The history of # 2707
9/28/18
by Bernie Bautista
the Phillipines
In early 1968, while playing golf with my father, he had mentioned to me that he was looking at purchasing a Cobra in the USA.
I innocently asked what is a Cobra? And he responded "a GT350".
A few months later, a brand new, lime green, 1968 Shelby Cobra GT350 sat in his garage. Wow,
we were the envy in my school as we were probably the first in the Phillipines to have one.
My father was in the manufacturing business of engine parts such as pistons, engine bearings and casted cylinder liners
for big bore diesel engines in the 1960s. He was also as you can say, a muscle car enthusiast
in the early 60s to the 70s. Unfortunately, he passed away in 1973.
He owned 1956 and 1957 Thunderbirds, a 1959 Cadillac, a 1960 Impala, a 1964 Malibu, and several 1968 and 1969 Mustangs
amongst others. Not to mention, two of my older brothers grew up driving Corvettes, Chargers and Challengers
in the late sixties. As for myself, I had the opportunity to drive a 1971 Challenger in my college years in Michigan.
To sum it up, we were a family of muscle cars enthusiasts then and still are.
Through the years, the only two cars that survivored are the 1957 Thunderbird and the 1968 Shelby GT350.
Both are now going through concours restorations. A few years ago, I managed to purchase the Shelby
from the family and it has been in my possession since going through the long process.
I am now restoring it back to its original specs. Basically, the car survives with 62k original miles.
It has been kept well and is still all original, all matching numbers car except for the exterior paint.
It was painted red in the mid 1980s.
A picture of the car before the current restoration.
Since then I have been doing more research as to the history of the Shelby.
In 2014, I had the opportunity to speak with Vincent Liska of SAAC and he had given me information
on the history of the car. My father had purchased it from Gotham Ford in New York in 1968.
To my surprise the VIN indicated that the Shelby could be a special color car.
Mr Liska did confirm that the door tag indicates a special color and that it is one of the special color yellow "WT6066".
Upon reading Coralsnake's website on 1968 Shelby special colors, my Shelby could be one of the 8 GT350s
built. If that is the case, then now you have found one of the missing GT350s in WT6066.
[NOTE: Nine special paint GT350 fastbacks were built. So far, we have not been able to identify the color of all nine cars.]
As I have mentioned earlier, the Shelby arrived brand new in 1968 ...lime green color. My
father was a lover of green color, even signed most of his signatures in green color ink in his everyday business.
This is the reason why he also wanted a green colored Shelby.
Back then dealers will deliver to buyers your desired color choice which my father ordered for his 1968 Shelby.
Somehow or rather a special color yellow GT350 was used and repainted in lime green by the dealer.
The early photo of my father's Shelby (above) shows the lime green color and the GT350 stripes in black.
Only yellow Shelbys were fitted with black GT350 stripes. Others were in white including the lime green cars.
Just to confirm the special color, the original, bright yellow was found after stripping the car.
So, #2707 will survive more years to come and will be passed on to many more generations and envied by many.
It's not a clone nor a tribute, just an all original 68 GT350 with a special color WT6066.
One of the nine produced and I'm proud to own the car.
Enjoy! And thanks to Pete of Coralsnake for giving me the opportunity to share this story. Cheers!
-Bernie
The story will be updated when Bernie completes the restoration!
