New Shelby book called "Snake Bit" about- Series 1

[Years Ago]

CalMetal,

Where did your strong opinions about Series 1 come from? While I'll admit some of the very early cars, the first ten or so, were quite rough in fit - body gaps being a particularly vexing early problem, once the early bugs were worked out, the quality actually became one of the strong points. The warranty work required was very low - the warranty was out sourced to a separate, not related company, and many, if not most, of the cars outlived the warranty without any significant claims. Warranty cost were less than statistically projected at the outset.

The company was forced to release a pre-production car for the first road tests, and once a production car was made available there were early bugs still remaining. Carroll was not happy that it got out to the press so early, before it had the bugs ironed out, but getting it out into the public view was important to stop the rumors at the time that the car was not going to make it into production. Remember, there were over a hundred guys out there with deposits waiting.

Sometimes it is hard to separate facts from the rumors that go around, but in the end, quality really was not a big issue. Unfortunately the pre-production vs production status of the first cars tested muddied the waters a lot. I don't know anyone who had driven the production car that didn't have high regards for the handling, including the professional testers that later put the car through its paces. Yes, more power was needed, but that was remedied with the supercharger installation. I believe the supercharged car still holds Motor Trend's 0 to 100 record five years later.

One interesting fact that is not widely known is that almost all of the changes in vehicle ownership has been within the same 10% to 15% of the cars. The remainder of the owners have held on to their cars, and they continue to come back for the additional aftermarket options that are now available for the car.

Is it competitive today? Of course not, but it was in 1999.

Perhaps your experience is entirely different, perhaps you have ridden in an early example that did not measure up. But I would like to know where you are coming from, whether your opinion is based on actually riding in the car or based only the press reports and rumor mills?

We all value your experience with Shelby's cars and are always open to good critique. We wish every car out there lived up to the buyers high expectations, and realize that some did not. It was a great ride living through the process however, and I am still amazed at what was accomplished by so few, with such limited experience and without substantial financial backing. Davison's new book will answer a lot of the questions. It was a great car, the resources were just not available to see it to maturity and to fully support the car during the development period. Hopefully now that Carroll has been able to renew his Ford relationships, the next one will be more successful.

Thanks for listening!