Shipping Dates From San Jose

We know the '67 Shelby GT car numbers ranged from 0001-3225, but when did Shelby assign them? Was it based on the Ford DSO Item Number? The Ford Sequence Number? Was it the date that Shelby started their completion process, or was it the date that Shelby completed the car?

The SRG's theory is that the Shelby car numbers were assigned roughly based on the order the cars were delivered (from FSJ), unloaded, parked, and inventoried. It was pretty simple ... the first car counted received number 0001 and they kept going until the last one was delivered and counted in July 1967. Logically, sequence numbers would only be assigned once the unit was in Shelby's possession behind the east hanger at LAX; otherwise, there could have been sequence breaks due to canceled orders (DSOs).

Remember, 'Released to Shipper' happened at the Ford San Jose assembly plant. The shipper would then handle logistics, including loading, transport, and unloading. Several variables could result in delays throughout this process.

In the following photos, we can see 5-digit sequence numbers handwritten on pieces of paper placed in the front windshield.

When viewing the data, cells shaded in light blue are to bring your attention to 'out-of-sequence' units (based on the theory). These account for less than 12%. Light yellow shaded cells indicate a delta of a week or more between the FSJ build date and the FSJ released-to-shipper dates.

Someday we hope that FoMoCo will help car owners by granting the SRG access to the computer records for all first-gen Shelby units. This would allow us to group by released date and then sort by Shelby sequence number, effectively allowing us to recreate the map of how cars were actually parked behind the east hangar.

See Also

• Production Gantt Charts - Ford San Jose
• Production Gantt Charts - Shelby American LAX
• First Shelby GT Cars Built, Serialized, Completed