Lost forever!

Long time readers of www.ponysite.de have already heard about this unique car in my interview from 2002 with Claude Dubois, the Shelby dealer and importer back then in Brussels/Belgium.

In 1970 he made an agreement with his mate Carroll Shelby to build cars under his licence for sale in Europe. The contract was made initially for the modification of 1971/1972 Big body Mustangs, that lead into the sale of at least 9* Shelby Europa G.T.350/GT500 in 1971, but there was also another project ongoing, the Shelby Europa G.T.250.

One prototype was build based on a Maverick from 1971. When Claude received the car, his modifications included  many things in the brake system, the tires, wheel rims, the hood pins, a scoop and most important of course the whole engine. A 289 GT40 engine  was put into the little body and made quite a big difference in driving. 
I  built  this  engine in my workshop  using a stock 289 HP block  and  a pair  of GT40  fully  assembled  cylinder  heads that I received  from  John  Wyer (the  boss of  FAV  in  Slough where the  GT40 were  built). I  remember  a  pile of about  50 or 60 pairs of  new  GT40  iron  heads  that was  situated  in a  corner of the  Slough  factory .....  You  know, even GT40 engine  parts  were  quite  cheap  then. 

"This car was really my favourite, says Claude Dubois, "this was again a real performance car like the old 1965 Shelbys, but with that little extra touch of a bit more comfort."

"I used it for one year as my personal demo car. I remember a specific day, when I was driving from Brussels to Paris, a Capri 2600 RS was chasing me and went about 140miles per hour towards the perimeter of Paris. That little beast was in fact good for 240km/h (135 miles/h) and I loved driving that fast and seeing those curious faces passing by fast cars.

Well back to the Capri, he was quite close behind me, when suddenly my rear right tire blew. My car was starting to go sideways, but thanks to my racing background, I could got it back in the right direction, but ended up on the right side of the "Autobahn" in the grass. I stepped out and walked around the car. There was almost no damage, but the wheel was completely done, the tire ripped off the rim.

While kneeing down, I saw that white Capri standing a few 100meters away, no movement inside or outside the car. I walked up to the car and looked inside. The driver was sitting behind his wheel, almost paralyzed. I said, what's up with you, do you have a problem?
He could hardly speek a word, still looking up front and grasping his steering wheel. After a moment of silence he said: "Geez, I am scared stiff, that was horrible"."

The Shelby Europa G.T.250 went to a buyer from Anvers/Belgium, who kept it for another 4 years. It did not reveal any major trouble to the owner and worked perfectly. In 1978 Dubois company bought the car back and the partner of Claude (Philippe Bervoet) drove the car for a long time. The car was a bit neglected.
At one point in its history the modified engine must have been replaced with a 302.

Update 2013: The G.T.250 then was sold to Olcar Sales in Le Hulpe. Olcar sold the car to a norwegian customer - as we found out recently in 2013. This last owner remembers that it had a 302 installed and had an aluminium dash plate. Reportedly Mr. C. parted the car out and scrapped the rest.  


The G.T.250 featured amongst other items:
Engine 289 with GT 40 specs  (350HP)
Shelby R-model rims
(probably) Avon tires 
Suspension mods like stabilizer, lowered, Koni Shocks, etc.
Scoop
Hood pins
Hood and body side stripes
Rear Trunk filler cap like on the other Shelby Europa
289 powered Shelby emblem  on the rear
Claude Dubois tag inside the engine bay 

Thanks to Claude Dubois for this exclusive "insight", which has not even been published in his new book.

This book was announced to be available in english language as  of Jan. 2005, but as of 2010 I don't find it anywhere on the web. Interested readers may contact Claude himself for an english translation file, once they have obtained a book from www.editions-palmier.fr  or www.motorbooks.co.uk 

 "Une vie sur 4 roues" (Edition Palmier, french language) was presented at the Brussels Retrofestival 2004 (21-23.October 2004), but negotiations with the Motorbook Int. publishing company to print an english version followed. It contains a lot of background history about his R-Shelby, De Tomaso and other race cars (I think they are called Ferraris), he drove. A very interesting book about the racing and car dealer world back then in the Good ol' Times. Don't miss it.

Read more about the Shelby Europa and my interview with Claude here