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the third SOA convention in Wichita,
Kansas.
SAAC: In the early 1970s, when you
were accumulating all these Shelbys,
it was about at the low point as far as
their values were concerned, wasn’t it?
BURGY: Yeah, they were really af-
fordable. A friend named Roger
Hodyka came down from Michigan to
visit me when I was staying at my par-
ents’ in Ohio and I took him for a ride
in my Shelby. He said, “
I gotta have
one of these.
” He immediately bought
a black and gold Hertz car from Asa
Sharp. When I got my black and gold
GT350 in 1981 (6S1380) I never really
felt like it was mine because both of
my other GT350s had been white.
Roger had a black and gold car and to
me, when I drove my Hertz car I kept
thinking I was driving Roger’s car.
SAAC: You didn’t limit yourself to just
Shelbys, did you?
BURGY: About that time I had a cou-
ple of Sunbeam Tigers. Then I saw an
ad for a Mangusta and decided I
wanted one of those. I called Robert
Drobot, a name I had seen in SOA
newsletters. He wrote about Cobras
but I seem to recall that his car was an
AC with a 289 engine in it. I had
driven to Cincinnati to look at a Man-
gusta that had been wrecked and re-
paired and was sitting in a body shop.
From the doors forward it was brand
new and only had 5,000 miles on it.
But it had no rear wings. The guy
couldn’t find any rear wings [
the Man-
gusta had two separate sections that
incorporated the rear window, and
were hinged in the middle; you opened
them to get at the engine. -ed.
] I called
Drobot because he was the only one I
knew with a DeTomaso car and I
thought that maybe he would know
where I could get the parts. I had
stopped at a few places around town
and nobody had any line on where to
get them. When I explained to Drobot
what I needed he said, “
Why don’t you
buy my Pantera?
” I told him I wasn’t
looking for a Pantera. I liked the looks
of the Mangusta better and I really
wanted one of those. He said, “
I’ll sell
you my Pantera for $7,250
.” I said, “
I’ll
be down this weekend
.” So I drove to
Cleveland and he wouldn’t let me
drive it on the road.We went to a large
parking lot where I drove it. It was
fine; it had about 12,000 miles on it
and the radio was missing. He said it
had been stolen and recovered but I
don’t know the details. It had already
been repainted once and it looked
good. I bought it and started working
on it. At the SAAC convention in Her-
shey I sat at a table with a guy I didn’t
know named Stu Galbraith. He taught
welding in Schoolcraft College and
The SHELBY AMERICAN
Fall 2016 55
6S1206. In the early 1970s, “concours restoration” was not part of anyone’s vocabulary.
Personalizing your Shelby was mostly about improving its performance and Burgy had
no qualms about doing that. R-Model aprons were uncommon enough to rate a double-
take back then. Note the 15-inch ten-spokes on the rear. The car eventually got them
on all four corners – after a little massaging of the front fenders.
The dual-quad intake required a little fab-
rication work to run the Monte Carlo bar
through the filter element.
Sometimes you just can’t say “No” to a good deal. Left to right: Shelby-ized “beater”
Mustang used for winter driving, 6S1206, 6S285.