2007 Del Mar Goodguys

Replica

Shelby wallpaper, "Only the best wear black." Carroll Shelby

Lee Marvin's Shelby convertible, that he gave to his gardener.

Carroll Shelby's personal Cobra sells for $5 million

Auction details here http://www.speedtv.com/articles/automotive/lifestyle/34919/ in 3 minutes it was $1.5 million, at the 4 minute mark $2 million, at 4:45 it was $3 million, at 5:30 minutes it was $4 million , and at the 8 minute mark it went out for $5 million.

The buyer is Ron Pratt, who paid 4.1 million last year for the GM Motorama bus. Who the competion was that got the price that high is something I'd like to know.

That is a monument to the man, the legacy, and the craze that auctioning rare cars is. It made US history, World history, and it feels insignificant to mention that it made auction history.
http://www.speedtv.com/barrett-jackson/ for the 8 minute feed from Speedtv's website.

click on the link to my earlier postings for more info, a copy of the 1968 Motor Trend article in full, and other links for more on Carroll Shelby's personal dual supercharged Cobra Super Snake.
http://justacarguy.blogspot.com/2006/12/meanest-cobra-ever-made-ever-carrols.html#links

Holman Moody on a Shelby 427

Picture taken at San Diego Balboa park annual Auto Museum car show, Mike took this one, only time we've seen this engine... nice. Damn nice.

GT 350 H advert

http://de.geocities.com/us_musclecars/cars/mustang/65_mustang_ads_us.html for all the original 60's Shelby mustang ads that guy could find,.... go way in the beginning of this blog for the ones he didn't.

the Shelby GT 350H

Via: http://svammelsurium.blogg.se/

http://dbusso.typepad.com/vintagemotors/vintage_cars/ french old car site, not bad, just need a translator to read.... did I fool 'ya? Hell, I don't read, I just look at these for the pictures!


The Hertz Shelby GT350H was specially prepared for Hertz Rent-A-Car as a publicity move for the benefit of Hertz, Shelby American, and Ford.

Peyton Cramer, a brilliant marketing man, was Shelby's General Manager at this time. He was told to try to get some fleet sales. He called upon Hertz and came back with an order for 936 cars.

The catch was that they had to be painted Hertz colors, black with gold, a paint scheme used on cars made by Hertz in the 1920's, when Hertz was an automaker.

Thus was born the GT-350H.

http://www.heritagegtcc.co.uk/index.php?menu_id=26

Now what this writer didn't say, or didn't know, is that in the very last months a GT 350H could also be ordered in other colors, but the stripe remained gold. Red, blue are the rare colors, black the remembered one. If you only wanted to know what every one knows.... you wouldn't be looking or reading my blog, we're here for the cool stuff, the one step further and better stuff... that's what makes a car guy different from a car driver.

http://www.vantagesportscars.com/gallery/gallery.cgi?func=show&file=200466&Category=100012&Page=1 for a good picture of the blue,

http://www.qv500.com/shelbygt350p2.php gives the following more accurate info
"All were supplied with Gold sill stripes that read GT350H, many also being kitted out with matching Le Mans centre stripes.

Around 80% were painted Raven Black, the remaining 20% being split primarily between Wimbledon White and Candyapple Red."

The meanest Cobra ever made. EVER. Carroll's personal 800HP AC Competition Cobra

Carroll had an AC Cobra upgraded just the way he wanted it, for his own pleasure. Twin supercharged, dual quad, 427 side oiler. 800 HP.

It's going to auctioned. Some fortunate filthy rich guy is going to plop his butt into the car Carroll told his mechanics to assemble, FOR THE BOSS. I think that merits bold typeface. I think that deserves some thought.

The crew knew when they put it together that it wasn't just for a customer, it was for the racing legend, the car building icon, the man who made saved a car (the AC) and put racing into the blood of Ford. I don't mean left hand turns, I mean RACING THE EFFIN BEST ON THE PLANET!

IN THEIR ARENA!

HE WON LEMANS! The only American car to ever win the FIA World Manufacturers Championship for GT cars was the Shelby Cobra Daytona Coupe. http://www.petersen.org/default.cfm?DocID=1014&cat=Shelby&ExhibitID=264&index=4
















http://www.seriouswheels.com/cars-f.htm

BEARDED THE FERRARI'S!

