My Classic Shelby

Ronnie and Garry King now have two 1960s Mustangs.

"I had exotic cars like the E Type and Maserati but they cost a fortune to maintain and the Porsche was a fabulous car but almost boring because it did everything so well," he says.

The conversion from Euro exotics to Yank Fords happened three years ago when they bought a 1965 Mustang Fastback, but the love of 'Stangs began decades ago when Garry watched Allan Moffatt and Ian Geoghegan racing them. "I loved their simplicity," Garry says.

He bought the 1965 Mustang Fastback in 2008 for $US27,000 from a Las Vegas owner. "It didn't sell in an online auction because of the oversized wheels," he says.

He's since changed the wheels to more stock items, replaced the gearbox to match the engine and touched up the paintwork. King says it's now worth as much as $70,000.

It features a 289 cubic inch (4.7-litre) Hypo K Code V8 engine with 271hp (202kW), a four-speed manual top-loader gearbox, drum brakes and crossply tyres.

"They were set up for racing with the same engine and gearbox as the Shelby Cobra 289," he says. "This is what Shelby based the larger 350s on." He calls it Miss Kitty because of the K Code engine.

But his pride and joy is "Carroll", the 1969 Shelby GT500 he bought a few months ago for $75,000 in New York. "We were actually looking for a GT350 and didn't think we could afford one of these," he says. "It's worth about $140,000 to $150,000 in Australia."

The GT500 was a personal favourite of American racer and car designer Carroll Shelby and was the only Mustang he purpose-built, rather than modified. It features a 428 cubic-inch (seven-litre) Cobra jet engine, so called because the venturi air vent in the centre of the bonnet rams air directly into the air filter.

"It's quoted as being 335bhp (250kW) but it was in the days when they understated the power so it's probably more like 435bhp (324kW)," he says. "The Fastback is sweet, but this an animal."

From the A pillar forward and at the tail it's made of fibreglass, it has taillights from the Thunderbird and an air scoop in the side to ventilate the rear brakes.

A design fault in the original model had the fuel filler in the rear right above the dual exhaust pipes, so when owners advanced the timing, it would backfire and explode in flames. In this later model the fuel tank was ventilated forward of the exhaust.

King has done little work to it except to replace the brake master cylinder, power steering hose and the tyres which had been on it since 1988.

It features power front disc brakes and rear drums, three-speed auto, rear louvers and factory air-conditioning which makes it the summer drive choice of the Kings. They plan to take it to the first national Shelby rally in Dandenong, Victoria, next October.

Meanwhile, the GT500 and the Fastback share the carpeted garage with an old Vespa scooter called Lola while their daily work vehicles are parked out in the street.