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The SHELBY AMERICAN
256 Fall 2015
MEMO TO LEGENDARY MOTORCAR COMPANY: THANKS FOR SETTING US STRAIGHT
COBRA ALUMINUM BLOCK FOR $85
We can always count on two
things from the Legendary Motorcar
Company. They always have top qual-
ity cars to sell and their ads use excel-
lent photography.When we saw the ad
pictured at the right, we read the de-
scription and realized that it con-
tained everything a potential buyer
would want to know...except the car’s
serial number. So we sent them the
following email:
Dear Friends:
I’m assuming Peter Klutt won’t be
receiving this email because he is out
in Monterey, but I wanted to pose a
question before it slips my mind. I re-
ceived the notice of this Hertz car
being offered for sale and, out of cu-
riosity, had one question that maybe
someone at LMC can answer: Why is
the car’s Shelby serial number not in-
cluded in the ad? Aside from the price,
it is the single most important piece of
information you can provide about the
car. It will tell far more than any writ-
ten description.
Not including it is either an over-
sight (hard to believe because you
guys are professionals) or it is done on
purpose–for what reason I cannot
imagine unless there is something
about the car’s history which is detri-
mental and needs to be hidden be-
cause it might cause potential buyers
to immediately lose interest. If there
is a third reason I am not aware of I
would live to know it.
Rick Kopec
And,of course, there was one. Ac-
tually, there were four. We received a
speedy reply from LMC’s David Grif-
fiths, who explained that Peter Klutt
was, as we had assumed, in Monterey
but he wanted to get back to us
tory. If they listed the serial number it
might appear there was a problem and
could diminish interest in the car.
4. LMC has also experienced sev-
eral situations over the past few years
where bottom-feeders were fraudu-
lently using the cars in LMC ads,
claiming they owned them and at-
tempting to convince prospective buy-
ers to provide deposits–which they
would never see again.
This was, frankly, not something
we had considered, probably because
we inhabit a cloistered world where
ninety-nine percent of the people we
deal with are honest and above board.
We tend to take things at face value.
We have not had much first-person ex-
perience with computer shysters and
low life scam artists, so protecting
against them is not foremost in our
mind. It probably will be now.
Thanks, guys.
quickly. He said there were four rea-
sons not to include a car’s serial num-
ber in one of their ads.
1. There are brokers who take
LMC’s pictures and descriptions and
try to sell the car on their own; with-
out the VIN it is more difficult to do
this.
2. LMC prefers that customers
contact them directly so they can get
details for their database as well as
discuss the car in more depth to see it
fits a customer’s criteria.
3. Griffiths recently went to in-
spect a ‘66 Shelby and thought it was
a good car until he looked in SAAC’s
Registry. The individual history noted
there were questions, causing some
concern. Peter Klutt called registrar
Howard Pardee and the situation was
sorted out. In the case of a car like
this, they want to be able to tell
prospective buyers the car’s full his-
When Greg Melnyk searched eBay for “Cobra” and found an aluminum block
for $85 he must have thought he had just hit the lottery. Further reading re-
vealed the block was for a Crosley. Cobra afficionados know that in this case
Cobra was a shortening of “COpper BRAzed.” The description said,
“Very clean
early Crosley Cobra block. Lifter bores and cylinders look good with some
straining in the cylinders but should clean up with a light hone. An area above
the spark plug hole was tig welded because someone got a little aggressive with
the spark plug socket back in the day and made a small hole. It was just a shelf
ornament; correct Cobras cam cover included
.” We’ve seen wackier collectibles.