When Shelby’s famous run with Ford was coming to a close, he wasn’t ready to hang up his racing boots. Instead, he started sketching out his next big thing. He wanted to call it the Cobra III, a nod to his world-beating Cobras, but Ford had already locked down that name. So Shelby, ever the Texan, called his new project the Lone Star.
This car is special from every angle. The body? Hand-shaped aluminum, crafted by masters in England—no two panels exactly alike, all gleaming with that old-school race car vibe. Underneath, Shelby went bold: instead of the usual front-engine setup, he put a high-strung 289 V8 smack in the middle, right behind the seats. That engine, paired with a slick ZF 5-speed manual, meant the Lone Star wasn’t just built for straight-line speed—it was made to carve up corners and leave jaws on the floor.
Only one Lone Star was ever built. It never made it to production, but that just adds to its mystique. This is the kind of car you read about in history books or see under velvet ropes at a concours, a symbol of what happens when one of racing’s greatest minds decides to go all-in, one last time. The Lone Star prototype—it’s pure Shelby: bold, rare, and unforgettable.
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