[chopper]

The spouse and I went on Sunday. Note that I haven't gotten the fuse blocks from ERA yet, so we went in that classic American sports car, the Saturn station wagon. Anyway, they had one small-block FIA (I think possibly an original because it had the leaf spring suspension), a "continuation" 427 S/C, and a roller chassis (unpainted aluminum body but no engine or tranny) in addition to the Series 1. Oh, yeah, there was also a "Shelby Golf Cart" (no kidding, body panels and silver metalflake paint). Not a lot but interesting to look at. I was in my AZ Cobras t-shirt and the wife had her "Bitten by the Snake" hat on.

What was interesting was the pitch the salesman was putting on. When we walked up, he was telling a "potential customer" that he didn't want to buy "one of those kits" because they wouldn't hold their value. This, as opposed to the "continuation series Shelby", which would undoubtedly appreciate much like the originals. FWIW, he did grudgingly admit that the ERA cars were "OK" but contended they were not very faithful to the original. He referred to FFR cars as "erector sets" and said that the quality of the SPF cars was little better than that. Then one of the folks asked about the lawsuit and he launched into the standard line about how poor Mr. Shelby was just trying to protect his life's work from all these "Johnny Come-Latelys" who were destroying the value of the original cars. At that point, one of the folks in the crowd, who I have seen at the Pavillions, turned around and asked me "Since you own an ERA, what do you think about that?" Well, that started it.

Believe it or not, I was polite and always referred to Hisownself as "Mr. Shelby". I pointed out to the gentleman that Mr. Shelby had walked away from the whole business back in '69 and had basically given away both the remaining Daytona coupes and the rights to the Cobra label. I pointed out that Mr. Shelby actually never owned the rights to either the frame or body, as they were all produced by AC in England. I pointed out that it was the kit car manufacturers that had created and serviced the market demand, not Mr. Shelby, and that Mr. Shelby had initially endorsed their work until he was unsuccessful in shaking them down to the tune of $1000 per car. Mr. Shelby made a business decision to re-enter the market with his own (pointing to the cars) replicas, and I had no problem with that at all, but when he tried to run the current market suppliers out of business through legal shenanigans rather than honest competition, that's where I felt he crossed the line. I specifically stated that I still consider Mr. Shelby an American racing icon and had great respect for what he had done, but felt that he had diminished himself with his present course of action.

At that point, the rep (I never did get his name) decided that he had to go show the Series 1 to some customer, so he cranked it up and left, not to be seen again before we departed. About a half dozen of us continued the discussion. One of the folks in the group stated that he had heard the rep say that they were headed for Texas next, to attend some form of SAAC meeting. The rep was reported to have said (note I didn't hear this myself, I'm merely repeating the heresay) that Hisownself's instructions were that if a single replica showed up, they were to pack up and leave. Well. There goes the neighborhood. At that point, we broke up and the wife and I drove home.

And that, teacher, that's how I spent my Sunday afternoon.