Few vehicles are as rare, valuable, or coveted as the original Shelby Mustangs. These high-performance street machines are a cornerstone of any serious car collection. But for car collectors with more money to spend, there are cars that are rare even by Shelby standards…cars like the 1965 Shelby GT350R.

With just 36 known examples ever built, the 1965 Shelby GT350R is a veritable unicorn of collector cars, and one of these mythical beasts will be up for grabs this month at the RM Auctions Arizona event.

Few cars are this rare and this valuable, the price is sure to reflect that. Last summer a 1967 Shelby GT350R was sold for $1 million. This particular example is expected to sell for between $750,000 and $950,000 when the gavel falls. Why less? Well it could have to do with the 302 stroker motor currently installed, though the winning bidder gets a period-correct HiPo 289 as well. The original motor appears to have been lost to history.

But with just 10,000 miles on the odometer, and with most of the rest of the parts being original to the car, this Shelby GT350R is still a very valuable and awesome collector car. Built as a stripped-out, track-only race car, it is a no-frills track machine which explains why so few were actually built. Even so, it was rarely raced, spending more time in car collections than on the track, and for an old race car this Shelby has lived a bit of a coddled life. We expect no less for a million-dollar Mustang.