I can only begin to imagine how the seller must have felt when they opened the door to this garage and was confronted by a 1970 Shelby GT350. It isn’t clear how long it has been sitting, but it is now being offered for sale to settle an estate. Opportunities like this don’t come along every day, so if this one grabs you and won’t let go, you need to check the listing here on eBay. The GT350 is located in Medina, Ohio, and it has aroused enough interest for the 40 bids that have been submitted to push the price beyond the reserve. It currently sits at $50,600, and there’s still time for you to stake your claim on this beauty.

This Shelby is one of those cars that seems to raise more questions than it answers. This car undoubtedly has a story behind it, but that one has probably been lost when the owner passed away. For me, one mystery surrounds the paint color. The owner attaches a Marti Report on the vehicle, and I have never had any reason to doubt the accuracy of these in the past. However, it indicates that the Trim Tag shows a paint code of “D5” and states that the shade is Pastel Gray. However, the code doesn’t correspond with any of the color charts that I have for either 1969 or 1970. That shade translates as Code 6, while Code D is for Acapulco Blue. Adding one further layer to this mystery is the fact that the Window Sticker refers to the color as Gray. I might be missing something in this, so it will be interesting to see what our readers make of it. If I’m wrong, I’m happy to be corrected. Looking beyond that mystery, the news seems to be extremely good. The seller states that he believes that the car is rust-free and that all of the steel and Shelby-specific pieces are original. I can’t spot any rust problems in the supplied photos, and the Shelby’s underside looks particularly clean. All of the trim is in good order, as is the tinted glass. The wheels aren’t original, but the buyer could source a correct set as part of the restoration process.

The mystery continues when we pop the hood and have a look in the GT350’s engine bay. This should be a 351ci Windsor V8 that would have pumped out 290hp when the car was new. In this case, the original owner ordered the car with a 4-speed close-ratio manual transmission, a 3.00 standard rear end, power steering, and power front disc brakes. The seller doesn’t seem to be sure whether the engine is numbers-matching, but he does encourage potential buyers to perform an in-person inspection to decide for themselves. It appears that the deceased owner had gasoline flowing through his veins because he had some significant upgrades performed on what was already a pretty potent V8. Apparently, he had plenty of internal upgrades performed to the camshaft and other components, and this Shelby is now happy drinking racing fuel. Whether it remains that way or is returned to its original specifications will be a decision for the buyer to make. The vehicle runs and drives, but the seller suggests that a qualified individual should thoroughly inspect it before it ventures onto our roads. That sounds like pretty wise counsel to me.

One area of this Shelby that appears to be original is the interior. It is trimmed in Black Clarion Knit/Corinthian vinyl, and it presents well for a classic of this age. It has no apparent needs and could be left untouched if the buyer wants to treat the vehicle as a survivor. There are no rips, tears, cracks, or splits, and the plastic pieces are in good order. Once again, The Marti Report makes interesting reading. The original owner ordered the GT350 with air conditioning, a Sport Deck rear seat, a tilt-away wheel, a tachometer and trip meter, and an AM/FM stereo radio. It appears that all of these features remain intact, and apart from the wrap on the wheel, there have been no aftermarket additions.

The Ford Motor Company and Carroll Shelby represented an automotive dream team, and the partnership produced some legendary cars. The relationship soured, and the 1970 Shelbys were built with no appreciable input from the great man himself. Those cars that were sold as 1970 models were actually unsold 1969 cars issued with new VINs. Only 789 examples of the Shelby across all models were sold in 1970, making them an automotive unicorn. This means that they are highly-coveted when they appear on the market, as the bidding on this vehicle demonstrates. A pristine example will easily command a six-figure value, so it will be interesting to see the final sale price for this car.