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The SHELBY AMERICAN

THE MUSTANG IRS STORY.

5 pages

. Ever since the first European sports cars

were imported into the U.S. in the 1950s, one of the features that defined them

as being sports cars was an independent rear suspension. While not exactly the

Holy Grail of sports cars, American cars were always seen as coming up short by

not having one. When the original Mustang I was created, it was as a sports car

and an IRS was essential. But by the time the four-place Mustang went into pro-

duction in 1964 the IRS had disappeared. But it’s back now.

SAAC-41 CONCOURS. 3

pages

. Here are the winners and photos of their cars,

all eagerly awaited. The concours was, again, reorganized slightly, reflecting the

evolution of the event as head judges continually add to their knowledge about

what is “right” and what is “wrong.” This filters down to the entrants and their

cars reflect this in following years. A concours gold winner twenty years ago prob-

ably wouldn’t even qualify for a bronze award today. The quest for perfection is

continual, with the goal posts continually being moved back each year.

Summer 2016

A FOREVER SHELBY.

9 pages

. Every car has a story. When one person owns

the car for a very, very long time it can be a very, very long story. This story starts

with a used Hertz car, seen by a high school student as it drove by every day as

he was walking home from school. He befriended the owner and began accompa-

nying him to the track. The Hertz car was used as a push car for a B/Gas Mustang

with a one-piece, flip-open front end. Well, one thing led to another and he even-

tually bought the car. And he has had it ever since. It’s a long story...

HERTZ CRUISE.

3 pages

. It was a terrific way to roll into the “Hertz” conven-

tion at Mid-O: in a caravan of six black-and-gold Hertz cars, coming from Chicago

on a memorable road cruise. One car was an original ‘66, four more were 2006

models and there was one new 2016 rental – still owned by Hertz! Troy Kruger

started in Minnesota and collected the other cars along the way. They even

hooked up with a ‘65 Mustang R-Model look-alike along the way. It made for a

very memorable convention.

THE SHELBY PLAYBOY CONNECTION.

3 pages

.

Playbo

y magazine has al-

ways tried to be on the cutting edge of trends and they were quick to spot the

Cobra as a car worthy of special notice. Shelby American’s marketing department

realized that

Playboy

was an excellent place to advertise but their rates were

prohibitively high, so the company was forced to be creative and get in the mag-

azine on the editorial side. We chronicle how that happened through the years of

Cobra and Shelby production.

VINCENT LISKA.

7 pages

. We catch up with the hard-working 1968-1969-1970

Shelby Registrar. How did he get started and what keeps him going? Maybe it’s

the fact that he bought his first Shelby in 1968 – and turned it in on a 1969 model.

And don’t forget, he has been overseeing Tech Inspection at national conventions

ever since we had the first open track event. When you pick up a registry you

can’t imagine the work that went into it, especially at the beginning. We get him

to reveal how a lot of that happened. It’s fascinating stuff.

SAAC-41 VINTAGE RACE.

3 pages.

This year’s race was a start-to-finish run-

away with none of the first five cars changing leads throughout the entire eight

laps. They finished in the order that they started, which means that after the

green flag dropped none of them made a mistake or had a malfunction. Sixteen

cars started and fifteen finished. Most of the racers were double-dipping. They

were entered in the SAAC race but were also there for the SVRA weekend so

they got plenty of track time, which what it is really all about.