Shocker: Shelby GT500 Is Really An Old Toyota Crown

What might look like a Shelby GT500 is in fact an old, crappy Toyota underneath. This is the handiwork of YouTube channel NHET TV. The group of Vietnamese fabricators has generated quite the reputation for taking old Toyotas, which are plentiful in the communist nation, using the chassis, powertrain, and drivetrain, then building over that the body of something far more exotic.

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In fact, in Vietnam a Shelby GT500 would be quite exotic, almost on the same level as a Ferrari SF90 or Lamborghini Huracan. To watch these guys get excited about building one of their own is a lot of fun, even if they don’t nail every detail of the super pony car.  

They work with what they have on hand, creating a body structure by welding together a metal cage, using hard plastic sheets filled with holes to make a more solid structure. Then they mix up their own clay, caking it onto the framework and plastic before shaping and smoothing the stuff to look more like a production vehicle.

From there they add a fiberglass structure over the top of the clay, then once that cures they scrape out all the heavy clay. The team handmakes quite a few components, which is interesting to watch. Once the “Shelby” is painted and everything put together, it looks surprisingly good considering what these guys had to work with.

Nobody who’s familiar with the GT500 is going to be fooled by this. In fact, it gives us some uncanny valley vibes. But it’s still an impressive effort, all things considered.

What’s amazing is instead of having a real Shelby GT500 on hand, they seem to be working off a toy version of the S550 generation. Trying to scale that up and get the body to fit properly on the Crown’s chassis is no small feat, so we can overlook some details they didn’t quite nail.

If you enjoyed this, you should check out the Koenigsegg Jesko NHET TV fabricated in a similar fashion, complete with the dihedral doors. It’s quite the feat and shows they have some crazy skills.

Image via NHET TV/YouTube