Unique 2016 Shelby GT350R Up For Bid At Cattle Baron’s Ball

When it comes to collectible automobiles, the Shelby name means paying a high premium for anything remotely authentic and desirable (sorry Shelby Dakota trucks). But while wealthy collectors corner the market on million-dollar classics like the original handful of original GT350Rs still in circulation, Ford has once again put one of its most prized vehicles up for bid in the name of charity.

This weekend at the Cattle Baron’s Ball at the Cobo Center in Downtown Detroit, Ford will auction off a one-of-one 2016 Shelby GT350R. In addition to wearing a unique blue stripe color, it will be the first GT350R equipped with the Ford Performance Parts rear seat kit. That extra asterisk could make it more valuable to future collectors looking to add an early 21st century Shelby to their collections.

As one of the first 2016 GT350Rs making it into production, the $63,495 MSRP track-focused Shelby leaves the factory as a collector’s piece, and a few of them are no doubt already earmarked for climate-controlled garages to rarely see the light of day. It will also wear the aforementioned special blue racing stripe over an Oxford White exterior, with matching interior stitching, one-of-one sill plates and instrument panel badging.

The proceeds from the Shelby auction and others goes towards the American Cancer Society, and in the 13 years the event has been put on the Cattle Baron’s Ball has raised $12.6 million. In 2012 Ford has auctioned off desirable models like the Boss 302 Laguna Seca Edition, and earlier in the year the first 2015 Shelby GT350R sold for a cool $1 million to benefit the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation. A GT350R with a neat rear seat kit and special stripe coloring won’t fetch even close to that, but it could walk past $100,000. Where do you think it falls on the collectibility scale?