Where Shelby Mustangs were Born

Our recent story on Brian and Samantha Styles’ 1967 Shelby G.T. 500 convertible (theonlyone built!) detailed the rise and fall of Shelby’s relationship with Ford Motor Company to build Shelby Mustangs, and this photo shows where it all went down. Carroll’s Shelby’s headquarters were at 1042 Princeton Drive in Venice, CA, moving into the former Reventlow Racing shop when Lance Reventlow left, keeping many of Reventlow’s employees including the brilliant Phil Remington. According to “Original Venice Crew” member Jim Marietta—who worked there at the time—this photo was taken in what was known as the Carter Building, which was across the street from the Princeton offices and is the shop where all the Cobras and 1965 Shelby Mustangs were born. This photo from our archives was dated a week after New Years 1965. Shelby moved from here to the Imperial Highway building near LAX later in the year, “around April or so but nobody kept any records back then,” according to Marietta so some ’66 G.T. 350s may have been built in this shop, but certainly not all of them.