Shelby vs SAAC

[Mark IV]

Originally Posted by CHANMADD

Well here's another interpretation posted by 1985CCX !
Is it genuine or real?

Genuine AC Cobra at Bergerac concours

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3YAHz...eature=related

For sure a MK IV, has the bumper isolators and the 69 Corvette side marker lights (I know they are Corvette, I used to go to the locals Chevy dealer and buy them for Autokraft! ) Sure sounds nice..........

Rick

[Trevor Legate]

Non-real
Non-genuine
Call for the lawyers!!!!

(However, it's 'real' automobile since, if you hit it with a hammer you'd leave a large hole in the 'glass, so it does exist. However, to call it genuine is either a huge mistake at best, or fraud at worst. Only Cobras that began life within the AC factory in Thames Ditton twixt the years 1962 - 1968, without exception, can be called 'genuine' by any dictionary definition of the word. Most were completed at Shelby American, others at AC Cars. Anything else is - something else. I thought everyone knew that... :-)

[1ntCobra]

Trevor,

It is hard to tell from the quality of the video, but couldn't that be a genuine AC MkIV?

[Steve Cassani]

Carroll Shelby is in his mid-eighties, with a second heart transplant carrying him that far. Any modified Mustangs and other cars marketed using his name after his death face an uncertain future. Will they be accepted as 'Shelby Mustangs' one two or three years later, and does their status continue with the same degree of fidelity to Shelby's contribution to automobile history?

Shelby is trying to construct a basis for continuing not only the cars identified with him but also the legacy his employees and investors depend upon for thier livelihood. The people who participate in the businesses that carry his name accept a greater risk of declining benefit after he dies if the history that supports his image and the market driven by it is entrusted to any but those who are involved in the manufacture and merchandising of Shelby products. Carroll Shelby is doing what he can to honor his employees' committment by giving them every opportunity to control their future.

The companies affiliated under Shelby's name are like those managed by itelligent, skilled people whose talents are nurtured by Warren Buffet. Will Berkshire Hathaway continue to attract decicated, patient investors at the rate it does now after Buffet passes away? Or is there a celebrity to owning shares in B-H, a trinket for dangling at cocktail parties? Our affinity for personalities suggests to any well-publicised manager a need to provide for those who wuill count on his name after he can no longer appear at the parties. How long will it take for us to forget all about Shelby? And there is this: The future in the automobile business rarely last much beyond the introduction of the next model and, apart from his recent work with Ford and an earlier partnership with Dodge, Shelby has not had many new models to kindle interest. There is only his name... Auto aficinados know the name 'Preston Tucker' and today we know Carroll Shelby. In a few years, people will recall his name. There's a difference....

[Naumoff]

Shelby has built his reputation in the 50's and 60's with his being a winning driver and then building a winning team and cars.

Everything I see after that without a racing heritage to go with it seems to be nothing more than a designer brand. Much like the Eddie Bauer Bronco.

Anything not built during his racing and WINNING does not hold the same prestige.

Face it. It is Shelby winning that the Legend is built on.

We all love a winner.
I would like to see Shelby put a winning racing team together and throw that Mustang back in the mix. Then I can look at the new GT500 and say it has a racing heritage behind it.

[Excaliber]

...nice for a tiny block...

[Trevor Legate]

OK I may be mistaken! I only glanced very briefly at the video and the car reminded me of a replica I was viewing a few weeks back - but it does appear to have impact bumpers! I was thinking it was claiming to be a 'Superblower' but the supercharger installation looks rather different to that and I believe all the Superblowers retain their ugly central-instrument panel....

[Lowell W]

IMNSHO: if it hadn't been for SAAC on the one hand, and replica manufacturers and owners on the other, most people would neither know, nor give a REAL sh1t, who Carroll Shelby was; nor would they recognize the car. But for them and us, he'd still be peddling chili and guitars and other crap. Oh yeah...and hawking replicas of his original race cars.

Lowell

[Mark IV]

Trevor,

Note the trimmed cowl edge as MK IV's have. And the exhuast pipes look like the fueley MK IV units. Definetly has the "bouncey-bumper" isolators (79-84 Mustang parts, I also supplied those...but they trimmed, chopped and modified those)

The second assistant Cobra Guru has spoken!

Rick

[What'saCobra?]

Dr. Rick
Looks quite correctly at that. On the video listen to the frenchie sophisticants titter as the English-speaking driver throws a left-rear little dirt. Heavens!

