Presented by Mecum Auctions – One of only 34 examples of Carroll Shelby’s all-conquering GT350R SCCA B Production racers, Serial No. 5R106 was raced in Midwest SCCA National events by its first owner, Richard Jordan of Downers Grove, Illinois. A veteran Corvette racer and graduate of the Carroll Shelby School of High Performance Driving at Riverside, California, Jordan ordered the car through Jack Loftus Ford Inc. in Hinsdale, Illinois. Prepared at Ford’s San Jose assembly plant to specifications established by GT350 Project Manager Chuck Cantwell, the stripped Mustang 2+2 Fastback arrived at Shelby American’s LAX headquarters on December 21, 1964; exactly six months later, on June 21, 1965, it rolled out of the Shelby workshop as an original full-competition R-Model, complete with a Shelby-modified 289 HiPo small-block V-8 tuned to 325 HP on the Shelby dynamometer. 5R106 was then shipped via TWA to O’Hare International Airport, and then to Loftus Ford, where it arrived with an additional rear axle assembly carrying 4.11:1 gearing.
While not fully documented, the car’s race record begins with an entry in the B Production class at Road America in Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin, on September 4, 1965—just 10 days after Jordan took delivery of his fresh new racer. Its subsequent history included races at Clermont, Indiana, Lynndale Farms, Wisconsin, and Wilmot Raceway, also in Wisconsin. Jordan began winding down his racing career by the early 1970s, when he placed 5R106 into long-term storage, where it remained for years under wraps and preserved in virtually as-original condition. Its second owner, Paul Zimmons of Potomac, Maryland, restored 5R106 after purchasing it in 1987, winning the Gold Award in the Competition Class at SAAC-18 at Watkins Glen in 1993. In 2000, the car earned Second Place Popular Vote at SAAC-25 at Lime Rock Park.
Subsequent owners, including such prominent collectors as Dave Christenholz and noted Shelby expert and author Colin Comer, have carefully maintained this extraordinary R-Model as it first raced at Road America in 1965 (including the scratch in the door handle from when Jordan once went off-track at Road America and barely scraped the outside wall), employing only its original factory components and NOS parts as required. With fewer than 4,900 original miles on the original engine and drivetrain, 5R106 remains in astonishingly original condition, retaining such important features as the original Plexiglas and R-Model magnesium racing wheels. Fully race-ready and offered with unusually extensive documentation that includes the original Shelby American and Jack Loftus Ford paperwork, 5R106 presents as exceedingly original, authentically restored and factory correct in every detail, making it a marvelous example of a perennial American racing classic.
This vehicle will be auctioned off at Mecum Auctions’ Kissimmee 2021 event (January 7-16, 2021).
