World's Largest Ford and Shelby Collection Includes More Than 200 Cars, Rare Gems

Well, Gary Thomas has a massive warehouse full of them. The impressive stash is located in Houston, Texas, and includes more than 200 cars, many of them rare and expensive gems.

Okay, this collection isn't only about Mustangs. It actually includes Ford vehicles built from the 1930s until 2020. The garage houses Thunderbirds, Shelby Cobras, 1930s Model Bs, and even the latest GT supercar. But it's dominated by various high-performance Mustangs built from 1965 to 1970. And they're too many than I can count.

Thomas has been collecting Fords for more than 40 years, so it's far from surprising that he needs four 12,000-square-foot rooms to display them all. And I'm only talking about the cars that have been restored or purchased in excellent condition. He has a few dozens in various states of repair and another 100 in East Texas waiting their turn.

But his warehouse display is impressive enough on its own. It's home to tens of first-generation Mustangs, including at least 15 ponies of the Shelby variety. There's at least one of every GT350 and GT500 built from 1966 to 1970, including coupes and convertibles, as well as KR models. And Thomas is also restoring a couple of GT350 Hertz versions.

On top of the Shelbys, he also owners a large number of 1969 and 1970 Mustangs of the Cobra Jet, Mach 1, and Boss variety. Pretty much every performance Mustang that Ford introduced after Carroll Shelby stopped making GTs.

But what's really cool about this collection is that most cars have interesting stories to tell. Thomas shares a few of them with Petersen Automotive Museum, which visited him and release a couple of videos as part of its "Global Garages" YouTube series.

There are 25 minutes of footage split into two parts to watch and there's a third part coming on December 8, but it's totally worth it if you're a classic car nut. This could very well be the world's largest collection of Mustangs (and Fords maybe?) and chances are you won't see so many of them under the same roof anytime soon.

Oh, and before you hit play, Gary is also looking to sell a few cars from his collection at the upcoming Mecum Auctions Kissimmee event on January 6-16, 2022. The lot includes several Shelby GT350s and GT500s, a handful of Boss 302 Mustangs (including a Trans-Am racer), a few Mach 1s, and several early Mustangs.