GT500 Eleanor (Germany)

GT500-Eleanor was a German enterprise active in the 2010s that specialised in licensed recreations of the Ford Mustang Shelby GT500 “Eleanor” from the 2000 film Gone in 60 Seconds. Operated from Viersen near Düsseldorf by Phillip Rueger under the banner Classic Recreations Europe, the company built cars on original 1960s Mustang fastbacks, extensively re-engineered with modern performance technology.

Each car was equipped with a newly built 7.0-litre aluminium V8 producing between 550 hp in the base version and up to 750 hp with supercharging, paired with manual or automatic transmissions. Features included adjustable coil-over suspension, stabilisers, power steering, servo-assisted disc brakes, and a full roll cage. Interiors were trimmed with leather racing seats, aluminium panels, a “Go-Baby-Go” shifter, stereo system, and air conditioning. With around eleven months of hand assembly and 2,500 hours of labour per car, the vehicles combined film-authentic styling with the reliability of a modern supercar, and were delivered with TÜV approval and German H-registration.

The project promoted itself as the official European outlet for Eleanor replicas under licence from Classic Recreations in the United States, although production numbers remained very limited.