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and even though he has no great de-
sire to be on the telly (Brit for TV), he
plays a big role at LMC. Ryan is
LMC’s go-to-guy when it comes to re-
searching the provenance of a car,
which Mr. Webster defines as, “
a
record of ownership of a work of art or
antique, used as a guide to authentic-
ity or quality.
” A perfect demonstra-
tion of Ryan’s research expertise is
that he discovered and retrieved all
the documentation, trophies, and even
the driver’s suit of race driver Bob
Johnson, which now accompanies the
1964 ex-Bob Johnson 289 Race Cobra
at LMC.
Ryan researches the provenance
of cars. He is the man responsible for
finding out if the car has ever been
wrecked, then he has to determine if it
was totaled, has a salvage title, had to
have major or minor repairs, has had
a complete respray, etc., etc., etc…. You
get the idea. He provides the ever im-
portant binder material to prove a
car’s “honest” history, which impacts
it’s quality and value.
Another son, Gary, is the second
apple that also didn’t fall far from the
car guy tree. He’s the TV personality
who, along with his dad, appears in
the cable television episodes of Leg-
endary Motor Cars. The reason I envy
this guy is he got to ride around
Scottsdale in a classic car with Addi-
son Brown, co-owner of Brown’s Clas-
sic Autos in Scottsdale AZ. It’s an
episode which I still have recorded and
watch every now and then. If you’ve
ever seen Addison Brown, you’ll know
why.
Gary is the hands-on type concern-
ing cars, and on this day he was in
charge of taking a 1960s Ford GT40
interior to a shop to have it completely
redone. It’s a tough job, but somebody
has to do it! He’s also got his hands on
a NASCAR Pinty’s Series (NPS) stock
car, which is the top national stock car
racing series in Canada. It is a devel-
opment or feeder series for NASCAR’s
top national touring divisions. In his
2015 freshman season, Gary had one
win, two pole awards, and seven top-
ten finishes in eleven starts. It earned
him the Rookie of the Year award, and
he has returned to compete in the se-
ries in 2016.
Peter and I discussed how the def-
inition of “original car” is constantly
changing from one generation of car
lovers to another. For example, Shelby
Cobras carry the following CSX #’s:
•CSX2000 = ‘62-‘65 289
•CSX3000 = ‘65-‘67 427
•CSX4000 = Newer 427S/C
•CSX6000 = Newer 427S/C
•CSX7000 = Newer 289 FIA
•CSX8000 = Newer 289 Street
A purist who has been a Cobra guy
since the 1960s will claim CSX2000s
and CSX3000s are the only truly orig-
inal Cobras. The newer generation will
say the newer CSX-numbered Cobras
are also original, because they were
also built by Shelby-American.
You will most likely never get ei-
ther side to negotiate or compromise
their interpretation of “original” when
it comes to defining a Shelby Cobra.
There is the idea that all of the
above CSX Cobras have to undergo
pretty much the same mechanical rou-
tine when going into the shop for
maintenance, repair or restoration, so
they’re all sort of the “same.” Some
folks feel the older Cobras have more
history, while the newer Cobras are
still making their history. This discus-
sion will have to play itself out over
the next few decades, and there will
never likely be total agreement be-
tween all Cobra enthusiasts.
Mr. Klutt learned early on in his
repair and restoration of classic, exotic
and muscle cars that it is always best
to do exactly “what the customer
wants.” When a customer brought in
the very first car he ever owned to be
completely restored, being the respon-
sible car guy who always wants to do
what is best for the customer, Peter
advised him the amount of money it
would cost to restore the vehicle would
probably never be recovered when it
was sold in the future. The customer
looked him right in the eye and gave
him a little bit of valuable advice.
“
Son, if you ever want to be truly suc-
cessful in the car business, just do
what the customer wants.
” He has
taken that advice to heart ever since
that day, and currently does approxi-
mately three nut-and-bolt restorations
each year.
Having retired from working ap-
proximately twenty years in the pri-
vate sector where my job security
hinged upon quarterly reports, I’m a
bit of a numbers wonk when it comes
to business. So I asked Peter a few
“numbers” questions concerning Leg-
endary Motorcars Company and got
The SHELBY AMERICAN
Summer 2017 73