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Bristol, engine, Shelby named his
“new” car the “Cobra” and was tap
dancing through the SCCA “A Produc-
tion” class with it.
Shelby called the SCCA. The re-
sult of the conversation was an agree-
ment that if the rear seats of the
Mustang were removed, the car pro-
duced in a minimum of 100 units by
the beginning of the 1965 racing sea-
son it would be classified in “B-Produc-
tion.”
Shelby called Iacocca back and of-
fered to “produce” and sell a two-seat
sports car version of the Mustang by
replacing the rear seats with a shelf,
modifying the brakes and suspension
and offering special racing models for
independent racers to compete, prima-
rily against Corvettes. Iacocca agreed
to supply Mustangs and it was on!
Shelby American won the SCCA B
Production national championship in
1965 with the GT350 and the A Pro-
duction championship with the Cobra.
Shelby American delivered a competi-
tion brand lift for the Mustang and
transformed Shelby American from a
small AC Bristol/Shelby 289 Cobra
tuner into a much larger company
with a market of thousands instead of
hundreds of customers. The company
grew and moved to larger production
facilities, hired more employees, and
hit the ramp.
All of this was the subject of the
evening program remarks, after which
a handful of Shelby American employ-
ees who participated took the stage to
talk about the experience. A slide show
entertained the more than one hun-
dred people in attendance. For any-
body who cares about this bit of racing
history, it was a memorable event.
I enjoy car shows, drag racing,
tours, and road racing and have par-
ticipated in lots of events; but to be
honest, they were secondary to the op-
The SHELBY AMERICAN
326 Fall 2015