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t’s always interesting to look be-
hind the scenes to see the rela-
tionship between people in our
small universe and well-known com-
ponents. It’s like word association: if
you said American or Shelby Cragar
wheels, the answer would probably be
Craig Conley. Weber carburetors: Jim
Inglese. And for Mustang Independent
Rear Suspension, the name is Duane
Carling.
Ford built several IRS set-ups. It’s
not clear exactly how many, but one
was installed in a Falcon which was
tested by Richie Ginther at Riverside.
An early Mustang notchback with an
IRS was also tested against another
Mustang with a live rear end by
Shelby American at Willow Springs.
This was before GT350 production
began. Ken Miles and Richie Ginther
drove the cars and determined that
there was not much difference be-
tween the two cars. Certainly not
enough to justify making an IRS unit
standard, or even optional.
Chuck Cantwell recalls that, at
some point, an IRS unit was installed
on an unsold competition model. The
serial number isn’t known. Bernie
Kretzschmar remembers taking the
finished car out to LAX’s freight area
and it was air-freighted to Ford in
Dearborn. Neither Cantwell or Kret-
zschmar can recall ever getting the car
back from Ford. That doesn’t mean it
was never returned; just that they
can’t recall if it was. If the car stayed
in Dearborn, after testing it could have
suffered the same fate as any other
prototype that Ford did not want to
fall into the hands of the public, where
an accident could result in a lawsuit
because a non-legal specification car
was allowed to be used on the street.
In other words, it went to the crusher.
Ford got out of racing at the begin-
ning of 1971 and ceased support of al-
most all of racing activities. Ford’s
budget for Holman-Moody was drasti-
cally cut back and Shelby American’s
was zeroed-out completely. Ralph
Moody was asked to clear out Shelby’s
facility in Torrance and he was a noto-
rious pack rat. He didn’t leave much
behind. One of the things he found
were the parts for a Mustang IRS set-
up under someone’s workbench. It was
unceremoniously
loaded
into
the
trailer along with everything else that
wasn’t bolted down. There was never
any interest in the IRS unit at Hol-
man-Moody.
Ralph Moody sold his portion of
the business after Ford quit racing.
The name remained and the company
limped along until John Holman died
of a heart attack in 1975. His will spec-
ified that the bank take over the busi-
ness and liquidate the assets to pay off
the debts. Lee Holman, John’s son,
took over the business and worked to
put it in the black. By 1982, in need of
a cash injection, the famous Holman-
Moody garage sale was held, selling off
treasures no one knew the company
still had. One of the items was the IRS
unit Moody had picked up at Shelby
American in 1971.
SAAC member Duane Carling
took an interest in the IRS unit and
found it intriguing because it had
never been used on the Mustang. After
it had been purchased by an enthusi-
The SHELBY AMERICAN
Summer 2016 62
And that doesn’t mean Internal Revenue Service
– Duane Carling
I
IRS Falcon being tested at Riverside prior to Shelby American
receiving any Mustangs. What happened to it is not known.
IRS Mustang being tested at Willow Springs in February, 1964.
Two Mustangs were compared, one with a stock rear end.