1968 Shelby GT500KR Convertible Sells For Record $385K
A numbers-matching 1968 Shelby GT500KR convertible in Acapulco Blue hammered at $385,000 at Mecum‘s Nashville 2026 auction on September 26, setting a new record for the GT500KR convertible body style. That figure blows past the previous convertible benchmark of $330,000, set in September 2024 by a black drop-top, and puts this car within striking distance of the $396,000 a GT500 EFI prototype fetched back in 2021.
Only four GT500KR convertibles have ever crossed the $300,000 mark, and this Acapulco Blue car is now the second-most-expensive of the bunch, regardless of body style. The outright record for any GT500KR still belongs to a highly-optioned Raven Black fastback that sold for $495,000 in January 2025.
Why This Particular Convertible Commanded A Premium
Shelby built 1,570 GT500KR models in 1968, split between 1,053 fastbacks and just 517 convertibles. That drop-top count already makes the ragtop the rarer of the two body styles, and this car checks nearly every box a serious KR collector looks for. It’s numbers-matching, meaning the 428-cubic-inch Cobra Jet V8 under the hood is the original engine that left the factory paired with this chassis, rated at 335 horsepower and 440 lb-ft of torque when new.
That Cobra Jet routes through a Toploader four-speed manual and a Traction-Lok differential, the combination serious GT500KR buyers chase over the automatic-equipped cars. Add power steering, power brakes, a power top, a tilt-away steering column, tinted glass, and the interior Decor Group, and you’ve got a car that reads as loaded for a 1968 Mustang. The air conditioning is the real outlier here. It’s an option that’s uncommon on any GT500KR and rarer still on a convertible, since dropping the top and running A/C at the same time wasn’t exactly the point in 1968.
Paperwork That Backs Up The Price
None of that matters at this level of the market without documentation, and this car has it. The winning bidder walked away with a build sheet and a detailed Marti report, the kind of paper trail that confirms factory-original specification down to the options list and separates a genuine, numbers-matching GT500KR from a clone or a re-created example. At six-figure and now near-half-million-dollar prices, that documentation isn’t a nice-to-have. It’s what lets a buyer pay $385,000 with confidence instead of hope.
What This Sale Signals For Shelby Money
Most GT500KRs still trade in the $100,000 range, with Concours-ready, highly original cars pushing into the $200,000s and only a handful ever breaking $300,000. This Acapulco Blue convertible now sits in that top tier, one of just four convertibles to clear the $300,000 threshold and the second-priciest example of the model in any body configuration. It also made this car the most expensive muscle car sold at Mecum’s Nashville event as of this sale, ahead of a 1969 Dodge Charger Daytona that brought $357,500 and a Plymouth Hemi Road Runner that closed at $214,500.
The result tracks with what’s been happening at the very top of the GT500KR market since the Raven Black fastback set the $495,000 all-body-style record in January 2025. Buyers with the budget for a top-tier Shelby aren’t just paying for the King of the Road nameplate. They’re paying for rare color combinations, manual transmissions, factory-documented originality, and the paperwork that proves it, and this sale shows that appetite hasn’t cooled off.
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