Unrestored 1969 Shelby GT500 one of many classic barn finds going to auction

Wed, 19 Mar 2014

We love a good barn find here at Autoblog. We like that there's a palpable excitement and sense of mystery surrounding barn finds. Each case has its own uniqueness to it, and this latest discovery is no different: an unrestored, one-owner 1969 Shelby GT500 with just 8,531 miles on it.

In the case of this particular barn find, many of the typical questions have already been answered. For example, we know who owned it – his name was Larry Brown. He recently passed away, and as he had no wife or children to inherit the estate, the car he purchased at Pennsylvania Ford dealer in May of 1969, will be auctioned off by Ron Gilligan Auctioneers.

The car was fastidiously maintained, having never been driven in the rain. In fact, Brown never even washed it, out of fear of it rusting. According to the auction website, the last time this car saw water was probably when it was detailed ahead of being delivered to Brown. If that doesn't sound like a fanatical sense of maintenance on the part of this GT500's owner, this next part will. The interior has been treated to a similarly painstaking attempt at preservation, with garbage bags covering the seats and two layers of floor mats over the carpets. The result is a car that, aesthetically, is in remarkable shape considering it's spent so long in a barn.

Mechanically, all appears well. The auctioneers report that a new battery and a fresh tank of gas allowed the nearly 45-year-old car's 428-cubic-inch Cobra Jet V8 to fire up straight away. A four-speed manual trans delivers that V8's grunt with the help of a t-shaped shifter.

Brown's GT500 was purchased for just $5,245 back in 1969. Today, the price is considerably higher. A quick search of Auto Trader Classics found a 1969 GT500 coupe with 75,320 miles on the clock and an asking price of just under $90,000. Considering the original, unrestored and low-mileage nature of Brown's car, we expect it to fetch a good bit more than that.

The auction will be held on April 25, 2014 at 12:30 PM EST. Alongside the GT500, a 1971 Ford Ranchero GT and a 1974 Econoline (with just 554 miles on it) will be auctioned off. Click over to the auction page for Brown's possessions to get the full rundown on the GT500, including pictures from its discovery.

By Brandon Turkus