Glenn Gatley remembers walking out of the theater after viewing the 2000 remake of Gone in 60 Seconds and promising his wife, "I'm going to own a Mustang like that one of these days."
Like many movie-goers, Mustang enthusiasts and non-Mustang enthusiasts alike, Glenn was more impressed with the Mustang than the movie. The Pepper Grey Metallic '67 fastback, named Eleanor and modified to look like a Shelby GT500 on steroids, stole the show from its more elite automotive co-stars and went on to become a cult item all its own, much like the Highland Green '68 fastback in the movie Bullitt and the '73 Mustang fastback from 1975's original version of Gone in 60 Seconds. Heck, Eleanor even overshadowed human stars Nicholas Cage and Angelina Jolie.
But unlike most, Glenn took the initiative to learn more about the movie's macho car-star. Within two weeks of seeing the movie, he had tracked down Eleanor's builder, Cinema Vehicle Services in North Hollywood, to find out how he could get the parts to convert his '67 Mustang fastback into an Eleanor look-alike.
"I spoke with the owner, Ray Claridge," Glenn tells us. "At the time, CVS was not selling the parts publicly, and Ray was handling the sale himself as his own side project. He wasn't sure if there was going to be a demand for the kits, and told me that he would only make the kits as long as he thought there was a market for them. I bought the first kit he ever sold."
As it turns out, Glenn wasn't alone in the quest to build an Eleanor replica. His call to CVS was the first of many. So many, in fact, that CVS eventually stepped away from its normal business of building and supplying movie cars to offer the complete Eleanor body kit, just like the ones used to create Eleanor in the film. Claridge says he's sold approximately 140 kits, nearly half going outside the U.S. They are still available today.
Obtaining the Eleanor body parts cleared the way for the rest of the build, and Glenn went to work on the details. He studied the Gone in 60 Seconds DVD, frame by frame, in an effort to visually re-create an exact Eleanor look-alike, noting the nitrous switch, side mirrors, C-pillar pop-open gas cap, and other unique parts. He studied magazine articles, including the November 2000 issue of Mustang Monthly, which provided information about the building of the 11 stunt-car Eleanors used in the movie, and searched the Internet for photos and info.
Then he started gathering parts, like the Cougar taillights and PIAA lights, plus Shelby trunk lid/rear quarter extensions, '71-'73 Mach 1 gas cap, GT500 emblems, Shelby bullet side mirrors, and deluxe interior from Mustang parts vendors. For wheels, Glenn special-ordered a set of silver GT40-style wheels from PS Engineering. He estimates he spent $20,000 for the parts-$5,000 alone for the CVS body kit and another $15,000 for the rest of the required components, which tallied up quickly with high-priced components like the wheels ($1,700), PIAA lights ($1,300), Shelby decklid and quarter-panel extensions ($600), and used Cougar taillights ($300).
Glenn's goal was to build an accurate Eleanor look-alike, not an exact Eleanor clone with all the Total Control suspension bits. He wanted to turn heads on the street and show field, not jump bridges. He also decided to keep his automatic transmission instead of swapping to a more movie-like four-speed.
The Eleanor build started in earnest when Glenn delivered his '67 Mustang fastback to James McHugh's Auto Restorations shop in Ft. Lauderdale. James installed the CVS body kit, with only minor modifications required for the headlight buckets to get them to fit properly. He spliced a section of fuel-filler sheetmetal from an '86 Dodge Caravan into the driver-side C-pillar to obtain the recessed area for the dummy gas cap. James' crew then applied the DuPont Pepper Grey Metallic paint and Black Metallic stripes.