Shelby American & Ford: The Deal

[Cal Metal]

".........The main contract were signed at the beginning of August ('62, I assume--CM) and bascially the agreements said Ford just about owned Shelby American, Inc. and what Ford wasn't financing in one way Ford was financing in another (racing programs of SAI). In addition, Ford undertook an exhaustive study of the new car to determine what could be done to make it better. Danny Jones was in charge of this segment of the operation...."

"........The original financial forecast that SAI could become self-sustaining as early as December of '62 also proved optimistic; throughout the time SAI's maniufacturing operation was located on the West Coast (until the summer of '67, when the 1968-model Shelby Mustangs were assembled in Ionia, Mich) this part of the business was never in the black......."

"....Although they are nebulous and subject ot opinion, there are other ways of measuring profits besides in dollars and cents, and what the manufacturing side of the SAI dream lacked in this respect was more than made up by the racing activities of the Cobras. Here the profit was to be counted up in quantities of ink, that good black kind used in newspapers and magazines: Shelby's racing Cobras got exposure like no other American competition car in the decades before them, and every time the word Cobra was mentioned, there was bound to be the word Ford somewhere nearby. The idea to race the car, naturally, was Shelby's, and he was the man who made sure the basic power-to-weight ratio of the vehicle was a favorable one. But the person who more than anyone else was responsible for the Cobras running as well as they did--and for all other Shelby racing equipment being successful---was Phil Remington who came along with the store...."