Stunning cars offered at Shannons Auction Sydney

Highlights of the recent Shannons Sydney auction included a 1966 Shelby GT 350 fastback, a Torana XU-1 restored to show standard and an Australian-delivered 1959 Mercedes-Benz 220SE Cabriolet. The fully restored left hand drive Shelby is believed to be the first genuine GT 350 to come to auction in Australia and is amongst only a handful of these internationally sought after muscle cars in Australia. Powered by Ford's evergreen 289-cid V8 producing 306HP (228kW) at 6,000rpm, the '66 Shelby GT 350 weighed just 1267kg, accelerated to 60 miles an hour (96km/h) in 6.2 seconds and covered the standing quarter mile (approx. 400 metres) in just 14 seconds according to a contemporary road test by Car Life magazine. One of only 1368 examples built in 1966, the matching numbers car auctioned by Shannons has been correctly restored and repainted in its original factory white with trademark Shelby blue 'Le Mans' stripes, a GT 350R-style side outlet exhaust system and factory Cragar wheels.

The vehicle had one long term owner in the United States from 1971 until 2001 and had been fully authenticated by the Shelby American Automotive. The 1972 LJ Torana XU-1 auctioned was another highly collectable muscle car that has been restored to an even higher standard - particularly under the bonnet. Appealing to a very different collector, but equally beautiful is a 1959 Mercedes-Benz 220SE Cabriolet finished to a very high standard in white grey that has won several trophies at Mercedes-Benz Car Club of NSW Concours events for its outstanding red leather interior. Other interesting vehicles in the Shannons Sydney Auction included a Bronze wine Falcon XY GT in good original condition with matching numbers, an Indy orange HG Holden Monaro GTS 308 coupe restored over the past five years, a one owner, yellow 1979 Ford Escort RS2000, a one owner, low kilometre, wide bodied 1988 Porsche 911 Speedster, a former concours winning red/tan leather MG TF 1250 and a Jaguar E Type Series 2 roadster comprehensively restored by Eagle Racing in the UK in the late 1980s.