Just a few years ago, collector cars at big auctions were drawing untold sums of money for even modestly cool automobiles. Nowadays, prices for many cars have plummeted back to reality, though the rarest and most desirable cars remain top-dollar items. This increasing divide between the best and the rest has led to some truly eye-popping auctions, especially among big time Ford collectors.

This weekend saw a number of high-dollar cars cross the block at RM Auctions’ famed Pebble Beach event, but few cars trumped the price of this 1965 Shelby GT350R when the gavel fell. That is because this rare Shelby sold for $990,000, largely because it is one of the best-documented and preserved GT350R’s out there.

For the uninitiated, the ‘65 Shelby GT350R is a very special car; only 35 were ever built, and of those just 25 are thought to be left. Equipped with an incredible compliment of racing gear that made these Shelbys track-only cars, including a 34-gallon quick-fill gas tank, three-core radiator, full roll cage, these Shelbys were stripped of anything not essentially for racing. Basically, the GT350R is the ultimate Shelby racing machine, and a real prize for car collectors.

Back in 2008, right around when the U.S. economy was collapsing, one of these GT350R’s sold for $875,000, a record for a Mustang. These days such rare Shelbys regularly pull in closer to $1 million, and this particular example with just 4,900 miles on it was estimated to go as high as $1.3 million. Still, the $990,000 selling price is fairly spectacular for any Mustang, Shelby or otherwise.

An almost million-dollar Mustang…are collector car prices getting out of control once again?