- The SAAC Mustang is the Fox-body Shelby that Ford never built.
- The SAAC Mustang was the product of the Shelby American Automobile Club, not Carroll Shelby himself.
- Just over 60 were made; this prototype was a promotional car.
In the early 1990s, if you wanted a muscle car with a sprinkling of Shelby magic on it, you bought a front-wheel-drive Dodge Daytona. If you wanted a Shelby-infused Ford, then too bad—unless you were a member of the Shelby American Automobile Club (SAAC). In that case, you could get your hands on one of these, a Mk 1 SAAC Mustang GT, which was envisioned as the Fox-body equivalent of the original Shelby GT350.
Perhaps that’s a little overzealous a comparison, especially to SAAC members, who can be extremely particular about their Shelby facts. Even so, this prototype Mustang is something extremely special, and it’s up for sale on Bring a Trailer, which, like Car and Driver, is part of Hearst Autos.
Being a prototype, this Mustang says “Shelby” on it in a few places; the production models were labeled as SAAC only so Chrysler’s lawyers wouldn’t come a-calling. The car was the brainchild of club executives Richard Kopec and Ken Eber, who figured the SAAC could do what Ford at the time couldn’t. They tapped a member named David Wagner, who conveniently happened to be Ford’s Power Products Operation Group manager.
The cars were only offered to members, and the project officially had Carroll Shelby’s blessing. Modifications were pretty stout, including an aluminum GT40 intake and GT40 cylinder heads with a slight bump in compression. Underdrive pulleys, ceramic-coated headers, and a 2.5-inch exhaust cut down on parasitic losses. Altogether, the V-8 now made 295 horsepower on the dyno, about 70 hp better than a stock 5-point-oh.
All cars were manual only, and the T5 gearbox received a clutch upgrade. Eibach lowering springs and Koni shocks tightened up the handling. Disc brakes were added all around. A roll bar helped stiffen up the chassis.
None of these tricks would be revolutionary to anyone who grew up modifying Fox-body Mustangs, but as a package for a production car, it was a very nicely executed effort. Further, the rarity and the anointing of Shelby’s own approval made these cars very collectible.
They were also eye-wateringly expensive at the time at $39,995 before options; that’s more than $90,000 in today’s money. The SAAC only ended up having 62 cars built. This prototype was the press and promotional vehicle and has 55K miles on the odometer, so it’s nice to see that it hasn’t been treated like a museum piece. A significant portion of Shelby owners do tend to drive their cars thoroughly, despite the high values.
This enthusiast-built car kept the Shelby-Ford link going until it was reforged with the Ford GT and the modern GT350. As one of the rarest models from the Fox-body Mustang years, it will be interesting to see what this one brings—no Shelby Club membership required.
The auction ends on Sunday, December 3.
Contributing Editor
Brendan McAleer is a freelance writer and photographer based in North Vancouver, B.C., Canada. He grew up splitting his knuckles on British automobiles, came of age in the golden era of Japanese sport-compact performance, and began writing about cars and people in 2008. His particular interest is the intersection between humanity and machinery, whether it is the racing career of Walter Cronkite or Japanese animator Hayao Miyazaki’s half-century obsession with the Citroën 2CV. He has taught both of his young daughters how to shift a manual transmission and is grateful for the excuse they provide to be perpetually buying Hot Wheels.