By his own description, Lawayne Musselwhite is a lucky guy. A lifelong car nut, he bought, sold and restored early Mustangs from the age of 16. “Give me a Mustang in a box and I’ll tell you where every screw goes,” he says.

Lucky, yes. There was the lottery win in 2010, and then another win: a brand new 2014 Shelby GT500 with 662 pounding ponies under the hood, won with a $50 ticket bought while Musselwhite was in Boulder, Colo., attending a fundraiser for the Shelby American Collection Museum.

Yes, he’s a Shelby nut. The homebuilder from Fort Saskatchewan, Alta. — 45 minutes northeast of Edmonton — has one of the most impressive Shelby collections in the country. He has eight of them.

Owning eight rare classic Shelby collectibles certainly reflects good fortune. But things got even better for Musselwhite when he recently discovered what is arguably Canada’s ultimate barn find — 40 current and future collectible vehicles stored in a Quonset hut at a Lethbridge dairy farm.

As Musselwhite explains it, the wealthy owner of the dairy farm had years ago gone to his local Ford dealer with $1 million to spend, and asked a salesman to buy cars that would go up in value starting in 1999. Left inside the dirt-floor storage were rows of exotic sports cars, low production factory muscle cars and Harley Davidson Special Edition Ford pickups. The vehicles were new or had hardly any miles on them. Some still wore window stickers.

Musselwhite and friend Darren Boychuk jumped at the opportunity to spend $1.1 million for all 40 vehicles. Boychuk’s E & S Motorcycles dealership in Fort Saskatchewan now looks like an exotic car sales lot with rows of fresh Corvettes, other exotics and pickup trucks parked there.

But Boychuk’s shop at home holds the real crown jewels from the barn find — four Plymouth Prowlers and three Ford GTs. One of the rare lightweight, rear-engine 2006 Ford GTs is one of only 400 Heritage Edition models offered for sale. It shows only 10.8 miles on the odometer. It had been trucked to the dairy farm and never driven. All three Ford GT sports cars were sold through a Montreal dealership and have Canadian specifications.

These are very desirable and valuable. Heritage Edition Ford GT sports cars have sold for up to $700,000. The others trade for half that. “This car is brand new, never been driven, is still in the wrapper and has all the factory window stickers,” Musselwhite enthuses. One of the four Plymouth Prowlers is the “limousine edition” and is virtually a new car. Among the six Corvettes, two are 2007 roadsters.

“The farmer was very wealthy and bought the cars as an investment believing they would go up in value,” Musselwhite says, explaining he bought the lot sight unseen. Health issues forced the sale of the cars, but there are still 10 that the farmer wouldn’t sell. Musselwhite says he doesn’t know what was left behind.

Update: Click here to see the 10 cars that were left behind and not for sale after this great Canadian barn find

That wasn’t an issue for Musselwhite. He already owns one of the most impressive Shelby collections in the country. The first one he bought was a rare 1965 Shelby that came from Edmonton. “I always said if I ever won the lottery, I would buy a 1965 Shelby,” the affable, former heavy-duty mechanic and coin store operator says. It is Shelby number 47 out of only 519 built.

But his second 1965 Shelby has got everyone in the collector car hobby buzzing – particularly after Shelby number 242 made the cover of Mustang Monthly a year ago and took the two top awards at the Shelby American Automotive Club show in Fontana, Calif.

Well-known southern California drag racer Jerry Mendes bought the car as a demonstrator from a Long Beach Ford dealership on Jan. 22, 1966, for $3,377. He took it directly to Performance Associates to have the “drag pack” options installed for a further $1,694. 64 – half the purchase price of the car.

The race-prepped Shelby travelled one-quarter mile at a time setting a National Hot Rod Association (NHRA) record running the standing quarter mile in 12.32 seconds at 109.92 mph. But, with the introduction of the big block 427 and 428 cubic inch Shelby in 1967, his car was no longer a competitor in its class. Jerry Mendes retired it where it remained up on blocks for the next 48 years.

This is likely the lowest mileage and rarest early Shelby in existence, showing just 6,452 miles on the odometer. Musselwhite and wife Marilyn Hodgkinson own other Shelbys, such as their matching red and blue 1968 GT500 convertibles (there were only 402 made) and a very rare 1968 Shelby GT350 fastback – one of 224 sold as Hertz “rent a racers” on which a reputed $277,000 was spent on restoration.

Musselwhite and business partner Darren Boychuk are selling most of the 40 barn find vehicles. “They are flying out of here,” Musselwhite says at the E & S Motorcycles dealership where many are stored.

He and Boychuk hope to put some cars aside for themselves — possibly a pair of Ford GT’s, a Prowler or two, and a red 2007 Shelby GT500 convertible that has never been street driven.

Musselwhite also has bigger ambitions related to the popularity of the amazing performance delivered under the name of Shelby. He is partnering with internationally-known Shelby restorer Jeff Yergovich of R & A Motorsports to build a dealership named Shelby Canadian Inc. in Fort Saskatchewan to refit Ford cars with Shelby performance packages. R & A Motorsports will open an adjacent Canadian operation.

“At Shelby Canadian Inc., we’ll be Super Snaking all the prior models up to 2014 and there will be a new package for 2015,” he says. “Rumour has it, there will be a package for the new aluminum-bodied pickups,” he says. “It’s a good time to get into it.”

Knowing Musselwhite’s luck, it is bound to be a success.

Here are all 40 cars included in Lawayne Musselwhite’s ultimate barn find:

Ford

1979 Mustang GT Pace Car, grey

1990 Mustang GT Convertible, green on white

1990 Thunderbird, black on grey

1990 Thunderbird S, black on blue

1994 Thunderbird S Coupe, white

1996 Lincoln Mark 8, silver

1997 F-150 Flairside

1998 Thunderbird Turbo Coupe, silver

1998 Lincoln Mark 8 LSC, black

2000 F-150, Harley-Davidson, black

2000 Lincoln LS, white

2001 Mustang GT Bullitt, black

2005 Mustang, yellow

2006 Ford GT, red

2006 Ford GT, blue

2006 Ford GT Heritage Edition

2007 Shelby GT500 Convertible, red

2008 Ford F-150, Harley-Davidson, black

2008 Ford F-150, Harley-Davidson, black

2008 Ford F-350, Harley-Davidson, black

2010 Ford F-150, Harley-Davidson, purple

2010 Ford Raptor, orange

2012 Mustang GT/CS, yellow

Chrysler

1999 Plymouth Prowler, purple

2000 Plymouth Prowler, yellow

2001 Plymouth Prowler, black on silver

2001 Plymouth Prowler, blue

2006 Chrysler 300 SRT-8, silver

2008 Dodge Charger SRT-8, orange

2010 Dodge Ram 1500

GM

2001 Chevrolet Corvette, silver

2002 Chevrolet Corvette Targa, silver

2002 Camaro Z/28 SS, red

2003 Chevrolet Corvette Z06, black

2006 Chevrolet Corvette Convertible, silver on black

2007 Chevrolet Corvette Convertible, silver on black

2007 Chevrolet Corvette Convertible, orange on tan

2008 Pontiac Solstice Convertible, red