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much a part of the cars’ display and
this can still be seen with some of the
cars at Pebble. They are judged as
flowing designs and hoods are closed
so those lines are not disrupted. Fine
details like grass in the tire treads are
viewed as a fault in a car’s overall
presentation and appearance. Minute
defects in the finish on the smallest
part or an inconsistency in paint or
chrome in an area difficult to see can
easily prevent a car from finishing
near the top.
For starters, it was a $10K week
for me. Everything was expensive, but
the way I looked at it, after finally
restoring the car and criss-crossing
the country to bring it to more than a
dozen different events, this was the
last, tallest mountain to climb. If you
get to Pebble Beach, you can go no
higher. There is, maybe, one other
show which might top it – Lake Como
in Italy – but I doubt an modern Amer-
ican car would ever be accepted. Espe-
cially a Mustang.
I knew I was going to retire 003 at
the end of 2015. There are some really
nice ‘65s going through the restoration
process now. Let them get their shot at
some gold. Some people restore cars
throughout their lives with the goal of
being accepted at Pebble Beach and
never are. Others may think it is a
wasted effort, but only a handful of
owners have the persistence, stamina
and budget to climb that mountain. I
like the way Pebble entrant Brent Gal-
loway put it: “
Just to be accepted is an
honor. We’re all winners, so let’s be
supportive of whoever wins. It’s all
about having fun
.”
This year, in recognition of the
GT350’s 50th anniversary, Pebble
Beach created a special class for them.
It was something that probably won’t
happen again for a long time. At least
until they run out of Duesenbergs,
Packards, Cords and Stutz Bearcats.
In the event that GT350s are ever
invited back to Pebble, my question is,
how many GT350s are truly “
Pebble
Quality
?” Another question is, how can
a ‘65 Shelby, restored with overspray
and drips on the floorpan the way it
came from the factory, stack up to all
of the over-restored cars at Pebble?
The people who built the Packards,
Cords and pre-war French and British
cars are no longer alive. None of the
cars on the field at Pebble ever looked
that nice when they were new. How
could anyone look at a properly re-
stored GT350 and still think it was re-
stored to the same level as the other
classics on display? There were over a
million Mustangs built and there are
still enough original cars left to show
us how they looked when they were
new. Do they even come close to Peb-
ble’s standards?
Pebble demands the best of the
best. 5R002 and 5S003 came off of the
prior year with top awards from the
three leading Mustang/Shelby organi-
zations, which demonstrated a high
level of workmanship and historical
accuracy. The organizers selected a
small group of people to determine
which GT350s should be accepted. The
group was headed by Ken Gross. Along
with Bruce Meyer, they were the ones
who spearheaded getting a hot rod
class accepted at Pebble Beach a few
years ago . This is something that Peb-
ble’s original founders are, no doubt,
still spinning in their graves over.
The SHELBY AMERICAN
Winter 2016 49