GT500.  Am I missing something here?

Thanks,

Eric

[Brian Styles]

i think we're pretty much in agreement. 

Only question that remains is which ca'rs engine bay is photographed.

It could be either car I guess.... Neither Lowell's car or 0176 were ordered as Shelbys, so neither would have the export brace.

[Eric Johnson]

Hello Brian,

I believe all of the engine bay photos are of V-738-2.  In the Road & Track photo that you posted from the January '67 issue you can see the area where the Shelby serial number plate should be affixed.  The Shelby VIN plate is not there, and there is no Ford VIN visible either.  I do not believe that V-738-2 has anything in that location.  If the photo was of the lime gold car you should at least be able to see the Ford VIN, right?

Thanks,

Eric

[Rich Plescia]

Hi Eric and Brian, you both have shared some insightful comments here. Thank you.

We know the 2 brochure cars were photographed by Sid Avery prior to September 30, 1966. There are at least 170 photos with only 1 GT500 engine picture. That engine photo shows the red painted cowl. There are zero photos of the Lime Gold GT350 engine. There is only 1 interior photo from the Lime Gold GT350. It shows A/C vents, a brushed aluminum dashboard, and a standard black door panel. There are about 12 interior photos of the Red GT500. It shows a standard black case dash, brushed aluminum door panels. The doors panels were likely swapped for the photo shoot. Most of us believe the Lime Gold GT350 is #0176 and the Candy Apple Red GT500 is “V-738-2”.

The December 1966 issue of “Popular Mechanics” shows a light color painted GT500. This same car appears on the cover of the January Road & Track issue in color Lime Gold. I am 100% certain this is the same car from the brochure. Not only does it wear the same unique upper scoop light with chrome trim ring, but it also has the same flat chrome exhaust trim. As Brian mentions there is no antenna on either car. The front fiberglass nose and hood fitment have the same exact unique details not found on production cars.  Also as Brian points out both cars have steel rims with hubcaps. There were no other known Shelby’s built with hubcaps until Mid January 1967. We know #0176 was completed by SA sometime in September ’66. The next Lime Gold car was not completed by SA until December 5, 1966. Based on the above it is hard to argue it could be any other car, except for #0176.

Both the Dec ‘66 and Jan ‘67 magazines show different engine views of the engine compartment with the two piece brace typically only found on Mustangs. Photos of the first few production GT350s show the single piece brace. We can’t see the brace behind the air cleaner in the Sid Avery September photo, but we can see other details. Those details don’t appear to be a match. In the magazine photos the power steering pump disappears. The valve covers are not painted black with polished fins. Now they are unpainted with polished fins. The red wires that run over the intake in the Avery photo disappear in the Magazine photos. In the Avery photo there is a part on the firewall behind the passenger side valve cover that leans toward the left. In the R&T photos it leans to the right. I’m not saying this still isn’t the same red GT500 engine compartment as Eric noted, but it has certainly been messed with, which raises questions. Perhaps there are photo outtakes from these issues in color.

[Brian Styles]

Agreed that there is no visible SAI VIN plate in the photo. 

In fact, it looks like an excess of fender sealant gobbled in that area. Perhaps intentionally obscuring the Ford VIN?

That means the engine bay photo could be of V-738-2, since we know that car was never assigned a SAI VIN and therefore never received a VIN plate. (Eric's points about a GT500 not actually being provided for the magazine testing are strong backers to this theory)

-or-

It could be of 0176's engine bay and that could mean that 0176, like 0131, also never received an SAI VIN plate, despite having a VIN assigned to the vehicle.

