Club Cobra - Saturday's Dallas Morning News

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Street-rod fan hopes for profit with replica of movie's Mustang

04/26/2003

By TERRY BOX / The Dallas Morning News

IRVING, Texas – Even on clear, sunny days, thunder rolls through the wood-paneled halls of Doug Hasty's insurance office.

It is the rumble and shake of big horsepower, and a sure sign that an Eleanor Mustang has sprung noisily to life in the small shop at the back of the office – sounds that always make Mr. Hasty smile.

In an odd little case of life imitating art, Mr. Hasty saw the movie Gone in 60 Seconds and decided to create a replica of the customized 1967 Mustang GT 500 in the movie, which was nicknamed Eleanor.

He says he now has orders for 25 Eleanors at a minimum of $80,000 each and has invested $700,000 in a shop to build them. Moreover, the car has been sanctioned by legendary Texan Carroll Shelby – creator of the Cobra, GT 350 and GT 500 – and will be on display at the high-profile New York Auto Show this weekend.

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RON BASELICE/DMN
Unique Performance employees demonstrate the performance of a Shelby GT 500E. The cars, endorsed by Carroll Shelby, are modeled after the 1967 Mustang nicknamed Eleanor in the movie Gone in 60 Seconds .

"We have managed, for better or worse, to take a hobby and turn it into a business," says Mr. Hasty, a 39-year-old muscle-car and street-rod enthusiast whose shop is called Unique Performance.

Ironically, Eleanor started out as an over-the-top movie car, the exaggerated product of some screenwriter's overheated imagination. But the response to the car has been so strong that it has sparked renewed interest in real Shelby GT 500 Mustangs.

"We're having terrible trouble right now with [GT 500] counterfeiters," said Ken Eber, co-founder of the national Shelby American Automobile Club. "I'm getting several inquiries a week on '67 GT 500s, and we weren't getting those before the movie."

Sometime next month, Unique Performance expects to move into a 28,000-square-foot shop, Mr. Hasty said. Over the next five years, the company hopes to build 475 cars ranging in price from the base $80,000 Eleanor to the $140,000 Super Snake version.

"You couldn't have written a better story," concludes Steve Sanderson, chief executive officer of Sanderson Sales & Marketing, which is overseeing the cars' promotion and sales.

From the ground up

The entire project went from concept to car to business in less than two years. After seeing Gone in 60 Seconds in August 2001, Mr. Hasty found a stripped-down '67 Mustang at a swap meet in Arlington. He took the car to veteran car-builder Bobby Mikus, who had built several other vehicles for Mr. Hasty.

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RON BASELICE/DMN
Jerry Flynn prepares an Eleanor for a coat of paint in the Unique Performance shop. The cars take approximately six to eight months to restore.

"I just wanted one car for my collection," Mr. Hasty said.

Earlier, Mr. Hasty and his two insurance partners – both car enthusiasts – had decided to stick a 6,000-square-foot shop in a back corner of their office. Infinet Insurance sells workers-comp coverage to contractors and is the partners' primary source of income.

Mr. Hasty hired Mr. Mikus to run the shop and tend to the partners' various cars. But Mr. Hasty said they also were looking for some outside work to help pay for the shop when a partner suggested that they seek a project or two from Carroll Shelby. Mr. Shelby is building a current version of his historic Cobra roadster as well as a newer model of another car, called the Series 1.

That, in turn, led to a meeting with Mr. Sanderson, who also markets the Shelby cars. Eleanor was parked inside the shop at the time.

"What's that?" Mr. Sanderson recalls asking Mr. Hasty. Impressed by the quality of the car's construction, Mr. Sanderson later called Mr. Shelby to tell him about Eleanor. In November, Mr. Shelby announced his affiliation with the cars.

They are now formally known as Shelby Eleanor GT 500Es, are assigned a Shelby vehicle identification number and are included in the Shelby Registry.

Thus far, the company has orders for 20 Eleanors and five Super Snakes, which are propelled by Shelby-built 427-cubic-inch engines that produce at least 525 horsepower, Mr. Hasty said. Five cars have been completed, and Mr. Sanderson says an additional 16 orders are pending.

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RON BASELICE/DMN
Doug Hasty, right, unwittingly launched a business when he decided to create an Eleanor replica for his personal collection. Steve Sanderson markets Unique Performance's Eleanor replicas.

"The typical buyer is a ball player or a collector," Mr. Sanderson said. Some of the buyers were from the Arizona Diamondbacks baseball team, Detroit Pistons basketball team and Colorado Avalanche hockey team, he said.

Picking up the pace

Although Mr. Mikus and his six employees have managed to complete five cars in six months – a major accomplishment given the work involved in transforming regular Mustangs to Eleanors – the pace at the shop will probably quicken soon. Next month, on Memorial Day, the company will introduce its next Mustang model at the Shelby American Automobile Club convention in Nashville.
"It's been a real whirlwind," Mr. Mikus says.

Eleanors start life as 1967 or '68 Mustang fastbacks – "donor cars," as they are called. They are stripped to their bare shells and the bodies are treated to the curves and bulges that make them Eleanors.

More important, they receive new engines, transmissions, suspensions, brakes, wheels, tires and interiors. Virtually everything of mechanical consequence is replaced. Buyers' engine choices range from the base 302 cubic-inch, 325-horsepower engine to a supercharged version of the 427 Shelby cranking out a tire-warping 725 horsepower.

Owners of the original Shelby Mustangs – those built in the '60s – aren't quite sure what to make of this aggressive-looking newcomer, said Rick Kopec, national director of the Shelby club.

The Eleanor was included in the Shelby Registry mainly to distinguish it from real Shelbys, said Mr. Kopec, who noted that some original Shelby Mustangs still command prices in excess of $100,000.

"Twenty years from now, if one of these Eleanors show up as a '67 Shelby, someone's going to get burned," he said. "That was the intent in putting them in the registry. But, yeah, the unintended result is it does give the car an air of legitimacy."

Mr. Kopec predicted that "the torrent of interest in these cars" will soon subside.

"I'm surprised that it's still going on when the movie's been out for a year," he said.

Mr. Hasty believes otherwise. He says he doesn't expect to see any return on his investment for at least two years, and intends to still be building cars after that.

"You drive this car through [Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport], and traffic stops," he said. "Planes stop. People go by and shout 'Eleanor!' at you. It's almost embarrassing.

"I'm real surprised by it all. But when you look at where the car companies are going – the 2005 Mustang, the T-Bird, the Chevy SSR – retro is definitely in."

E-mail tbox@dallasnews.com

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