Dave Despain on Assignment - The Shelby Legend

[Historybuff]

I think in Leo Levine's book The Dust and the Glory something to the
same effect is said. There were a lot of people in the room, so it's difficult a half century or so later to pretend you didn't say it.

Also nobody has commented on Shelby saying that someone was trying to appoint him to tell Henry Ford II that they had spent close to $200 million on racing. In all the books of the time, the amount mentioned on the GT racing effort at LeMans was more like $12 million to $16 million. I think Shelby meant to say "what would be the equivilant today of $200 million" but didn't have enough time to say it or figured the reporter would put it in context.

Also when the reporter drove up in the yellow small block Cobra he acted like it was an authentic Cobra but methinks I've seen that yellow factory owned demonstrator before and the serial number is not in the CSX2000 range. If you can fool a reporter into saying he's in a real Cobra, it makes you wonder what else he didn't fact-check on...

..that being said, I liked the integration of the old pictures, and thought the tribute to Ken Miles was good, but really the 3 abreast finish at LeMans '66 has been told too many times, how important is it really, when Ford accomplished their goal of winning the race, they weren't spending $13 million to make sure one driver won 3 big races in a single year.

[*13*]

I think we've all seen the yellow car & know it's not original. I think it's a matter of how you interpret it, & what you know to begin with. Maybe after the old guy dies, I hope that's not any time soon, someone will stand up with some real money & give his life justice by doing a quality full length film or in depth series. It's about American history as much as it is about Carroll Shelby.