Shelby that had been with family for 39 years finally found

This Shelby had been with its owner’s family for 39 years before being sold and found in unusual circumstances.

The story came from Chad Pierce, appearing on the YouTube channel VINwiki, who had received a call from his brother Chris.

Chris told him that their dad’s 1969 Shelby GT350 had been found.

It had been sold without their knowledge in 2014 – and had now turned up again.

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What happened to this family car after 39 years?

Recalling the car from his childhood, Chad said: “It was incredibly impactful for me.

“Growing up, I spent a lot of time in the garage.

“Whether it was car show or working on the details of it, the impact it had on me was pretty profound.

“It directed where I went with my life.

“I’ve been in the car industry in a multitude of roles, and it stems from that car.”

Chad’s dad bought the car in November 1975 and owned it for 39 years.

The brothers even considered the car their ‘sister’ – it was basically part of the family.

It’s nice when cars have those sentimental bonds for their owners.

That was very much apparent in the case of a man who tracked down his grandad’s lost Lamborghini Countach.

Dad sold the car in 2014 after 39 years, and kept it a secret from his sons.

Whenever they’d ask how the Shelby was doing – as they regularly did – the patriarch would dodge the question and claim it was in storage.

In August of that year, he fessed up and told Chris the truth.

It shocked Chris into about ‘twenty minutes of silence’.

His dad told him it’d been sold at a Shelby dealer out in Indiana.

Where was the Shelby later found?

Years of searching for the car online proved fruitless.

The three brothers kept up the search though, leaving no rock unturned.

Then in February 2020, the call came in from Chris.

It turned out that the Shelby had been found through a third-party video filmed at a restoration shop in Arizona.

Brandon, the youngest brother, called up the shop and got the owner’s email.

Chad emailed the owner, Mitch and got a call back.

You might think that Mitch would have suspicions about the backstory that was given to him.

But Chad proved that the car had been in his family by identifying a very specific detail.

Behind the front fender is a bulbous structure that had been dented.

This dent was acquired in December 1975, when Chad’s dad drove it into a fence.

Although Mitch didn’t have plans of selling the car, he extended an offer for the brothers to head out west to see it.

Suffice to say, ‘waterworks’ were running once they got over to Arizona.

But Chad still wanted the car and asked to be given ‘first right of refusal’ should it ever go up for sale.

In the end, he ended up getting himself a maroon Shelby with a white interior and four-speed transmission.

It wasn’t his dad’s, but it was close enough.

But that’s not the end of the story.

In August 2020, Mitch reached out to tell Chad that he was selling the original Shelby.

So in the end – he ended up with two Shelbys!

Not for long though, the other car ended up being sold.

But all in all, he was reunited with his dad’s car and that’s what matters.

This isn’t the first time a Shelby has been discovered years after it was last seen – just take this 1968 Shelby featured in a magazine as another case of that.

To see this heartwarming story about a 39 year family car for yourself, head over to VINwiki’s YouTube channel.