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of new money onto the table. Rager
was oblivious to what had just taken
place.
The chassis was finalized in April
and the MSRP was bumped to
$113,975. To stimulate sales, dealers
were told that the price increase
would not go into affect until the end
of the month. This allowed them to
make deposits in their own name, to
purchase cars at the present price and
then sell them at the new (higher)
price after they were delivered. This
would bring them an additional
$7,000 in profit. “Price protected” was
the term used to describe this. The
reason, of course, was to stimulate
cash flow. Only a few dealers took ad-
vantage of the new pricing but they
were enough to enable Shelby Ameri-
can to make its payroll. Things were
that tight.
One of Don Rager’s big marketing
ideas was to give a Series 1 to
Playboy
magazine, which would be given to the
1998 Playmate of the Year. By Rager’s
estimates, Shelby’s cost of the car
(which he put at $75,000) was about
equal to the cost of a full page color ad
in the magazine. The car would be fea-
tured in one issue, the ad would run in
the following issue, and editorial cov-
erage would be given in a third issue.
Rager’s deal-sweetener with
Playboy
was that they would also get a
CSX4000 to give to the Playmate of
the Year the following year. And best
of all for Rager – who was as
starstruck by the whole
Playboy
fan-
tasy as a teenager in the throes of pu-
berty – was that he would be invited
to the annual gala party at the Play-
boy Mansion when the Playmate of
the Year was announced. When it
came time for the photo shoot, the only
car available was the “pushmobile”
and Rager insisted, for some reason
not apparent to anyone else, that Play-
mate Karen McDougal not pose with
the car in the nude.
July 29th was D-Day, the day cho-
sen for the unveiling of a running, pre-
production car. Shelby’s new facility on
the edge of the Las Vegas Motor
Speedway property would also be un-
veiled. The event was billed as an open
house and a Series 1 demonstration.
Invitations were sent out to every
Oldsmobile/Series 1 dealer and every-
one who had ordered a car (125 at that
point). The local Las Vegas press was
also invited, as well as the families of
all the Shelby employees. Additionally,
Motor Trend
magazine had been
promised that they could drive the car
prior to the event so they could get
some driving impressions.
About 100 people were on hand
when Don Rager welcomed everyone
and introduced Carroll Shelby, who
said a few words. The temperature
was 106° (the track temperature was
130°). More than 60 dealers and buy-
ers were shuttled between Shelby’s
building and the track, where race
driver Scott Maxwell gave them each
one hot lap around the banked oval.
Work on the car had been a continual
thrash until the day of the open house.
Although virtually untested, the car
performed flawlessly; its engine tem-
perature never went above 200°.
Motor Trend’s
Editor, C. Van Tune,
drove the car the following day and it
continued to perform exceptionally
well. He was well aware that this was
a hand-built, pre-production prototype
and although his resulting article ac-
knowledged some obvious faults, over-
all it was very positive. The November,
1998 issue led off with a statement
that the Shelby Series 1 was “
the most
significant car Carroll has ever pro-
duced
.” So much for the Cobra.
Larry Winget was the sole owner
of Venture Industries. He had started
a small plastics molding business in
Ohio and now found himself with a
large Detroit company that did a bil-
lion-plus dollars worth of sales all over
the world. Winget somehow decided
that he wanted to become involved in
the automobile business. Prior to Ven-
ture’s becoming a supplier for the
Shelby Series 1, Winget had never
heard of Carroll Shelby. His people
were aware that the Shelby project
was having problems: production was
behind schedule, costs were higher
than estimated and there was never
enough money to pay bills. Venture
was owed $19,000 for every car pro-
duced and they had yet to see a frac-
tion of that money. Still, Winget was
interested and when Rager was told
that Venture had an interest in buying
into the company, he could not believe
The SHELBY AMERICAN
Fall 2016 41