Sam Houston State University Auto Club....Club Choice trophy:
The club:
The car:
As displayed:
Just chillin' as the show was underway:
My GF and I had just sat down for a burger and fries at a Five Guys location in Huntsville in early August when a college kid walked in and asked if we were in the Cobra. We said yes and he handed us a flier for their upcoming car show and said they were all gathered in the parking lot of the adjacent Target store, so why not come over and visit soon as we were done eating. We did...were sitting around chatting with the kids, popped the hood so they could see the engine, when a city patrol car came up and lit us up....made us all show ID and stand off to the side while he ran us all for warrants. When that was all done he asked to speak to the "leader of the group", looked right at me (of course, I'm the old guy) and was surprised to see a young man step forward. Despite having permission from the management at Target to convene in their parking lot, and despite the fact that we were parked as far from the store as we could get and there were no other cars for 100 yards on any side of us, the manager had called the police to complain. It seems there were some other honyocks out there earlier doing burnouts and spinning circles in the parking lot and the management had mistaken this group of college-age car affecionados for that rowdy bunch. We were "invited" to finish the meeting and leave....which we did.
We hadn't seen them since, but we washed the car up and drove it to the University for the show. When we pulled in the kids all came running up to us and expressed how happy they were to see us. We paid the entry fee, which goes to the Big Brothers/Big Sisters organization, and they guided us to a spot near the area where their raffle/donation tables were set up. We proceeded to set up our chairs behind the Cobra and chat with all the observers who asked us questions.
You can imagine our surprise when the club chose our Cobra as their favorite
Here's the old guy with the trophy:
The car is a daily driver, 8,000+ miles, nothing special, just the stock drivetrain from a '89 Mustang GT converted to carb. It was displayed in full street "patina", chips in the paint and all, including this one earned when the right side of the rear bumper came unbolted while I was on the freeway and the left side of the bumper chewed into the paint as I tried to get it off to the side of the road to figure out what to do about it:
It was a testament to the enduring appeal of the Cobra. Many of the older car buffs there were familiar with the history, even the kids in the club knew about Shelby's recent death and commented on how Facebook was just abuzz with the bad news. The "competition" included the newer tuner cars, a Viper, numerous 'Vettes (a 1962 "restorod" to numerous recent versions), a rat-rod, multiple vintage cars from an early Hudson up to a '67 Cougar in mint shape, a '57 Chevy tilt-front gasser, as well as many more I can't really recall.
Chock one up for the ol' Shel, fellas....he done well!!
[My sincere apologies for the size of the photos...I have tried 3 times to resize them to smaller sizes, and for some reason Photobucket insists on displaying them in full size. I shall continue to try to reduce the size so that scrolling is not needed, will return and edit the post if I am successful.]
Cheers!
Dugly
