A Teenage Obsession Became a Shelby Mustang Collection
After seeing a 1968 Shelby Mustang at 17, William Deary started collecting all things Carroll Shelby—first posters and tees, then cars

By A.J. Baime
April 10, 2018 9:30 a.m. ET - Wall Street Journal

William Deary, a health-care entrepreneur from Jackson, Mich., on his Original Venice Crew 1965 Shelby Mustang GT350R, as told to A.J. Baime.

When I was 17, I visited my uncle in Okemos, Mich., and the gentleman who lived next door had this beautiful car in his driveway. I fell in love with that car. It was a 1968 Shelby Mustang GT500KR. The KR stood for King of the Road.

I came from a modest family and, at the time, I could not imagine I could even own a car. But I started collecting Carroll Shelby posters and T-shirts. Over time, I was able to build a successful company, and I ended up collecting Shelby cars. Today, I have a private museum I call the Carroll Collection.

Photos: Ride, Shelby, Ride
The car collection that William Deary has built focuses on the vintage years of Carroll Shelby cars, from 1962 to 1970.

The health-care entrepreneur’s collection features rare 1960s Shelby cars, including, from left, a 1968 Mustang GT500KR convertible, a 1966 GT350H (the H stood for Hertz, as this vehicle was available for rent in the 1960s), and a 1966 GT350. DOUG COOMBE FOR THE WALL STREET JOURNAL

Shelby Mustang GT350Rs were first built in a small shop in Venice, Calif. Members of the Original Venice Crew reunited in 2014 to begin building new cars like Mr. Deary’s, which was completed in February 2015. DOUG COOMBE FOR THE WALL STREET JOURNAL

Before Mr. Deary could afford to own a Shelby Mustang, he collected posters and T-shirts. DOUG COOMBE FOR THE WALL STREET JOURNAL

‘To me, the guys who built this car are like the Michelangelos of the auto world,’ he says. DOUG COOMBE FOR THE WALL STREET JOURNAL

Mr. Deary, who got to work with the reunited Original Venice Crew to build his car, holds a plate with signatures of 1960s Shelby employees. DOUG COOMBE FOR THE WALL STREET JOURNAL

His collection also includes some newer cars, such as this 2017 Ford GT Heritage Edition. DOUG COOMBE FOR THE WALL STREET JOURNAL

The color scheme and racing number of that car are nods to the Ford GT40 that won the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 1966. DOUG COOMBE FOR THE WALL STREET JOURNAL

A neon sign of the Shelby logo. DOUG COOMBE FOR THE WALL STREET JOURNAL

Atop Mr. Deary’s 1968 Shelby Mustang GT500KR is a surfboard, also built in 1968. DOUG COOMBE FOR THE WALL STREET JOURNAL

‘What was supposed to be a barn on my property became a garage, and then a man cave, and now, it is a private museum,’ says Mr. Deary. DOUG COOMBE FOR THE WALL STREET JOURNAL

His cars are no ‘garage queens.’ He drives them. ‘They get driven a number of times each year, when the weather is nice,’ he says. DOUG COOMBE FOR THE WALL STREET

Who was Carroll Shelby? He was a world champion race car driver in the late 1950s, and in 1960, he discovered that he had a heart problem. He was told he did not have long to live. He could no longer race cars, but he could build them. Over the next roughly 50 years, his company built some of the most iconic race cars and high-performance street cars in history.

My collection has about two dozen cars, mostly centered around the vintage years of Carroll Shelby automobiles, from 1962 to 1970. The car you see pictured here is an Original Venice Crew Shelby Mustang GT350R. In the 1960s, Shelby partnered with Ford and built high-performance Shelby versions of Mustangs, in Shelby’s shop in Venice, Calif., when it was still a tiny operation. The GT350R was a full-on race car, available to consumers. Only 36 were built.

In the winter of 2014, original Shelby employees who built this car in the 1960s reunited to make new ones. They find original 1965 Ford Mustang Fastbacks, buy them, then build them out as they did in 1965—only this time, they are able to add performance parts they were not able to in the 1960s due to time and budget constraints.

To me, the guys who built this car are like the Michelangelos of the auto world. Not only was I able to acquire one of the new Original Venice Crew cars in February 2015, I was able to meet the crew and got to work on building the car with them.

For me, this was truly a bucket-list experience.


Mr. Deary first saw a Shelby car when he was 17. ‘I fell in love with that car,’ he says. ‘It was a 1968 Shelby Mustang GT500KR. The KR stood for King of the Road.’ PHOTO: DOUG COOMBE FOR THE WALL STREET JOURNAL