Nice Write Up About Shelby

[Michael P. Wole]

Very nice article..

[computerworks]

Originally Posted by Michael P. Wole

Very nice article..

...perhaps.

Very surprising that he NOW thinks the Daytona Coupe was the biggest mistake he ever made.... uuhh, the car that won the Championship?

...and it felt like he threw it's designer under the bus, so to speak.

[Ron61]

I was surprised about his remarks about the Coupe. There has been so much written about it and Pete Brock that I don't know how to really know what is fact. One article they did some time back said the the Coupe was a hit right from the first tests and that they did some refining of some things. But it never said anything about all of those hours testing to get it right. I wonder if some of that came from his dislike of Brock now. Also his remarks about his 75th birthday party were a little harsh, but all in all I liked the article.

Ron

[Nedsel]

I thought his critique of Peter Brock was nonsense. It contradicts what was said in the press in the period: how can you rewrite history 40+ years after the fact? One might conclude Mr. Shelby is attempting to delete from the files anyone who helped him achieve his success way back when.

[1ntCobra]

Originally Posted by computerworks

...perhaps.

Very surprising that he NOW thinks the Daytona Coupe was the biggest mistake he ever made.... uuhh, the car that won the Championship?

...and it felt like he threw it's designer under the bus, so to speak.

Hmm, isn't Pete Brock writing the forward in the new SAAC registry and signing the leather bound versions? Something that Shelby was originally supposed to do? I suppose that might make Shelby a bit angry with Pete.

[meat]

Originally Posted by 1ntCobra

Hmm, isn't Pete Brock writing the forward in the new SAAC registry and signing the leather bound versions? Something that Shelby was originally supposed to do? I suppose that might make Shelby a bit angry with Pete.

Shelby gets angry at everybody.

Your pal,
Meat.

[Wayne Maybury]

Originally Posted by meat

Shelby gets angry at everybody.

Your pal,
Meat.

That is not true, he only gets angry at people that don't share his opinion.

Wayne

[Dinobyte]

I agree with Shelby about the coupe...but for a different reason. The coupe was a mistake, on his part...not to create a street version, put it under the 427 frame, and sell it to the general public as a hard top Vette alternative. But that is my 20/20 hindsight opinion...at the time things might have been different given the work he was doing on GT40.

[fastraxsg]

Could it be he doesn't have one in his garage like some else does, or could it be the price they bring now, or could it be he had to share the creative vision with some one else or could it be that a certain some one has been invited to help "recreate" replicas?

[Trevor Legate]

Originally Posted by fastraxsg

Could it be he doesn't have one in his garage like some else does, or could it be the price they bring now, or could it be he had to share the creative vision with some one else or could it be that a certain some one has been invited to help "recreate" replicas?

No, as I understand it, the 'problem' goes back to at least 1970 when a whole bunch of people suddenly discovered they no longer had a job (think about it) if not before. But it's not my place to make assumptions - only one person can post the facts here.

[Historybuff]

In converstions with Pete Brock, I understood that Brock didn't like the GT40 guys (the engineers from Detroit with crew cuts, thin ties, white shirts, slide rules) coming to Shelby American and pushing the Cobra aside. He was resentful at Shelby for not letting them develop the Daytona more, such as cancelling the big block coil spring Daytona coupe


They crossed swords again when Brock had a contract with Toyota lined up but Shelby swooped in and snatched it from him to create the 2000GT racing program.

So Brock strted BRE, building hang gliders, etc. and eventually did do a race car for Toyota, which is still sort of a little know secret.


But Shelby did call him back decades later to do a Chrysler powered Can Am car. So Shelby does have a tendency to call back those whose talents he recognizes.

Then they fell afoul of each other again when Brock did the Daytona kit car for
South Africa. Shelby blocked the first one coming in, feeling he owned the rights to the Daytona coupe. Eventually the cars got into the U.S. but, after the factory owner applied for a license from Shelby, the coupes are sold as Shelby coupes, no longer as "Brock coupes."

And so it goes, the story gets retold albeit with frequent revisions to history done form a 2008 point of view. I would rather go by what was said at specific points in time for how the feelings were at that particular point in time. I think the Daytona coupe had its flaws but you can't argue that it drove the 250GTO off the track and thus accomplished its purpose. And I haven't read the article yet, but think the new editor at HOT ROD is doing some exciting things with the magazine--he may be the best editor at Petersen.