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course I passed a cop going the other

way. He heard the open headers and

turned around, and pulled me over. He

was looking at the edge of the wind-

shield for a VIN tag, so I said, “

It’s over

here,

” and opened the hood and

showed him the fender tag. He said,

So, you’ve gone through this a lot,

huh

?” I said, “

No! It was just obvious

to me that you didn’t know where the

VIN number was.

” He gave me a fix-it

ticket. I went to the gas station and

got the pipes welded up, and then

went to the State Patrol that after-

noon and got the ticket tossed out.

SAAC: Does it seem like new 2017

Ford GTs will have the same level of

activity surrounding them as the ‘05

and ‘06 models had? Could that lack of

excitement be because a new genera-

tion has already been done once?

BURGY: It’s been done once, and

Shelby had a hand in it the last time,

which added some cachet to it – even

though most people know he didn’t re-

ally do a whole lot with the program

but they took it to him and had him

sign off on it, and all that crap. They

gave him a prototype. With the new

cars, there will be so few of them – 500

a year for three years – there just

won’t be as many owners. And at that

price ($400,000) a lot of them will be

put away to sit there and appreciate.

There are a lot of guys who are still

not happy with that V6 engine. There’s

no question it’s a real exotic car. It’s

pretty zoomy-looking.

SAAC: Why do you think Ford went

back and put so much time and effort

to a third generation GT? Image and

prestige?

BURGY: Yeah, that’s what I think it

is. I don’t know why they didn’t sup-

port Robertson Racing and Matech

who were trying to race those cars

back in 2007, 2008, 2009 and 2010.

Ford just didn’t do anything with

them, really. Then all of a sudden, they

decided to go for it, and do a new car

to celebrate the 50-year celebration of

the 1-2-3 LeMans win in 1966.

SAAC: The timing was definitely

right; an opportunity like that only

comes along once.

BURGY: It’s a great opportunity for

Ford, especially coming after a victory

at LeMans this year.

SAAC: Nobody has a crystal ball that

allows them to see into the future, but

as someone who has been deeply in-

volved with Shelbys, Cobras and en-

thusiasm for these cars, where do you

think the Shelby hobby and the club

are headed?

BURGY: From what I’m seeing, I en-

vision that the hobby and the club are

going to continue to shrink, because

the people who were really gung-ho

about these cars are dying off, getting

old and selling their cars. They’re get-

ting too old to work on them, too old to

race them and the newer generation

kids don’t seem to be that interested

in antique cars. The car clubs I belong

to, the Thunderbird club and my local

Shelby club, have a lot of gray-haired

people in those groups and not many

young kids. There are some young kids

involved with the new Shelby Mus-

tangs but you have to have a lot of

money to be into those cars. They’re

not cars that you tinker around with

yourself. Some guys do, but you have

to be pretty sophisticated. A lot of en-

gineers can work on those cars but if

you’re not an engineer you’re not going

to be able to do very much to them on

your own. I’m afraid the original Shel-

bys will languish, eventually. The Co-

bras will still be worth big money

because they were so unique and there

were so few of them.

SAAC: A lot of people have been sur-

prised that the original Cobras haven’t

really been affected by the large num-

ber of replicas. With the number ex-

panding every year, it’s surprising that

they have not had a negative effect,

most obviously driving the prices of

real Cobras down. Only 998 original

Cobras were made but there are prob-

ably more than 10,000 replicas out

there. With more joining them all the

time.

BURGY: I don’t think replicas have

really affected the real Cobras. In fact,

in some ways they have augmented

them because there are some guys

making some pretty nice replicas out

of aluminum, with correct windshields

and correct wheels. They are produc-

ing parts that can be used to repair

original cars. I don’t believe that repli-

cas have damaged the reputation or

values of the originals at all.

SAAC: The downside seems to be that

the more replicas you see, the fewer

originals are brought to shows and

events.

BURGY: There are so many guys who

own original Cobras who are having

Dave Wagner or the Kirkhams build

them a copy of their car that they can

take out and enjoy. You can drive

around a hundred-thousand or two-

hundred thousand dollar duplicate

and not worry about it but driving

your million dollar original will make

you a little nervous. At SAAC-41 I was

standing there talking with three

other guys who owned original Cobras,

but didn’t bring them. And they were

complaining that there were only a

few real Cobras at the convention.

They had brought Kirkham duplicates

and were bitching about the lack of

genuine Cobras at the convention.

SAAC: Do you think there will come a

day when the same thing happens to

original GT350s? People will have du-

plicates of their cars built from Mus-

tangs or Revology cars based on

Dynacorn unibodies to drive while

they keep their originals safe at home?

BURGY: That could happen but Shel-

bys would have to get a lot more valu-

able.

SAAC: Do you envision getting any

help from Ford to continue your reg-

istry and expand it for the 2017-2018-

2019 GTs?

BURGY: No, Ford is pretty protective

about production details and owner in-

formation. They won’t let anything

like that get out to a private individ-

ual. So, I think my involvement will

end with the 2005-2006 GTs. Besides,

with 4,038 of those built, I already

have more cars to keep track of than

any of the other SAAC Registrars.

The SHELBY AMERICAN

Fall 2016 61

When SAAC’s Motor City Region needed a

logo, Burgy pressed his illustrator’s talents

into service to create one.