A whole year before The Fast and the Furious became the king of modern racing movies, there was the 2000 remake of Gone in 60 Seconds, starring Nicolas Cage, a 1967 Shelby Mustang GT500 nicknamed Eleanor and one helicopter that just couldn’t keep up.
A total of 11 cars, in various states of completion, were built for the movie. But one of the main cars used in driving scenes, the one labeled by production as “The Dream Car,” and the one with both a working NOS system and “GO-BABY-GO” on the shifter — that Eleanor is going up for auction this January at Mecum Auctions’ annual Kissimmee sale.
The bad news? It’s not a real 1967 Shelby Mustang GT500. As John Kraman, a TV analyst with Mecum, notes in the auction promo below, “… they took a Mustang, added the Shelby GT500 theme to it, but yet had modifications on top of that.” On the other hand, it doesn’t really matter if the car is what it plays in the movie, as long as it’s the actual car from the movie.
Cinema Vehicle Services, the Hollywood mainstay that built all 11 Mustangs for the film, didn’t simply corroborate its provenance; the company “performed a full rotisserie restoration on Eleanor.” In other words, this is the rare movie car that’s actually meant to be driven. And as for the aforementioned NOS system, according to the listing, it “lends the engine an additional 100 to 125 HP, takes it over the top, just as anyone would expect from Eleanor.”
Don’t get any ideas, though. There will be no boosting this Mustang — you’ll actually have to shell out for it. While Mecum hasn’t listed an estimated price, the auction house did sell one of the other three main Eleanors — the hero car — back in 2013 for $1 million. And that one didn’t even have working nitrous.
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