I've seen b/w pics of Little Red, but NEVER :'( seen the hornet car. Anybody have pics they can post or send to me? Or anyone have a link to pics? ???

66 Dearborn HCS,
I have a BW picture of the Green Hornet from Mustang Monthly.
Doug

I got this one from a post Talon423 did back in Feb 04
Doug

http://www.msnusers.com/HPMUSCLECARINVESTMENTS/68shelbyprototypegreenhornet.msnw

The Shelby American magazine had an article on the Green Hornet. If you are interested in a copy e-mail me directly. calfulfam@aol.com

Scott

Thanks guys! great pics.

That guys car looks pretty cool.(the one that admin put a link to) But I can't believe he wouldn't spend the money for orginal fiberglass, or accurate reproductions.

I researched and wrote both the Mustang Monthly--and Shelby American articles on the Green Hornet.

Quite a car, and MM considered the GH as the top restored Mustang for that year.

Paul.

Who would want to see the build specs for Lil Red, and the Green Hornet??

It would take about a week to compile it.

Paul.

Vote me in.....I always wondered what when into both cars.
Doug

The "green Hornet" is an interesting car. I don't debate it is a prototype, but I think it is debatable it was a Shelby. It would have been the only one built in Dearborn during the 68 model year and the only one that didn't say "SHELBY UNIT" on the build sheet.

The "green Hornet" is an interesting car. I don't debate it is a prototype, but I think it is debatable it was a Shelby. It would have been the only one built in Dearborn during the 68 model year and the only one that didn't say "SHELBY UNIT" on the build sheet.


The significance, AFAIK, is that Shelby designed it as a potential production unit, like Little Red. That's why I think that SAAC would even consider it.

I guess I would want to see some something from SHELBY that desiginates as a SHELBY. Has anyone seen that ?

Does anyone know what emblem is on the C-pillar of Lil' Red? I know that GH had the Cobra Snake and Cobra spelled out in one emblem, but I have no clue on LR as a pic I have is too far away.

Thanks
Ernie

this is the emblem that is on the c-pillar of the lil red. i have a "mustang card" of the lil red and can see which emblem it is. on the fastback, this would be on the decklid. this is a pic of the 500, lil red would be the GT 350.



http://www.thompsonmotorsports.com/S7MS-16098-D.jpg

I thought LR was a GT500 with double paxtons or am I thinking of GH. I have a B&W of LR with a caption below listing this info.. :)

ernie

ernie-
i just looked at both of my pics and noticed something... the "mustang card" that i referred to in the last post is a clone of the lil red owned by a guy named al holstein of california. he has it as Gt 350. but then i looked at my art drawing (shown earlier in this thread) it is a GT 500. i just opened my 1988 gt/cs registry book and there is the same car (holstein car) on page 25. it says that the clone is a 351, whereas the original was a 428 paxton. there are actual b&w pitures of the lil red on pg. 8 of the 1988 registry. i don't have a scanner, so i can't post them. sorry about the 350-500 mix-up.

talan423

Hey no problem; you did confirm what I was thinking though. I am currently working a a LR project of my own and now have an idea of what to put on the C-pillar.

Ernie

do you have any pics of your progress so far??

Not many pics yet. As a matter of fact the engine just got started lastnight. Unfortunately my 4100 is toast and I ordered a 525 Road Demon should be here in the next day or so. Basically the car was just transformed from a very well option 6 Cyl. automatic with drum brakes to a well optioned nasty 302 automatic with disc brakes. I'm starting the qtr, trunk and tail light panel work next month. I need to find a host for pics, I think I saw something about this on my yahoo account.


Upper and Lower Console
Power Steering
Exterior Decor Package
Air Conditioning

Have purchased some items to start interior change over to deluxe.

Have purchased nearly everything needed to for Shelby look from the quarters back.

Have purchased everything needed for the front end except the hood and nose piece.

Wheels are not even on the warmer yet.


Ernie

I am also interested in building a Little Red clone. Does anyone know for sure whether it had a 427 or 428 with one or two Paxton superchargers? I have attached a black and white photo I found on the web.

If, I remember correctly Allan Cross from the Mr. FOMOCO site told me that LR had a 428 with dual Paxtons.

