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Old 03-22-2008, 10:38 AM
Historybuff Historybuff is offline
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Default Shelby past projects have a way of being resurrected...

I wouldn't count the Shelby Indy car as derelict dreck (drek?) just yet.
Old Shelby projects have a way of resurfacing all spiffed up and hawked for big bucks (like the Green Hornet).
I don't think the engine would be that hard to find, probably a helicopter engine that was made by the thousands. I know these turbines were war surplus and I once saw one thrown out in a guy's yard, he thought it was so worthless.

I think one obstacle to marketing the Shelby Indy turbine is that I think it was never painted in its sponsor's colors (wasn't it Botany 500 clothing) so to paint it in that livery now would be messin' with history a bit. And it sure looks ugly in flat black! But even if there was an artist's rendering at the time of how it would look painted, to complete it with that paint job would be correct historically (there's been plenty of historic buildings never completed that were completed later on in history with the original plans).

But picture it on the stage at the Barrett Jackson auction--one of (3 or 4) Shelby Indy cars. Even better if they fired it up, though they better have the exhaust aimed out the door when they do....

Another former Shelby project , the Lone Star, is a car I still expect to see hit the auction block someday. As the legitimate heir to the mantle of the 427 Cobra (the next street car designed after the Cobra) it should fetch big bucks though it never reached production.
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