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The Friday evening program
began at 6:30 p.m. When Howard
Pardee negotiated with the facility, a
host bar was included in the meal cost.
When everyone showed up they were
pleasantly surprised that there was no
additional charge for beer, wine or soft
drinks. Pardee swaggered around the
ballroom urging people to, “
Drink up,
and have another one. It’s all on me.
”
No one realized that the cost of drinks
had been figured into the price of the
dinner tickets. As everyone found their
seats and were served dinner, a hun-
dred images of Hertz cars were shown
in a continuous loop on the three large
screens at the front of the room.
The program was opened with a
short music video produced by Ford to
introduce the 1994 Mustang, the car’s
fourth generation and first major re-
design in fifteen years. It was catchy
and was immediately posted on
SAAC’s website [
go to
“
News & Edito-
rials” > “Of Interest
”].
Kopec assumed the role of Master
of Ceremonies and opened the pro-
gram with typical welcoming remarks,
acknowledgement of SAAC’s Board of
Directors who do all of the heavy lift-
ing to put the convention on, and the
volunteers who arrive and make it all
happen. He also provided the obliga-
tory verbal pummeling of Pardee,
something that has become traditional
at the convention evening program.
Bob McClurg is famous for his
drag race photographs which have
been published in hot rod magazines
since the mid-sixties. He has also writ-
ten hundreds of Mustang and Shelby
articles and served as editor of publi-
cations like
Hot Rod’s Mustang
and
Mustangs and Fords.
Lately he has
authored a number of books about spe-
cial muscle car subjects like the Yenko
Chevys, AMC performance vehicles
and Tasca Ford. He is a long time
friend of SAAC and has been to dozens
of conventions over the years. He
shared memories of some of the hu-
morous things he’s heard Carroll
Shelby say.
Next on the speaker list was
SAAC Board of Director and sometime
vintage racer Curt Vogt. He has been
working on a special project with Ford
and was able to reveal it that to every-
one. He convinced Ford to include
SAAC members in their “X-Plan”
which allows members to access the
same program as Ford employees and
retirees – to purchase new cars (two a
year) for about $100 over dealer in-
voice. Before everyone starts trying to
decide what color 2016 Ford GT or
Shelby GT350R they want, those cars
are specifically exempted. But virtu-
ally everything else is on the table.
Curt introduced Ford’s Dennis
Mondrach, OEM Special Markets &
Specialty Vehicle Manager, to formally
unveil the X-Plan Partner Recognition
Program and explain how it works.We
are excited about this as it provides a
tangible benefit to SAAC membership.
By the time you read this (or
shortly thereafter), we will have im-
plemented this program and commu-
nicated with every SAAC member,
providing specifics.
We were extremely happy to have
Steve Saleen join us. A few Saleen
owners who are also SAAC members
put together a Saleen “mini-conven-
tion” and invited a number of Saleens,
including ten Saleen competition cars.
Steve spent time with them and also
happened to bring his driving suit and
helmet so he was able to get out on the
track. Naturally, in Saleen Mustangs.
When we asked him to speak on
Friday evening we were half expecting
to hear an infomercial for the newest
Saleen cars, which include special
models of the Mustang, Camaro and
Challenger. And also about a replace-
ment for the S7 super car. But we were
pleasantly surprised when he spent
his time at the podium talking about
his early racing experiences with his
1966 GT350s. The first car went from
parking lot racer to street racer, to
The SHELBY AMERICAN
Summer 2016 38