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past, almost 50 years, he has no idea.
SAAC: Back between the 1987 and
1997 copies of the registry, we began
putting together a computer database
for each registrar. Each of the cars
were different but the layout of the
separate databases had to be consis-
tent. Doug Waschenko was doing the
1968 cars and he probably had the
most difficult time.
LISKA: Yes, because he had the most
cars. He had the most owners trying to
tell him he was wrong about specific
details of their car (he had the wrong
color or the original engine was a
427 – all things easily refuted by the
factory documents). This was when
faxes were popular and emails were
just becoming widespread but they
had not yet replaced the telephone.
The sheer volume of cars made 1968s
the most difficult to deal with. Be-
tween his job as a contractor, a wife
and two kids and trying to find time to
work on his own car, Waschenko was
finally against the wall. He had to give
up the registry.
SAAC: Where it started as a hobby, it
slowly changed into a responsibility
that had a way of taking over your life.
LISKA: It can be rewarding. Telling
an owner something about their car
they didn’t know always makes you
feel good. But on the other end, some
owners are not happy to hear that
things they thought about their car –
like the original color, mileage or op-
tions, do not agree with factory infor-
mation. And they start arguing.
SAAC: When ‘68 registrar Doug
Waschenko reached the point where it
was impossible for him to continue
making the commitment of time and
energy, he asked us to find a replace-
ment. We were not looking forward to
conducting a search, because if we ac-
curately described what was de-
manded of a registrar – and expecially
the 1968 registrar with 4,451 cars – no
one would agree to do it. We were sur-
prised when you stepped forward to
take it on.
LISKA: Well, I knew what was re-
quired. It was doubling my workload.
I had to spend another three years en-
tering the 1968 cars’ warranty service
information. But I have to tell you,
every time you get to fill in a blank
about some piece of information it
made you feel good. You get that much
closer to assembling the entire puzzle.
It is still rewarding to me, today.When
I go back and look at some of the mi-
crofilms, when an owner requests ad-
ditional information, I am able to look
at them a lot closer than I did origi-
nally. And I’m seeing things I had not
noticed. For example, there were
memos about the 1969 GT500s that
caught on fire because of the exhaust
backfires. Now I pay more attention to
the small tidbits, whereas before I was
focused on pulling out only specific
types of information.
SAAC: So, you are still able to go
through those reels of microfilm?
LISKA: Yes.As a matter of fact, I’ll be
going to the library tomorrow to copy
some information for an owner. I’m
glad the library still has that micro-
fiche machine. I looked up on line to
see what it would cost to purchase one
that printed the image out. I was
thinking it might be a couple of hun-
dred bucks. It was $15,000.
SAAC: Just off the top of your head,
how many cars are still “owner un-
known” today?
LISKA: When I got the files from
Doug I think there were about 800
owner unknown cars. Today I’m down
to less than 200. I’m sure there are
about 100 owners who, for whatever
reason, don’t want to tell us that they
own the car. There are still people who
are afraid that once they tell us their
name and where they live, they will
have people showing up at their front
door wanting to see the car. If someone
wants to keep their information confi-
dential, we won’t print it or tell any-
one, but they still don’t believe us.
SAAC: We don’t know of one case
where someone claimed somebody got
information on them or their car from
the registry and were prowling around
their house.
LISKA: I haven’t, either.
SAAC: With the present interest in
auctions – on-line or live – has the
request for information increased?
LISKA: Yes. As an example, three cars
were recently entered into the May
Mecum auction in Indianapolis. I was
contacted by someone who knows that
two of the cars are not real.
SAAC: By “not real” what exactly do
you mean?
LISKA: “Not real” means a Mustang
which is converted into a Shelby by
the addition of Shelby-unique parts
and Shelby serial number VIN tags. In
this case, these two cars were already
in the registry, owned by entirely dif-
ferent people. The original cars ex-
isted. One owner is the original owner
who has all of his registrations, war-
ranty service records. And yet a car
with the same serial number is trying
to be sold at an auction. Frank Mecum
called me and said that someone
called him saying that they had three
cars that may be in question. I asked
him to give me the VINs. I have a
question on all three. They have been
rumored to be somewhere else and
someone had access to the facility and
took pictures of the VINs. I told him
that I have an original owner who can
prove he has owned his car since Day
One. And yet someone in another state
is selling it at auction? Something is
wrong. I gave him the phone number
of the two owners we had on file. One
was the original owner and the other
was presently at the Charlotte Auto
Fair showing his car. I suggested he
call them and speak to them himself.
An hour later all three cars were re-
moved from their catalog.
SAAC: It really does not make any
sense for someone to refuse to provide
a registrar with information on their
car. Someone could have their car safe
in their garage without any question
of their ownership, and unbeknownst
to them, another car with that same
serial number is being auctioned off
2,000 miles away. All the security in
the world cannot stop that from hap-
pening. With the values of these cars
increasing – today they are selling for
$100,000 or higher – potential buyers
are naturally asking more questions
about them. Do you think the high val-
ues result in more bogus cars or ones
whose VINs have been tampered
with?
LISKA: I don’t see this as a major
problem today, at least not as much as
it was twenty years ago. Back then,
The SHELBY AMERICAN
Summer 2016 59