[Rich Plescia]

The LAX GTA;

We see it is a complete car, not a knockdown unit. The photos of this car from the “Modified Mustangs & Fords” issue are actually called “summer 1966” in the file names. (We know summer equinox ends Sept 21-22.) The GTA appears to be a 289 2 bbl or 4 bbl engine based on the missing twin tip exhaust and no GT stamped valance. As Brian points out there are other reasons to believe it is #0176 and NOT #100 (steel rims, no antenna). The first DSO run of 100 GT350s from San Jose were completed from early September through November 1966. They would be on hand at SA by the time #0100 was to be built. There would be no reason to take a 289 GTA, pull the engine, strip all the Mustang body parts off the car, strip of all the emblems, and weld up all the holes on that car in mid Nov - early Dec 1966. It would be far easier and less costly to build it with an already existing GT350 knockdown model. That also had the Magstar wheels and large letter Goodyears already installed, not steel wheels. #0100 is far more likely to have arrived at LAX as a knockdown unit in November. I imagine there are copies of the DSO showing it as a knock down unit with the “add / delete” list. In my opinion the GTA at LAX has to be the base unit for #0176 built in September, not November. This photo from Autotrader Dec 2009 shows another view of the GTA at LAX with '66 models in the background, no '67's are visible. Another hint leading us to believe it was taken in September, not November 1966.

If The GTA is not #0176, it is just an ordinary GTA on the back lot of SA at LAX. Either way I can’t see a reason to believe it is #100.

[Brian Styles]

Timeline thoughts...

The first DSOs for actual Shelby GTs were placed in August and had much less deleted from the stock Mustang build than later cars would... About all that was itemized as deleted was all Mustang ornamentation/emblems and holes for them, horn ring cap, air cleaner label, hood and deck lid.

The complete GTA was built on 9/1/66 and delivered to Shelby a short time thereafter. We assume it became the Lime Gold advertising car, but it also would have served at least two other purposes:

1. to allow SAI engineers to figure out what else was going to be removed from a stock Mustang build, and 
   
2. to allow SAI to fit their pre-ordered fiberglass components to an actual assembly line-built vehicle.... and we know how that worked out...
   

Then all September-placed DSOs were cancelled and Ford's Dr. Ray Geddes took control of the helm (as evidenced by his name then beginning to appear on all October DSOs)

By late October, the list of items deleted from the stock Mustang grew substantially as did the streamlining of the typed DSO iteself. Obviously 0176 and the other cars that arrived in early October played a substantial role in this process.

[Eric Johnson]

Hello Everyone,

I really think the engine compartment photos are all of V-738-2.  Yes, there are some differences in the photos, but the differences that Rich pointed out are easy to account for and would not be considered major changes by the mechanics at SAI.  The Popular Science photos are all black and white.  The engine compartment photo does show a portion of the cowl area and to my eyes it appears to be darker in color, probably red.   I think that lime gold would appear to be lighter in color in a black and white photo. 

Thanks,

Eric

[Brian Styles]

Also worth noting that #0176 does not appear on SAI's 3/31/1967 Vehicle Tax Ledger (though I only have the first page) nor does it appear on the 5-page 7/31/1967 Vehicle Fixed Asset Ledger.

Possibilities as to why:

0176 may have been a FoMoCo asset. i.e. on loan from Ford.

0176 may have been returned to Ford before 3/31/1967 (if on loan)

0176 may have been sold-off  or otherwise disposed of before 3/31/1967. 

I lean toward #0176 being sold-off as a G.T 350 (after the 289-2v C-code was replaced by a proper 289-4v K-code, of course). 

Why else would SAI create a VIN (months after originally built) if they weren't going to actually sell the car?

If correct, and #0176 was sold-off before March 31, 1967, then my other theory (about the timing of when company car numbers were assigned to company cars) would dictate that #0176 never received a company car number (windshield decals), as decals were most-likely applied in or after April, 1967. 

If SAI never actually owned 0176, it probably shouldn't have actually received a SAI serial number.... 

Note: The V-738-2 red prototype also doesn't appear on these documents, most likely because it was always on loan from FoMoCo (never an asset of SAI).