Did you notice the outboard headlight placement in the grille?? That is interesting considering the story behind the headlight placement on 1967 Shelbys. I also notice it has the louvered BB hood. Smooth fenders with shelby cobra emblems on the C-pillars. You know this thing had to be lethal. The lightest mustang body with all that power. Wish we knew more about the differential and suspension.

ernie ;D

i was just looking through my new book "MUSTANG.. FORTY YEARS" that i got for christmas. the california special is well represented in it with some beautiful pictures! there are also some great color pics of the green hornet in its current condition... beautiful!!

tom

Hi Guys...

Sorry for the delay. Trip to L.A., and Xmas --as well as a book project has kept me too busy.

Anyway--I just found my "scrapbook" for the Green Hornet and Lil Red. I sorted all my CS "stuff" into two big boxes last night...

The Lil Red was a test bed car, and it had no less than two engines and three transmissions. It was so "strong" that it kept braking parts. Then when it was "fixed", it would just sit there and spin the tires--it had so much HP.

The Green Hornet has a 0-60 time of 5.7 sec, and 0-100 of 11.41 sec. 3940 lbs, premium gas, F60 x 15 Goodyear (speedway) tires, 3.00:1 rear, 428CJ with "Shelyized" C-6.
Romeo test track, Michigan, 10/14/70

As for the Al Holstein car--I talked him into doing that car back in 1984(?) when he and his wife ran Jim's Mustangs in El Cajon, Calif. He was offered $25K for it on the spot once. It began as a '67 dark green plain jane car--and it did have a 351W engine--as I helped drop it in.

More to follow--

Paul.

Hi Guys...


As for the Al Holstein car--I talked him into doing that car back in 1984(?) when he and his wife ran Jim's Mustangs in El Cajon, Calif. He was offered $25K for it on the spot once. It began as a '67 dark green plain jane car--and it did have a 351W engine--as I helped drop it in.

More to follow--

Paul.


Paul,
What is the Al Holstein car? Is it a 'Green Hornet' or 'Lil red'? I read in the 'one of one' section of the Mustang Monthly website that 'Lil Red' started out with a 390 and was converted to the motor you mentioned in your specs thread. They also mentioned a white color but I have never seen anything else on a white coupe prototype. Have you ever heard or seen anything about a white car?
Dan

Man I am amazed at how long this thread has lasted. I'm glad so many are interested in these rare and beautiful vehicles. Anybody know where the originals are?

Scott W.

Scott,
the Green Hornet "lives" and has been completly restored. As for the other prototypes, ie Little Red, it seems that they were all destroyed. By the way, I think the Green Hornet was to be destroyed also but some how was wedged away in a corner, "out of side-out of mind".
Doug

To answer some questions here, the Green Hornet car started out as a '68 Coupe with a 390, then was one of the GT/CS production pilot cars, then Shelby Automotive got a hold of it, and it went from there.

Lil Red was a late '67 Shelby idea car, and that is why it had the outboard headlights in the grille.

The Al Holstein car was just a LR copy. He used stock '67-8 headlight buckets, and added some non-functional headlights into the grille. He also used '66 ten spokes instead of the '67-8 ten spokes. It was just a custom Mustang. A real looker, tho.

I got to know Fred Goodell pretty well. He was Shelby's chief engineer from about '66 to '69. Helluva guy! Raspy voice, a real "John Wayne--shoot from the hip" kind of guy. In his 70's he'd go to Saudi to see how his military vehicles were working during Desert Storm. Not a fan of GM at all! He made sure that the '68 Shelby and CS fiberglass was TWICE as strong as the Corvette glass from A.O. Smith. We owe a lot to Fred. He just did things--and went for it. His son, Fred (Jr.) still works for Ford.

That's when they just built cars without a lot of hassle. They just did it. F-4 Phantom seats inspired the Shelby shoulder harnesses. Cool stuff like that...

Green Hornet "escaped" the crusher at Kar Kraft. We're not sure about Lil Red, tho', although she's never surfaced. Maybe it's sitting in a garage somewhere????

Paul.

Green Hornet "escaped" the crusher at Kar Kraft. We're not sure about Lil Red, tho', although she's never surfaced. Maybe it's sitting in a garage somewhere????

Whoah, So the Green Hornet was NOT a Shelby creation? I thought all of the forefathers of the GT/CS were Shelby "ideas".

Scott W.

