Back in 2018, I received a phone call from Jason Billups of Billups Classic Cars in Colcord, Okla. Billups started the conversation with, “I found it.”
“You found what?” I asked.
“Little Red.”
A few weeks later, Billups, Todd Hollar and I were en route to a diner in the Dallas-Fort Worth area to meet with Terry Seale, “Little Red’s” owner. The goal of meeting Seale for breakfast at the diner wasn’t just to fill our bellies, but to become acquainted with him and possibly see the car that may very well be the elusive red 1967 Shelby Mustang coupe known in the Shelby community as “Little Red,” and more formally identified as the 1967 Shelby GT500 EXP coupe.
Apparently we’d been spreading butter on more than just our toast and toward the end of our meal, Seale invited us to see his red Mustang coupe. Until that day in 2018, Seale hadn’t allowed any outsiders to see the weathered Mustang parked in a field on his aunt’s property. Seale suspected his Mustang was a Shelby, but couldn’t prove it without expert help. That’s where Billups entered the picture.
About 30 minutes into Billups’ verification process, he reached the conclusion that the serial number “7R01S133947” stamped into the car’s driver-side fender apron was indeed that of “Little Red,” the 1967 Shelby GT500 coupe prototype that many thought had been lost forever. My
