Nice Write Up About Shelby
 

I just received my June issue of Hot Rod Magazine yesterday and they have a good write up about Shelby with pictures of him and some of his original cars at the Los Angles plant in the 60s. His remarks about the Daytona Coupe kind of surprised me. But all in all I thought it was a good piece.

Ron :)

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. :cool:

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 :)

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.

Hmm. He must be selling something again. Chili? Chickens? Mustangs?

Your pal,
Meat.

:p

Meat,

Actually a few pages before that article they had one on the Terlingua Mustang. I have seen a few other articles on it, but this one seemed to cover it pretty well. Not bad handling and performance for a V-6.

Ron %/

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.

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.

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?

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

Wayne

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.

It's been a love-hate relationship since the '60s
 

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.

Yep. They were a mistake alright. It will cost you about $12mil to $15mil to buy one of those mistakes today.

We should all screw up like that!:LOL:

Some celebrities are more careful about what they endorse than others. Endorse to many items or inferior items and you loose some credibility, the 'value' goes down. For me, Shelby crossed that line a long time ago, but apparently not for the general public. A Shelby 'endorsed product' just doesn't do much to inspire me one way or the other anymore. The list of Shelby endorsed products, the endorsement obtained for a fee, is a very LONG list.

While the BROCK COUPE is a great car, Shelby's endorsement didn't have squat to do with making it that. His endorsment of SPF in general is just another example of bullying, greed and theft in my opinion. I was astonished to see SPF roll over on this issue and accept it, even BUY it. Shameful it is, a slap in the face of the replica industry in general.

It is all so unfortunate. This is a time we all should be really enjoying! Shelby and some great men accomplished so much in a very short time. The Cobra, Daytona, and GT40 conquered the international racing world in a very “romantic” period of racing history before computers and wind tunnels. The cars of this era are revered for their accomplishments on the track and their grace and beauty away from it. As these great men reach their golden years the Shelby community (including the SAAC) should have the opportunity to look back and reminisce about the times, the cars, and the men who made them great. Instead, we have “the man” tearing the community apart and dismissing the great accomplishments of a man like Peter Brock.

I always consider Shelby as the Krusty the Clown of the automotive business ... but without the humor.

Your pal,
Meat.

I have to agree with all the above postings - I used to joke that I owned a model of a Daytona that would be worth a fortune one day as it DID NOT have the C$ signature. My foresight amazes me sometimes......but it's not so funny now. Sad really.

Trevor,

It is sad what has and is happening. Shelby will always be a legend to me but some of the things that have happened the past few years has really detracted from his legacy. I sometimes wonder if he really knows just how bad some of this stuff makes him look. And sadly, the younger generation that wasn't around in the 60s when he was making history and putting American Racing on the world scene will only remember him for all of this bad stuff.

Ron :(