Thread: 289 street car
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Old 10-26-2003, 10:11 AM
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ERA and Shelby American both make nice 289 street cars. At the recent (early September) Lyme Rock Antique Sports Car weekend, I was able to see examples of both. To be frank, they were indistinguishable from each other from the exterior. Both are glass, both had under chasis exhaust and wire wheels. The owner of the ERA however did spend extra time in finding exact old tires and wheels, a 260 CI engine, and Lucas LU700 headlamps and such. Thus the ERA IMHO was just a perfect reproduction, right down to the short shifter. The only thing wrong with both cars was the paint quality. In fact it was TOO GOOD vs some of the original unrestored paint jobs I had seen on true CX2xxx cars.

The ERA car was a turnkey ERA for the most part if memory serves as was the SA.

The Shelby American was also nice, but lacked the fine detail or attention to detail and also had the SA badge and the ubiquitous Carroll Shelby signature on the dashboard facia. I personally think that the badge and signature detract from the total effect, but hey that's just me. Obviously, the lucky owner liked it that way (I hope). It had repro wire wheels and egg crate grille with full bumpers.

Both cars had perfect engine compartments, all nice and neat, again totally unlike the early CX2xxx's.

Good Luck, the 260/289 roadster street car is a nice project and one I would like to undertake some day.
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