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The SHELBY AMERICAN
Spring 2016 21
The original Shelby/Chrysler connection? Well, let’s not march off the cliff
to this tune. Barranger spotted this picture in the March 2016 issue of
Hem-
mings Muscle Machines.
The article was on early NASCAR star Tim Flock
and his Chrysler 300s, and Barranger’s eagle eye picked out the sponsor on
the rear fender: Shelby County (Chrysler) Dealers. Elmer Carl Kiekhafer
was the owner of Kiekhafer Marine and went NASCAR racing in the mid-
1950s with a professional team of meticulously prepared Chrysler 300s
(brought to the track in transports – unheard of at the time; the box trucks
had jacks built into the floors to support the cars on their frames so they
would not ride on their wheel and axle bearings during transport to and from
races). The cars won the championship in 1955 and 1956 but Kiekhafer quit
NASCAR in 1957 after accusations of cheating by Bill France. This was not
uncommon when one car or team won consistently and other teams and en-
trants threatened to pull out. Kiekhafer used his cars to promote his Mer-
cury outboard motor company. Rather than risk the backlash of being seen
as a cheater, booed by fans and, thus, potentially affecting Mercury sales, he
simply withdrew from the sport. Bet you didn’t know that.
The latest book on Barranger’s shelf
is this one about cold drawn seam-
less steel tubes: where they are
made and how they are used. Na-
tional Tube Company, Frick Build-
ing in Pittsburgh. Fascinating
reading!
Barranger spends a lot of time drag-
ging his hook through eBay sites
starting with “Shelby.” It’s amazing
what he finds.
It was the “COBRA & GT350” on
the front fender of this freshly re-
stored Mel Burns Ford-sponsored
‘65 Fairlane B/SA drag car that
caught Young’s eagle eye. It was in
a
Hemmings Muscle Machines
March 2016 pictorial from the 2015
Chicago “Muscle Car & Corvette
Nationals” show.
Barranger spotted picture frames
engraved with names in a gift shop
on Aruba. Naturally he found the
one for “Shelby.” Aruba? That’s in
southern New Jersey, isn’t it?
The British automobile publication
Octane
can usually be counted on to
carry some pretty interesting items.
Ted Warren spotted this full-page ad
for the newest Ford GT. Pretty slick.