I think this deserves a hell of a lot of respect, he may be the greatest.
Andretti is a great driver, never built a car company.
Richard Petty won lots of races as a driver, never designed a damn car.
John Force and Bob Glidden set lots of drag race records. Nothing in the common car model names.
The Sunoco Camaro is synonymous with Roger Penske.

But Shelby developed the GT 40 from a previous similar design and beat the snot out of Ferrari.

Some great circuit racers like Sterling Moss are known in more countries than than Micheal Jordan or Tiger Woods, and doesn't have his name on a single production car anywhere.
Cale Yarborough has his name on a Talledega, and Mark Donahue has his name across the Javelin, now let's be sure to remember those, and not let them be forgotten. That means something, drivers so good their name sold cars because it was written on them.
Even Dale Earndhart had an Impala SS with his name. I'm sure I don't know of some that also were honored on new Impala SS's, or Monte Carlo SS's. I don't follow new NASCAR, my interest ends in the very early 70's when it comes to NASCAR. I'm sure I'm not the only one. Most either are new, or old NASCAR fans, but not both. Thats an entry for another time... this one is for CARROLL"S PERSONAL FREAKING EPITOMIUS COBRA! Never was another made better, equal, but never better.

Now here are the links for more, http://www.wurthitdesigns.com/cobrastory.htm is the 1981 restoration story photographed by the mechanic who brought it back from some body damage and it was missing all the original cool parts that bolted on, the Shelby dual quad intake, Paxton superchargers, etc.

http://www.barrett-jackson.com/carlist/cardetails.asp?In_AuctionID=221&In_LotNumber=1301 is the Auction site's authenticator's breakdown of how we can be sure this is the real Super Snake Cobra of Carroll's. One of only 23 427 Cobra Competition Roadsters built, different from the AC Cobras sold to the public, later in 67 it was transformed into the Super Snake and reclassified as 427 Cobra Semi-Competition.

I find the description a bit confusing, and doesn't make it clear if this guy denies the legitimacy of the 68 Road and Track article, or just specifies why that car pictured is the real deal. I think he should have had someone read over his notes to check it's clarity. Hell, this car is worth around 15 million, a little extra effort isn't amiss.

http://justacarguy.blogspot.com/2006/11/carroll-shelby-once-had-special-ac.html#links for the Road and Track article I blogged earlier here on this website.

The first Shelby Cobra

http://www.petersen.org/default.cfm?DocID=1014&cat=Shelby&ExhibitID=264&index=6 has a pic of the car recently in the Peterson museum in Pomona (part of Los Angeles).

Shelby races Mickey Thompson, wonder who won?

Shelby intake manifolds

Various Shelby ads, 1968-1970 Hot Rod magazine

Mindblowing, Sears was a Shelby parts outlet... look closely at the catalog bottom half

Along with Mickey Thompson, Hedman, Holman Moody, they also sold Shelby stuff. Whoa.

Road and track GT500 article

Road and track tribute to Carroll Shelby

The 80's and 90's Shelby / Dodge association

1986 Shelby GLHS
1987 Shelby GLHS
1987 Shelby Lancer
1987 Shelby CSX
1988 Shelby CSX-T
1989 Shelby Dakota
1989 Shelby CSX-VNT
Found at the website http://www.xmission.com/~dempsey/shelby/sheldodg.htm for more in depth info... I'm not as interested in the particulars. None seem to much better than a 14 sec 1/4 mile, and handling that wasn't much compared to a GT 350 from 20 years prior.

Also see http://www.nextautos.com/keepers-turbo-dodge

The Goes Like Hell Shelby, GLHS, Cool. A classmate of mine in Subschool had just bought one and filled me in, but I didn't get a ride. Damn.

http://www.xmission.com/~dempsey/shelby/sheldod3.htm


Here is the window sticker from an 86 GLHS. I believe that all 86 GLHSs were equipped basically the same way; ie - all had A/C, rear defrost, etc. Judging by the above window sticker, however, there could be subtle differences; perhaps some didn't have the rear defrost, or perhaps a few had the rear wiper as well.
There were rumored to be two GLHS-specific options: a roll cage and an oil cooler. I was once told that cars 001 (Shelby's personal car), 007, 008, 010, 047, and 048 had the rollbar; however, Bob Marsh (the individual in charge of production at Shelby Automobiles during this period) claimed in a recent interview that no rollbar was ever installed in any "production" car--only a couple PR cars. I do not know which cars, if any, featured the oil cooler. (NOTE: the cars were not built in numeric order!)
On the outside, visual differences were limited to the different wheels, new tape graphics which were white rather than red, and a white Shelby decal at the top of the windshield.

