(R107 was profiled by Colin Comer in his book, Million Dollar Muscle Cars. The following excerpt is taken with his permission.)
SFM5R107 possesses one of the most impressive Shelby R Model race histories. As one of only three first batch cars to be shipped outside of the USA when new, R107 is one of the Shelby R Models responsible for putting the rest of the world on notice that there was a new sheriff in town.
R107 was purchased new by Ford Advanced Vehicles (FAV) in England on 9/7/1965. It was then delivered to its first owner, ex-Cobra factory team driver Jochen Neerpasch of Germany. Neerpasch was racing at the time for the legendary Alan Mann Racing Team in Germany, driving a Mustang coupe. Neerpasch decided to form his own team with another successful European touring car driver Freiherr VonWendt, using R107. Von Wendt raced R107 in the Nurburgring 1000 race in 1966, and in spite of almost complete transmission failure leaving him with only fourth gear he won the GT class. Neerspach then took R107 to a race at Hockenheim and once again R107 won the GT class, this time with the help of all four forward ratios in the transmission. This success was followed by another notable GT class win by Von Wendt at Nurnberg with a second place win overall for the event.
On 11/26/1966, after winning some very significant events with R107, Neerpasch advertised R107 for sale in the Auto Motor Sport newspaper. Friedhelm Theissen purchased 107 on 5/18/1967, immediately sending the engine to John Wyer of J.W. Automotive. Wyer was Ford’s European GT40 team manager, and an important part of Ford’s victory at LeMans. He was the right guy to put R107 in shape for further victories. Theissen entered R107 in the European equivalent of the US Trans-Am series, the Deutsche Rundsheckenmeisterschaft. In over 8 races, Theissen never finished lower than 2nd place. This put Theissen and R107 1st in GT and 3rd overall for the entire series in 1967! Remember, this was a two year old race car at this point, taking on the best Europe had to offer on tracks much better suited for long-legged European sports cars than brutish American GT cars.
A picture of R107 racing at Nurburgring was featured on the cover of Rallye Racing magazine in July of 1967. R107 was clearly making an impact in Europe. As time went on, R107 continued to race and win throughout Europe with different owners and drivers. In 1968, right after R107 was purchased by Hans Braun, he decided he wanted to try out his new race car. Braun was not a race driver but in fact was a car dealer. Undeterred, Braun purchased a touring pass to run 107 at Nurburgring. On a particularly tricky section, the helmetless Braun lost control of R107 and took a trip through the woods, damaging the right front fender and door of R107, along with his head (the lack of a helmet suggests it may have been empty anyway). Braun never drove the car again and sold it to Martin Rath, also a car dealer in Germany. Rath was not a particularly honest sort, and along with stealing cars and shipping them to Saudi Arabia, he also hatched a plan to make money with R107. Rath would paint and letter R107 in a prospective sponsor’s livery, present a plan for sponsorship, and get a deposit from them towards a season’s sponsorship fee. Once this was accomplished, R107 would be painted in another prospective sponsor’s livery and another deposit would be obtained. Rinse, lather, repeat! After doing this to a number of sponsors, Rath fled the country. While all of this was going on, Rath’s driver Walter Buhl was racing R107, winning over 20 races from 1968 to 1970. Buhl sold R107 in March of 1970. Passing through more owners, R107 continued to be raced very successfully throughout Europe. It was raced not only in Germany, but also in the Netherlands, Italy, Austria, and even Czechoslovakia.
In 1973, the O.N.S (similar to the SCCA) told R107’s owner that it was too old to race anymore. Refusing to give up, he installed 1968 Mustang front fenders, grille, and valance, repainted the car, and presented it as a “1969 Shelby”. R107 was issued a new log book and continued to race in disguise through 1978. In 1980, then-owner Walter Hesterman parked R107 behind the service station he owned just outside of Frankfurt, Germany. R107 was just another old race car, far beyond its useful life and a difficult car to restore in Germany. In 1984, a German SAAC member found R107 and contacted SAAC headquarters in the US. Word spread, and Bob Cote purchased R107 from Hesterman on 2/10/1986 for the whopping sum of 1000 DM, or about US$500. Before R107 left Germany, it was sold to Craig Conley of California. Conley, a highly knowledgeable Shelby enthusiast, traveled to Germany and spent almost two months visiting past owners and drivers of R107, collecting information, trophies, and pictures. Upon his return to the States, Conley began the restoration of R107. In 2006, Conley sold R107 to Paul Pfugfelder before the restoration was completed. Pfugfelder sent the car to noted R Model specialist Curt Vogt at Cobra Automotive in Wallingford, Ct for completion. Restored to its original 1965 specification, R107 made its debut at the 2006 SAAC National Convention at Virginia International Raceway. It has since been sold to Ron Krolick of New York.