1969 Mustang GT R-Code



Shelby hunt leads to Ford engineering Mustang GT R-Code test car surprise.



In 1989, Henry Isaksen, an architect from Sturgeon Bay, Wis., received a phone call from Roger Strege, a local building inspector and longtime friend who told him there was a white 1968 Shelby sitting in a barn only minutes away.



From a distance, Isaksen looked at the weathered, white rolling body shell and immediately knew that it wasn’t a ’68 Shelby. Instead, it was a rusty, disassembled 1969 Mustang GT hardtop coupe missing the engine and rear end. Even though it wasn’t what he was looking for, Isaksen looked at the car’s VIN and something caught his eye. The VIN contained an “R,” indicating this coupe left the factory as a Ram Air 428 Cobra Jet car. He asked the owner what had happened to the engine and rear end. His response was, “I bought it like it is, pretty much a rolling chassis, and my plan was to put a 390 engine into it and make it a daily driver