Just some thoughts and images from this weekend in Nashville..
Saturday was a great sunny day, Sunday was a bitter washout.
Nashville Superspeedway was a really nice venue, although it was ~40 miles from the hotel.
Very good turnout of GT-350's and 500's...so-so turnout of Cobras... maybe a dozen 289s. I think only 2 427's in attendance (Jim Maxwell's CSX3288 and CSX3049, an original S/C). ..and, the surprise of the weekend was CSX3002, the first 427 Comp car, being there on display Saturday. It currently resides in a museum in Ohio.
CSX3002 was in fantastic shape and was a real treat to pour over and see the way they built this car, the only 427 Cobra to be raced as a works car.
The rest, and there were many, were replicas and CSX4000's. SAAC must realize that the Cobra replicas play an important "eye-candy" aspect to these events.
The Concours show only had 2 Cobras, both 289s.
CSX2367, above, was a car shown by the original owner (!)...purchased by him in July 1964. The car has been restored ( an understatement) to a condition that was better than showroom.
CSX2587, above, was the other Concours entry...also a stunning job, highly detailed.
Here is CSX2396, in the tech area of the garages. Over to the rear-left is Jim Maxwell's area, with CSX2149 (white 289), Jim's current work-in-progress. Also there (the red car) is the 289 that made the cross-country trip, written up in R&T.
I believe this SAAC will have more TV coverage than any other. Above, Dennis Gage from My Classic Car talks with the museum curator. They had a full crew there all day Saturday; a future show will be dedicated to the event. There were two other crews there as well; I believe one was from Hot Rod TV.
It was good that Carroll Shelby was there on Saturday; he missed last year's event due to health reasons. Here he is signing the dash of a new CSX being delivered at the event; the new owner watches.
Not being one to miss a photo opportunity, I had the chance to get this picture, below. Carrol Shelby and I, sitting in CSX3002.
(taken just as the museum guy yelled, "Hey...get out of that car!")
All in all, a good trip.
As discussed earlier, the one thing that SAAC should do is to designate a public area at both the track and the hotel, that would allow attendees to meet and find other people at the event; I'm sure I missed seeing some other CC members.)
...kept switching, on and off, my ClubCobra hat and my Gashole hat... that did the trick to some degree, but would be nice to know who else was there.