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The SHELBY AMERICAN
Spring 2019 8
That shows how forward-think-
ing we were. And apparently we
weren’t the only ones. But someone
had their eye on the horizon. Com-
puter usage grew as the magazine
declined a little at a time. The num-
ber of pages consumed by ads
seemed to grow while the type size
shrunk, making it harder to read.
At some point it became clear that
the magazine had become little
more than a final draft of its on-line
version. The reader comments that
followed each article made the
printed version’s Letters to the Ed-
itor section seem dull and flat.
Of course, the magazine’s content
may have had something to do with
that. Everything seemed to be mov-
ing away from the enthusiasm of
the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s. The
cars tested in each issue seemed
not to be as unique or exciting as
they had been. Race drivers were
no longer immediately recognize-
able. Performance outpaced what
we had been used to – there were
even cars faster than the 427
Cobra – but they lacked the
charisma. Or maybe it was just us.
By the 1990s the magazine’s cir-
culation was more than 750,000
subscribers and newsstand sales
represented almost 50% of its retail
sales, making that a cash cow. In
the past twenty years, newsstand
sales have diminished to between
10% to 12%.
CSX3170 IS AUTOCROSSER OF THE YEAR
A fifty-two year-old Cobra smoked
a field of 31 other top autocrossers to
win the Good Guys Duel in the Desert
in Phoenix, Arizona to become the
2018 FAST Autocrosser of the Year.
CSX3170 belongs to Bruce Cambern of
Madera, California. He is the car’s
original owner. He purchased it from
Ed Leslie Motors in Monterey in No-
vember of 1965. He picked it up at the
factory and drove it home. He ordered
the car with a competition engine
which he couldn’t get right away, so
when the engine arrived he swapped
it for the stock engine (which he re-
turned). He also ordered the car with
competition exhaust, hood scoop, 7.5˝
and 9.5˝ Halibrands and a roll bar. It
was the first street car to receive a roll
bar from the factory. Cambern was an
engineer who went to work for Ford a
few years later and remained there
until his retirement. He has always
competed with the Cobra, in slaloms
and autocrosses.
This year, with SCCA champi-
onship-winning driver Scott Fraser
behind the wheel of the 820 h.p. alu-
minum big block monster, they went
home with $3,000. Two years ago
Fraser finished second in this event. It
is part of the Good Guys Southwest
Nationals which features a car show,
road runs, parties and autocrossing