Major Mustang Muscle Moved at Mandalay Bay BJ Auction
Slideshow: If you had deep pockets and an itch to add some custom power to your garage, then this was the place for you.
2007 Ford Mustang GT Custom Convertible (Stallion Foose Edition) — $24,200
Lot #195 — Without a doubt, Foose Design has produced some of the most incredible confections in the automotive world and beyond [Don’t go looking. It just makes this car worse.]. This, however, is not one of them. Compounding things, It’s a bad sign for ANY auction listing when over two-thirds of it is devoted to all of the recall rectification noted on its Carfax and a list of accompanying ephemera. But the deepest cut in this somewhat rarified air of big-name tuners is the fact that apart from saying it’s a 27k mile V8 stick shift car that’s “#004 of a small production lot” and fitted with a Saleen supercharger, it has—wait for it—two sets of Foose mats! No wonder it sold for less than the MSRP of a stock ’07 5-speed Mustang GT Convertible…
2014 Ford Mustang GT Custom Coupe (Black Widow Edition by SCC) — $33,000
Lot #163 — Now THIS is a description to get the juices flowing: Southern Comfort Conversions’ creation features 645 rear-wheel horsepower from a supercharged 5.0-liter V8 with all manner of trick kit, including better-breathing bits up- and down-stream and methanol injection (!). Underneath it has suspension and braking upgrades (given that last sentence it better) plus 20-inch wheels, a full custom body kit in a reversed color scheme that’s better-looking than the Foose’s (though as is the next-gen Mustang tin-top it’s based on). It even has 17.5k fewer miles than the Foose. So why the low price? I’d blame the fact that this builder is so obscure that they don’t even have their own website (Go look...I’ll wait.) and this car’s automatic transmission. “Upgraded” or no, buyers of muscle cars of any era want row-it-yourself ‘boxes, no matter what their left leg—or spouse—has to say on the matter.
2007 Ford Mustang GT Custom Coupe (Rick Dore Kustoms) — $33,000
Lot #397.1 — There’s a saying in business that the quickest way to make a small fortune is to start with a big one, and this $125k one-of-one Rick Dore Kustoms creation that lost almost 74 percent of its build cost is a perfect example. Now this was built as a SEMA show car for Clarion—makers of automotive infotainment and whatnot—and their installation of an “AV/Security/Navigation system with backup camera and 10 television screens, both in the passenger cabin and trunk for tailgating” is what ironically usually hurts the resale value of show cars. But I attribute it to the fact it in no way looks “Kustomized” like Dore’s other work. I mean, this 6k-old ’07 looks like what that SCC would’ve built in 2007 just in orange and with a big-ass decklid ducktail as a signature element instead of that bitchin’ hood, but with an autobox and all.
2015 Ford Mustang GT Hennessey HPE700 Coupe — $58,300
Lot #641 — This one was a bargain in my eyes. Thanks to a massive supercharger and other go-fast bits, this 5.0-liter Mustang produces 717 hp and 632 ft-lb of torque. Those numbers may not seem that impressive in our Hellcat Era, but these are 0-60 mph in 3.6 seconds, an 11.2-second quarter-mile, and—most impressive of all—a certified, no bull top speed of 195.4 mph. All on pump gas. Oh, and John Hennessey drove it 250 miles to get to Continental Tire’s Proving Grounds to set those numbers. And then drove it “home”. [Eat that with salsa, Dodge.] Oh, and did I mention all this was done in this very car, Serial #1? And it only has 644 miles on it? I don’t know why he put it up for sale, but I feel very safe in saying someone is going to make a pretty resale penny on this car in the not too distant future…
2010 Ford Hurst Mustang Convertible — $60,500
Lot #159 — Hurst cars should be Oldsmobile based, but as GM murdered that marque in 1994, this is what we get. And apparently, nostalgia trumps raw performance, as this is mostly a Roush-powered convertible with the usual go-fast gear where it goes plus Hurst bits—though given this is an automatic that means nearly nothing—plus the usual Hurst graphics and badges on it. It’s got 2,200 miles on its odo and seems to be in near-new shape. And, yes, it’s one of just 50 built. But come on: This thing is C-3PO compared to the Darth Vader Hennessey I just covered. And thanks to that monster’s serial number and history, it’s not just one-of-one, it’s truly, historically unique. But hey, spend $2,200 more on a slower car a half-decade older swathed in a color scheme it doesn’t deserve and that looks weird and forced. [What? You came here for journalistic objectivity? That’s on you…]
2018 Ford Mustang Petty’s Garage King Premier Edition — $85,800
Lot #158 — Now, I could joke that the winning bidder paid by the word in this car’s title, but instead I’ll focus on the fact that if you’re going to pay extra for a name *cough* *Hurst* *cough*, THIS is the way to do it: How much of a hand Richard Petty—the undisputed King of NASCAR—have in the design/building of this car? His name, logo, and likeness are all over—and inside of—it, right down to “Petty Garage window etching,” but is all that Petty stuff really worth the $26,700 premium over the PROVEN ass-kicker Hennessey? Well, it did. I guess it is truly is good to be the King…
2015 Ford Shelby GT350 50th Anniversary Edition — $215,000
Lot #3003 Speaking of big names, few—if any—have the gravitas and (at least in Ford circles) near-holy reverence of the late Carroll Hall Shelby. Not to brag, but I met that man on several occasions, and each time he was as sweet-as-a-peach as was Mr. Petty. And while it’s based on the same car as the Hennessey (Last time. Promise.), a drag race between the two will leave the Shelby left at a stoplight like it was bolted to the ground despite its 5.2-liter V8 as it has “just” 526 hp thanks (in part) to its lack of a supercharger. But is car 48 of 50 special 50th Anniversary Editions with the Tech Package, just 42 miles on the odometer, in “traditional” Shelby colors, and—perhaps most importantly--sold with 100 percent of its hammer price to “benefit the American Heart Association.” I’m too poor to know if that’s a big deal, but at least two people fought over this car to get its sale price so high. And that price, as my father says, establishes its value.
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