1968 Ford Mustang ‘Shelanor’ Fastback Offers Best of Both Worlds

By Cameron Vanderhorst - September 18, 2018

While some may raise an eyebrow, this hybrid fastback Mustang is strikingly beautiful as a daily driver.

When you’re rebuilding a ’68 Ford Mustang, it’s easy to go overboard with modifications. We’re not sure that we could resist the temptation to overdo it, but we’re glad the builder of this car did.

Offered for sale at Gateway Classic Cars, this resto-modded ’68 Fastback wears a few choice Eleanor-style components, but nothing that compromises the stock shape. It’s easy to forget how good these cars look when left mostly stock-appearing.

Dubbed “Shelanor,” this fastback is more Shelby than Eleanor. We definitely dig the twin foglight grille, aggressive hood, and front chin spoiler. We’re also glad that the rest of the body is more or less standard fare for a ’68 Shelby GT500.

Visually, there’s a few more deviations from the Eleanor/Shelby norm that we like. The single wide racing stripe is an interesting look, and we like the larger diameter wheels that aren’t too large. The fitment is slightly staggered, but we’re hardly talking a drag race setup.

Under the hood, you’ll find a 408 cubic inch stroker motor, backed up by a fresh Borg-Warner T-5 manual transmission and a Ford 9 inch rear axle. The engine breathes through a 750cfm Holley four barrel carb sitting atop an Edelbrock intake.

Exhaust gases escape through Hedman headers en route to a pair of Flowmaster mufflers. From the video posted on the dealer’s page, we can tell that this classic red fastback sounds as good as it looks.

This is a car that’s not taken to the extremes in any department and that’s just fine by us. This is a car built for driving and enjoying, a point evidenced by the air conditioning retrofit. When it comes to classic Mustangs, there’s a ton of ways they can be built up, and none of them are wrong.