Mecum Indy Live — Eleanor Gone Again Serial No. 01 Hits the Block as the Spring Classic’s Most Cinematic Lot

Serial No. 01 of the “Eleanor: Gone Again” limited series crosses the Mecum Indianapolis block this Saturday, May 16, as Lot R617 of the 39th Original Spring Classic. It’s a fully custom-built 1967 Ford Mustang Fastback — constructed by the same hands that fabricated the original eleven movie cars for the 2000 Nicolas Cage film.

The car is the founding unit of a 25-car anniversary run produced by Cinema Muscle Recreations LLC. Leading the operation: Ray Claridge, founder and former owner of Cinema Vehicle Services, and shop manager Sam Salerno, who led the team that built the original eleven Eleanors. Both men have said plainly that no other builder shares those credentials.

“We started this project to build the highest quality and most authentic Eleanor. As the team who built the original eleven movie cars, and under the guidance of Ray Claridge, we are uniquely equipped to achieve that goal. There are other builders claiming to be ‘official’ and ‘licensed,’ but no other shop has our credentials.”

— Randy Wolff, CEO, Cinema Muscle Recreations

What EGA:01 Actually Is

This is not a restored Mustang. Not a tribute build pieced together from catalog parts. EGA:01 is new-construction — built from an original factory 1967 donor fastback chassis and finished in the series’ signature Pepper Gray Metallic.

Power comes from a Ford Aluminator 5.0L V-8 topped with the optional sixth-generation Stage II 3.0L Whipple supercharger, pushing output beyond 800 horsepower, backed by an optional Tremec six-speed manual. The drivetrain feeds through a Total Control Products/Fab9 g-Bar Ford nine-inch rear end.

Suspension is fully engineered: G-Machine front control arms with sculpted spindles, TCP adjustable coilover shocks at all four corners, Wildwood six-piston front and four-piston rear disc brakes, and power rack-and-pinion steering. Eighteen-inch Forgeline wheels with traditional spinner hubs wear Nitto NT55 tires.

Inside, the cabin carries Vintage Air A/C, power windows with hand-crank control, brushed aluminum and stainless trim, a wood-rim steering wheel, and — obligatorily — the “Go Baby Go” button on the shifter. Special 25th Anniversary badging appears on the fenders and door sills. The engine bay carries a signed build plaque. Documentation includes a Marti Report and a Certificate of Authenticity signed by both Claridge and Wolff.

The base price for the Eleanor Gone Again series is $500,000. Fully optioned — as Serial No. 01 is, with both the Whipple supercharger and Tremec gearbox — the figure lands just under $550,000. EGA:01 made its public debut at the 2025 Concours at Wynn Las Vegas last October and was subsequently featured in the first-drive episode of Hagerty’s The Driver Seat with Henry Catchpole.

Where the Comparable Sales Land

The Eleanor auction market has its own hierarchy. The primary hero car from the film — the one driven by Cage through most of production — brought $1,000,000 at Mecum Indy 2013. An original film car crossed at Mecum Kissimmee 2020 for $852,500. More recently, a licensed 25th Anniversary 1967 Mustang Eleanor widebody — a different builder, not Cinema Muscle Recreations — sold on January 24, 2026, for $726,000. Common tribute replicas without film provenance have averaged $221,637 over the past five years across 119 recorded transactions.

EGA:01 sits in a distinct category: not a replica, not an original film car, but the founding serial number of the only series built by the original fabrication team — a distinction the market will price accordingly on Saturday.

Legal Clearance That Made This Possible

For years, intellectual property uncertainty hung over the Eleanor replica market. Denice Halicki, who controls rights tied to the original 1974 film, had long argued “Eleanor” was a copyrightable character — a position that had blocked or complicated licensed replica production for over a decade. The 2025 Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruling changed that. The court determined the car was a movie prop, not a protected character, clearing the path for officially licensed recreations like this series.

What to Watch Saturday

Lot R617 hits the Mecum Indianapolis block Saturday, May 16, during the final session of the 39th Spring Classic — the same session featuring a 1977 Pontiac Trans Am and one of six Mercedes-Benz SLR McLaren 722 S Roadsters. The auction streams live on ESPN+ Wednesday, May 13, through Saturday, May 16, starting daily at noon Eastern.

With the $726,000 licensed-widebody comp established just four months ago and builder provenance that no competing Eleanor series can match, the number to beat on Saturday is somewhere north of that figure. Whether bidders treat EGA:01 as a production car or as a primary-source artifact will define where Serial No. 01 ultimately lands.

Sources

• The Shop Magazine — Mecum Indy Spring Classic 2026: 2,500 Vehicles, 28 Collections
• Eleanor: Gone Again — Official Site, Cinema Muscle Recreations LLC
• Mecum Auctions — 39th Original Spring Classic, Indianapolis, May 8–16, 2026
• Hagerty — The Driver Seat with Henry Catchpole, EGA:01 First Drive Feature