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icture the perfect place for a
Shelby employee reunion. Lots of Co-
bras, historical displays and even
some of the machines, welders and
tools from the original factory in
Venice. You would be picturing The
Cobra Experience in Martinez, Cali-
fornia. It was the site of the latest
Shelby American employee reunion on
November 6, 2015, the 17th in as
many years; 65 heads were counted.
We visited the museum during its
grand opening, almost a year ago to
the day, and the place seemed a little
smaller because now it has more cars
and a few new displays which took up
some room. We are happy to report
that Drew Serb and his dedicated crew
of nepotists – wife Janet and daugh-
ters Emily and Kate – have really got-
ten a handle on the museum thing.
Everything ran like a well-oiled 289
Cobra race engine.
SAAC member Bob Shaw of Foun-
tain Valley, California has been spear-
heading Shelby employee reunions
ever since they began. In fact, he was
the one who began them! A long time
Cobra enthusiast, he had been attend-
ing Southern California car shows,
meets and open tracks for as long as
anyone can remember. Once in a while
at these events he would run into
some of the people who were part of
the Cobra Team or who worked for
Shelby American at various times be-
tween 1962 and 1970. What started
out as a handful of people when
Shelby built the first Cobra soon ex-
panded to more than four dozen when
the Venice facility was humming. Two
years later, when the company had
outgrown the buildings on 1042
Princeton Drive and moved to the two,
cavernous North American hangars at
the edge of Los Angeles International
Airport, the number of employees was
probably close to three hundred, in-
cluding Ford employees temporarily
assigned to Shelby American.
In 1995, Shaw had bumped into
enough former Shelby folks that he re-
alized there was a desire among most
of them to keep in touch with each
other. On his own, he started to com-
pile a directory of contact information.
He put together a list of employees
and sent each one a questionnaire ask-
ing them for their addresses and
phone numbers, the dates they worked
for Shelby American, what their job
title was, and would they allow their
contact information to be included in
his directory. He explained that dis-
semination would be limited to only
those who were in it. Making it public
could open the floodgates to enthusi-
asts and car owners who were always
hungry for information, cars or leads;
Shaw was afraid it could invade the
privacy of these people and make
them regret ever responding to his
questionnaire. He included a list of
everyone he had on his contact list and
asked one other important question:
did they know anyone who worked at
the company who was not on the list?
The responses Bob Shaw received
were slow coming back at first, but as
word circulated through the ranks of
Shelby American alumni the flow of
information picked up. Shaw’s list be-
The SHELBY AMERICAN
Winter 2016 53
The 17th Annual Shelby American Employee Reunion was held
at the Cobra Experience in November. 65 of the team attended.
– Rick Kopec
P
Bob Shaw, founder and spark plug of the
Shelby American employees’ group, other-
wise known as “The Donkey Fund.”