The most exciting changes were underhood, of course. Shelby's crew had installed a prototype intercooler setup; these pieces would later be used by the factory. The changes included a different turbo, the front-mounted intercooler, a different radiator (smaller surface area but 2 cores as opposed to the stock single core), an all-new 2-piece tuned-length intake manifold, larger fuel injectors (these would become the stock Turbo II injectors used by the factory), a 46mm throttle body (up from 42mm) which was now located after the turbo and right before the intake manifold, and a different logic module set for 12 psi (up from 9) and programmed with knowledge of the intercooler. Also, a heated O2 sensor was swapped in, and a few other non-Turbo I sensors were added.

Fitted with all this hardware, the GLHS was now rated at 175 horsepower. More notable, the torque plateau of 175 lb-ft extended from 2200-4800 rpm! This was definitely enough to rocket the flyweight Omni into the 14s; C/D clocked 0-60 in 6.5 and an ET of 14.8 seconds. Top speed increased to an honest 130 MPH, very respectable for a boxy 4-door econocar.

Inside, a leather-wrapped steering wheel and shift knob were installed. The all-important numbered dash plaque was affixed where the standard Omni badge once resided. And not to be overlooked, a clear sticker overlay was added to the unpegged speedometer which extended the numeric readout to 135 MPH.

The first true Shelby of the 80s, these cars began life as 86 GLH Turbos. Carroll purchased 500 of them -- all black -- and they were shipped to his plant in California. Once they arrived his team set about making changes. The suspension was upgraded with Koni adjustable struts/shocks all around. The alignment was altered a bit: Shelby called for the front camber to be set more negative, and a little more toe-in was performed on the rear. The tires were upsized to 205/50VR-15 Goodyear Gatorbacks; these tires were mounted on Shelby Centurion aluminum wheels (Shelby also had a wheel business on the side at the time).

For a good article on the Dodge Shelby connection: http://www.nextautos.com/keepers-turbo-dodge

Shelby Super Snake 1967 1 of 1

1967 GT500 Shelby Mustang 427 Shelby “Super Snake” VIN# 67402F4A005441 of 1 built. 26,304 miles. Special model built at Shelby American for Mel Burns Ford. Intended to be the first of 50 but no other Super Snake was built due to the retail price of $7,500 and a 427 Cobra could be bought for roughly the same amount.

Driven by Carroll Shelby at Goodyear test track in Texas for tire promotion film production. Carroll recorded lap speeds over 150 mph and top speed of 170 mph! The Snake has been carefully detailed and would do great in any show but its uniqueness will always set it apart no matter were it goes.

Appeared on the Nashville Network “My Classic Car Video Magazine” 1/21/96. Listed in the Shelby American World Registry-1997 and Mustang Monthly in August of 1997. http://www.nvsaac.com/gallery/1967_shelby_gt500_18.htm for dozens on exterior and interior and undercarriage pics,

Carroll shelby once had a special AC Cobra made for Bill Cosby

Bill met Carroll in a department store one day, and Carroll asked Bill why he drove foreign cars - outraged that an American would buy foreign cars. Bill said no American car was fast enough for the daily drive to work. So Carroll took this as a personal slight, being the builder of the coolest and fastest American car, and had a duplicate made of his own personal customized AC Cobra, just like this one in this February 1968 Road and Track article.
Listen to the Bill Cosby stand up routine on side A of the album, 200 MPH around a tree, no one can tell a story as well. Dual supercharged, dual quad, Shelby 427 side oiler... and Carroll had his mechaincs put it together exactly to his specs, and never allowed any others made that could match it. It held the record for the fastest production car for about 3 decades.

Not exactly a production car, but neither is an Enzo model Ferrari. At the level these guys compete, and build, it's close enough for me. Worth reading and learning.

This goes to show how far the greats will go to make a buck on marketing their name, sad.

If I didn't have the original right here in front of me I'd swear this was bullshit, (appropriate terminology, read about the Tuli cattle) but click on it for the larger version and you'll see the lower right hand corner has the magazine and date. Too easy to just believe it's a photoshopped ad, so hard to grasp that Carroll is and was putting his name on all kinds of mechandising to increase business. It's probably no surprise to you that he also has had business ventures in Chili, http://www.carrollshelby.com/chili.htm , but you'll be surprised to hear about full blood Tuli cattle from Zimbabwe http://www.carrollshelby.com/tuli.htm