[Brian Styles]

Some more information discovered about #0176:

Original Options:

• GT Equipment Group
  
• C-4 Automatic Transmission
  
• Exhaust Emissions (CA car)
  
• Exterior Decor group
  
• Interior Decor Group
  
• Deluxe Steering Wheel
  
• Shoulder Harness
  
• Sport Deck Rear Seat
  
• Power Steering
  
• Air Conditioning
  
• Tinted Glass
  
• AM Radio
  

The GT Equipment Group and Automatic gearbox mean this car was a "GTA"

The exterior decor and GTA emblems are all visible in pictures of the loading dock car. 

Notice that styled wheels are not part of the list of original options. That means the car would have had steel wheels with full wheel covers (shipped in trunk).

The interior decor, air conditioning and folding rear seat are options visible in various photos of the the Lime Gold advertising car.

I believe it is now safe to conclude with near 100% certainty that the Clearwater Aqua GTA on the loading dock became the Lime Gold advertising car and later received sequence number #0176.

This former mystery is now a part of history!

Now the next challenge is to figure out what dealer SAI sold #0176 to and where the car is today...

[Eric Johnson]

Excellent research, Brian!  It will be quite the feat if someone is able to locate 0176.

[Rich Plescia]

Yes, excellent to see the mystery turned to history. Now we just need someone to find it!

Interesting you show the AM radio listed in the options. None of the media (Magazines) photos I have show that center or left side of the dash.

We don't see the antenna on the car, but then again, that would normally be applied by the dealer after it shipped not at LAX.

The Sid Avery photos show the A/C vents and tinted windows, both a match your findings.

Thank You for sharing!!!

[Lowell Otter]

Hi all

Sorry I am so late to the party on this topic discussion.

I have a few random thoughts to add to the discussion.

I think Little Red, 00176, and V738-2 all did not receive Shelby vin tags because there was no intention on the part of Shelby to sell these vehicles as retail sales.  Just my opinion.

V738-2 as evidenced in the PR photo from back in the day did not originally have an export brace installed on it.  This also matched 00176.  However, at some point in time while at Shelby V738-2 did receive an export brace because one is shown on the vehicle when it was photographed in the Ionia prison in 1987.  That export brace is still on the car today.

I agree with Brian in an earlier post that the VIN in one of the magazine photos is covered up by fender seam sealer.  I think this could have been intentional for photo shoot purposes.  V738-2 does NOT have a VIN showing in this area so that is one reason why I do not believe these are photos of V738-2.

I also do not think the magazine photos are of V738-2 because I believe the magazine photos to show a different firewall cowl than what appears on V738-2. V738-2 has a unique 1965/1966 mustang cowl that has the metal tab extending on the drivers side of the cowl piece.  I do not think that tab is evident in the photos so think that is a 1967 cowl car - therefore 00176.  V738-2 also shows some black overspray on the passenger side of the cowl and a screw hole too - that may not appear in the magazine photo detail.  I also think there is more color contrast between the black of engine compartment and paint on the pics of the red car - so am thinking that could be a clue too that it really was 00176.  I may be incorrect but thought I would share those thoughts.

However - the actual engine pics from the magazine and the one pic of V738-2 look the same - so one thought was that the same engine could have appeared in the pic of V738-2 and also in the magazine article.  If you look at a lot of the detail, there are many similarities. 

The black valve covers in the V738-2 photo say Cobra only on them.  In the magazine pics, the valve covers say Cobra 428 - so those got changed out at some point in time.

Possibly the engine from V738-2 was out of the red car and available to be put in the lime green vehicle because Chuck Cantwell has confirmed that he blew two 428 motors while performance testing v738-2 out in Arizona.

That also might be a reason why the lime green car was used for the GT500 photographs - because the GT500 prototype car was not available at the time for photography purposes because Chuck had it out in Arizona at the test facility.

Again - just some random thoughts late in the game to add to the discussion.  Included are some photos also to help use for reference and further discussion.  Thanks.  Lowell

PR Pic of V738-2 motor - in color and in black and white

Magazine photo showing motor and cowl area