Trev
Check with a few of our londonium betters, members of the Hurlingham Club, about the yellow M6B that started up one night at the big Louis Vuitton Elegance contest in 1996 and left two very wide black stripes on the ClubHouse macadam, straight into the crowd, that all dropped their drinky-poos as this American madman drove right at their sorrily over-dressed assymtotes. Of course i got it stopped, less than 100 feet all together, but it did torque off my date in the right seat a wee. It was more than a little loud and just over ankle high.

You cannot believe how fast all those poshy folks jumped backwards, as a single organism, with hundreds of giant red stained & bleached white eyeballs and thousands of nice white teeth evidenced in the bright night lighting.

i had gotten bored with the many lovely very oldies putt-putting around the grounds in the evenings car parade, so since the motor was nicely warmed up and the tires needed a heat, i let 'em have a racing experience.

EVERYBODY came over after the pseudo-parade and thanked me for scaring the living daylights out of their wives and girlfriends... didn't bother them, of course. i told 'em it seemed to me there was no sex bias in the jump-backwards contests performance and that everybody was acting to save themselves first. Nice noisy party with gallons and gallons of Clicquot.

And the famous Hurlingham ladies? Mumm's the word. Lots of pigeon shooting & i felt like the pigeon.

AC were just closing the various doors and the receivers were calling the shots, to no one's pleasure. Price Waterhouse made a ton of pounds, of course (750K?). And some very unfair decisions, imo.

The thread question? i've soured long ago about both parties. Ned has done a great job protecting the Cobras as much as humanly possible. Don't care for the 350's much either way. Always thought they were lousy drivers, prone to breakage, fall-off parts, terminal rust-buckets, lurid tail slides, spinning in the first turn at LimeRock and Thompson and rather cheap. Got one for a while and confirmed my opinion. 500's were worse. Tended to point North in turns. FORD/Shelby pushed the 289's off the racing market to make the 350 competitive. Bloody shame. 289 remains a wonderful racer and driver.

[Trevor Legate]

Rick

I stand educated and corrected - I leapt before I looked (mind you, I'm not the only so-called expert to be similarly mistaken - my error was made in haste, others have been more serious, both professionally and financially. Toally different story.)

Whazza

Would that a mere peasant be admitted to the hallowed halls of the Hurlingham - I can only dream of such splendor and imagine the oceans of Mumm...

[REAL 1]

OmiGod: For a subject claimed to be shunned you guys are waxing on and on. Blah blah blah.

Its REAL simple. www.SAAC.com

They said it in black and white. As they said (not my words) the only difference between the original series and the continuation series is the time frame they were built. Team Shelby takes pretty much the same position. I'm just a say'n what theys a say'n.

Hey, you Shelby detractors out there, you all enjoy your day now!

[Naumoff]

You must admit that owning a 4000 is not the same as owning a 2000 or 3000
built in the sixties.

It is like my Grandmother from England making cakes and and meals in the US when she would come and visit. The ingredients may look the same but the aren't. So the stuff just isn't as good as it is when she made it back home when you first tasted it and fell in love with it.

Gran is dead now so the main part of the knowledge and ingredients is gone.
Some how treacle tarts from somewhere else beside Gran in Jolly Ol' just ain't the same.

[Trevor Legate]

Naumoff

Saddest posting I ever read - and there's us fretting about SAAC when treacle tarts have been tarnished. We been getting our priorities wrong....

I'll ask my lady wife to knock up a batch and send an emergency food parcel!!

[REAL 1]

Yeah. One is older and not built as well. The other is newer and built better.

[RACER X #99]

Originally Posted by REAL 1

Yeah. One is older and not built as well. The other is newer and built better.

One is a serious collectable the other is a nice copy

[Chaplin]

Originally Posted by RACER X #99

One is a serious collectable the other is a nice replica

fixed it for you.

[Naumoff]

Originally Posted by Trevor Legate

Naumoff

Saddest posting I ever read - and there's us fretting about SAAC when treacle tarts have been tarnished. We been getting our priorities wrong....

I'll ask my lady wife to knock up a batch and send an emergency food parcel!!

Thanks Trevor. But I will manage.

OK Even your hydrogenated Cobra is better but it is not good for your health.

[REAL 1]

Typical "fix" response from the Shelby "have nots".



One thing for sure even the new Shelby "copy" (if this description makes you happy) is likely to have more value in the future then an ERA!

[Chaplin]

Originally Posted by REAL 1

Typical "fix" response from the Shelby "have nots".



One thing for sure even the new Shelby "copy" (if this description makes you happy) is likely to have more value in the future then an ERA!

And I hope it has at least double the value of an ERA in the future, since it costs twice as much to build one in the first place!