Guys,
Some pictures were sent to me of a car that is either a copy of the 'Green Hornet' or the restoration of the original. The url for the pictures is:
www.msnusers.com/HPMUSCLECARINVESTMENTS/68shelbyprototypegreenhornet.msnw

The car in the pictures has the same gold-white-gold stripe as the picture in 'Mustang 40 years' and the picture of the rear suspension looks pretty sophisticated...
A beautiful machine.
Dan

No, apparently Kar Kraft had a crusher, and I guess Shelby Automotive didn't. Ford told S.A. to send it there. KK might have been the Ford prototype crusher as well (any KK experts out there?) The separate divisions, and outside contractors all worked together. Kar Kraft didn't have anything to do with the making of the Green Hornet or Lil Red.

Shelby Automotive, in Livonia, was basically an office, and a shop that made prototype things, like sunroofs for T-Birds, and spec'd parts and the Shelby cars for production in 1968, 69, and 70.

Both cars were 100% Shelby prototype projects.

Paul.

Didn't both LR and the GH have independent suspension all the way around? If I remember from the Green Hornet article in MM, the car originally had an exotic fuel injection system, but wasn't with the car when it was found and restored, but someone somewhere had the blueprints...

Either way, It would be cool if LR was sitting in some fenced off lot somewhere, waiting to be discovered...

Guys came across a Shelby De Mexico site; low and behold there are pics of 1967 Shelby coupes! One is listed as the sister for the infamous Lil Red. The cars in Mexico had inboard mounted headlights and fender badges. This is way too cool!

See the link!

Ernie

http://search.netscape.com/ns/boomframe.jsp?query=shelby+taillight+conversion&pa ge=1&offset=0&result_url=redir%3Fsrc%3Dwebsearch%2 6amp%3BrequestId%3D3209a15318f678f2%26amp%3Bclicke dItemRank%3D4%26amp%3BuserQuery%3Dshelby%2Btaillig ht%2Bconversion%26amp%3BclickedItemURN%3Dhttp%253A %252F%252Fwww.hammar.dyndns.org%252F%257Emexmust%2 52Farticles%252Fi910252.htm%26amp%3BinvocationType %3D-%26amp%3BfromPage%3DNSCPIndex&remove_url=http%3A%2 F%2Fwww.hammar.dyndns.org%2F%7Emexmust%2Farticles% 2Fi910252.htm

:)
Sorry bad URL

Try this one.

Ernie

http://www.hammar.dyndns.org/~mexmust/articles/i910252.htm :) :)

In the April 2004 issue of Hemmings Muscle Machines on page 10 there is a picture and story of Little red. The article states it is alive and well and living outside Chicago in residence at the Volo Auto Museum." If you have a load of scratch burning a hole in your pocket, this ultra rare muscle machine can be yours." This car comes with a signed letter from Carroll Shelby authenticating its legitimacy.

The article says it carries a price tag near one million dollars .

found the web-site for this museum. couldn't find little red, but i did find red's sister. anybody ever heard of this one before?



http://www.volocars.com/showroom/showroom_d.php?id=shelby&nhs=7&make=mustang/T-Bird&show=

here's the story about the car too!

http://www.volocars.com/news3.html

You know, Fred Goodell (Shelby Chief Engineer 1966-70), said something about a '67 convertible in a past SAAC magazine interview--"The Shelby American".

This is interesting.

thanks for finding the URL for us!

Paul.

An article in the June issue of Hemmings Muscle Machines on Auctioneer Craig Jackson, says that he has in his modest collection among other cars
"The one-of-one "Green Hornet" 68 Shelby Mustang
notchback prototype, the one with the independent rear suspension and the Conelco fuel injection." The article is on page 84 and is written by Jeff Koch.
My scanner is not working so I can't scan the article for you.

I have seen a pic of the car at Volo Museum, and it is NOT the real Little Red.

I have seen a pic of the car at Volo Museum, and it is NOT the real Little Red.


How do you know this?

Scott W.

People are apparently confused. Although Little Red is mentioned in the article, Volo claims to have the only one off red 1967 Shelby GT500 conv. See the links below:

http://www.volocars.com/news1.html

This link has a few more pics:

http://www.autothing.com/funthings/Auto%20News/2004%20Auto%20News/January/ATnews-JAN-04-008.htm

Volo claims to have the only one off red 1967 Shelby GT500 conv.

Okay, there was never the claim by Volo that this was the REAL Little Red then. I get it. ;)
I wonder if the real one was smushed then. Dangit! :'(