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out 1998. Pictures of the car were run
in the December, 1997 issue of
Motor
Trend
along with an interview with
Shelby. He estimated actual produc-
tion to begin in March of 1998 and
that the price would be an even
$100,000. Both the date and the price
proved to be somewhat optimistic.
Work continued on many fronts si-
multaneously. The engine was final-
ized: the 4.0 liter DOHC Aurora V8
would produce 320 horsepower. Shelby
had originally envisioned using the
Northstar engine but he quickly dis-
covered that GM was an inhospitable
labyrinth to outsiders. The more pow-
erful Northstar was only intended for
use in the Cadillac and that was that.
Engines received from Oldsmobile had
to undergo some Shelby massaging:
new camshafts (from the Cadillac
STS), a reconfigured computer chip, a
free-flowing intake manifold, exhaust
headers, high-flow catalysts and Borla
2.25˝ stainless steel exhaust. Shelby
had wanted the engine to be super-
charged but GM Powertrain forbade
it. They were afraid that a super-
charger would put a strain on the en-
gine components and reliability would
become a problem. Shelby was unac-
customed to having someone tell him
“no,” but a supercharger was a deal-
killer, so he acquiesced. Nevertheless,
the 400 horsepower figure was still in
the back of his mind and the only way
to extract that from this engine was by
supercharging it. Once the GM stran-
glehold was loosened, supercharging
would become an option; but at the be-
ginning it was off the table.
The transmission was also final-
ized. Shelby had wanted to use a 6-
speed transaxle mounted in the rear
to provide even weight distribution.
But the new Corvette was going to
make use of a transaxle, so GM nixed
Shelby’s request to share technology
because they wanted the Corvette to
use that system exclusively. As a re-
sult, Shelby was forced to look else-
where.
Getrag,
the
German
manufacturer, was the first one they
went to, but Shelby’s production re-
quirement of only 500 units was
deemed too small. That left the ZF
gearbox, which had originally been
used in the Pantera. ZF had issued a
license to manufacture units to Roy
Butfoy in Dallas. Butfoy had worked
for Holman-Moody and had been the
master transaxle builder for the Ford
GT MK II program. Shelby’s require-
ment of 500 transaxles was almost too
large for Butfoy’s shop. On top of that,
the five-speeds would have to be re-en-
gineered into six-speeds. Butfoy
signed on and agreed to work clandes-
tinely.
The suspension also created prob-
lems. Peter Bryant was insistent on
creating components of his own de-
sign. Others on the engineering side
wanted to use Corvette parts which
would save money. Shelby had initially
been told that part of the deal with
Oldsmobile was that he would be able
to purchase necessary parts from GM.
However, he soon learned there were
limits. The new Corvette C5’s suspen-
sion would remain proprietary to the
Corvette. Shelby had to make due
with the C4 suspension parts. They
were forged aluminum and for
Shelby’s purposes, actually turned out
to be superior to the C5 pieces.
While all of these pieces of the
puzzle were being massaged into
place, the people in the front office
were going through gyrations trying to
handle the dealer network. After all, it
was not easy to sell cars which did not
yet exist. They also had to establish a
marketing and advertising campaign
– again, for a car that did not yet exist.
And all the while, keep the excitement
level high to maintain continued inter-
est. Advanced deposits of $50,000 per
car ($10,000 of which was non-refund-
able) kept the company alive in the be-
ginning. These funds were used to
cover payroll and overhead expenses.
In February of 1998 Oldsmobile
requested a meeting to review the
project. Don Rager had been going
head-to-head with several people at
Oldsmobile over engines, horsepower
and various parts. He was afraid that
Oldsmobile was looking for a reason to
pull out of the project. The meeting in-
cluded the presentation of a written
progress report. In it, all of the prob-
lems with the project were blamed on
Oldsmobile and Rager played hard-
ball. The meeting went well and by its
conclusion the suits from Oldsmobile
assured Rager that the company
would honor all of its commitments.
After the meeting, on the way to the
Detroit airport, Rager was happy. He
told Davison, “
We’ve got ‘em where we
want ‘em. They can’t back out now
.”
Oldsmobile’s purpose for calling
the meeting had actually been to try
to figure out how they could capitalize
on the new sports car and their asso-
ciation with Carroll Shelby. The com-
pany had been willing to commit
millions of dollars to make the Series
1 into Oldsmobile’s version of the
Viper, but Rager’s arrogant style, con-
ceit and general attitude turned them
off. The result was that Oldsmobile
merely acquiesced to the present con-
tract instead of pushing a large stack
The SHELBY AMERICAN
Fall 2016 41