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.