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The SHELBY AMERICAN
CHARLES L. SCHWAB, JR.
January 14, 2016
Charles Schwab Jr. of New
Haven, Connecticut passed away
peacefully at 92. He was a long time
sports car enthusiast and in 1968
purchased CSX2007, an early white
roadster with only 331 miles on it.
He was happy to share his enthusi-
asm for cars, and especially the
Cobra, with his oldest son, Chuck,
who was allowed to wash and wax
the car constantly and drive it
(under supervision) occasionally.
After about a year, Charles sold the
Cobra to a younger Cobra enthusi-
ast in Connecticut, Geoff Howard.
take advantage of that offer before it
was cancelled – all of that when
SAAC was only a month old.
While attending the University
of Pennsylvania Wharton School of
Business, Charles Schwab enlisted
in the Army Air Corps after the start
of WWII. He became a bomber pilot,
flying B-24 Liberator heavy bombers
out of Manduria, Italy. He flew 35
missions and was shot down three
times. Two of his bombing missions
involved the oil fields in Ploiesti, Ro-
mania and the Abbey in Monte
Cassino in Italy. He was awarded the
Distinguished Flying Cross and Air
Medal along with numerous other ci-
tations and was discharged as a
First Lieutenant. He later served as
the Director of Public Works for the
city of New Haven before retiring.
The small block car was replaced,
about a year later, with a red 427
Cobra. CSX3309 had originally been
purchased by Sylvia Smith with the
intention of being raced by Paul
Chroinere in Vermont. A roll bar, Ava-
iad oil pan and electric fuel pump were
added but the car competed in only
one hillclimb before being traded to
racer John Paul. It was purchased
shortly thereafter by Schwab who
drove it, very gingerly, on the street
until he sold it in 1975.
His son Chuck, realizing he would
never get to drive the 427 nearly
enough to suit him, purchased
CSX2228 in 1972 and used it as daily
transportation, driving it back and
forth to a nearby college. He still owns
the car today and he is one only four
“lifetime members” who jumped to
BRATZO VICICH
February 2, 2016
Anyone familiar with R-Model
history knows the story about the
five factory competition cars that
were purchased by five Peruvian
racing drivers and used to compete
against each other in road racing
events in Peru. They wanted to com-
pete in equal cars to see who was
the best driver, not who had the best
car. The races were held on public
roads between the country’s larger
cities. Roads in and around the
cities were paved; roads between
them were not.
One of the five drivers was
Bratzo Vicich. He was born in Bel-
grade, Yugoslavia in 1942 and ar-
rived in Peru in 1948 with his
parents as political refugees. In the
1960s and 1970s, Vicich became one
of the best rallye and race drivers in
South America. Behind the wheel of
the R-Model, 5R530, which he pur-
chased in 1966, he competed in dan-
gerous road races in the Peruvian
Andes. His best known achievement
was the legendary Caminos del Inca in
1973. He was crowned National
Champion in 1973 but was also the
South American Champion in his class
in the late 1960s.
Vicich was a Peruvian national
champion in sports car racing, mo-
torcycle racing and Peleta Fronton,
a Peruvian racquet sport. He also
somehow found time to study den-
tistry, receiving a degree and open-
ing a practice in Lima.
A few years ago he was reunited
with his R-Model, 5R530 at the
Monterey Historics and found it dif-
ficult to believe there was such a
high level of interest in Shelbys.
Fall 2016 84