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Green Valley, pretesting, Feb 12 or 13th? 1965 This was confirmation as to why we put an early aluminum hub on R002 and S003, the taller chrome ones were not in production yet. Photographer was Robert (Bob) H. Jackson.

Thanks much everyone !

Hello SAAC Forum members, I was looking for a Blue Thunder 1966 GT350 "COBRA" style 289 intake manifold in good used or new condition. If you have one or know of someone who may have one for sale my email is mhovander62@gmail.com
Thanks. Mark 

Thanks much for your help, I may have a lead on NOS Ford ones, but I will keep this in mind, appreciate your efforts.
Mark

Hello SAAC members,
Looking for the following parts,
A) One or two 15" x 6" GT350 Cragar rims, these can be restored originals or modern repo versions.

B)Driver's side (LH) original Buddy Bar hollow lettered COBRA 289 valve cover with oil filler neck.

C)Set of NOS Ford Hipo 289 solid lifters, must be very nice with no shelf wear, rust or corrosion,
  part number is C3OZ-6500-A.

Thanks for your help, any leads are appreciated.
Mark Hovander
mhovander62@gmail.com   

Hello SAAC members, looking for one or two 15 x 6 Cragar rims, can be either restored originals or a more modern version. