rumor control--has SAAC lost its use of Shelby name?

[Dan Stryffeler]

C5HM,

I don't know the man (Shelby) never met him, never spoke with him, but in all the interviews I've read he goes out of his way to credit all the people that helped design, build, and race the cars that bear his name.

I've also read his quote repeatedly that all he ever wanted to do was go racing, and that building street machines was the only way to support the effort (given the relatively little demand for full out race cars, that's how we ended up with the 427SC).

Given that there was little interest in worn out, uncompetitive race cars, and vintage racing had not come along, why should he or Ford support them - it was time to move on to the next generation of cars.

Same thing with going to Dodge... Iacoca had helped him out at Ford, and now he needed help at Dodge so Shelby came on board to work on those econoboxes (which are in many ways a forerunner to todays tuner cars).

I don't know that Shelby owes his ongoing success to SAAC, it would seem that there are plenty of us that wanted one of his cars growing up but couldn't afford it, but maybe can now; whether it's a new Cobra, new Shelby Mustang or one of the original run of cars.

- Dan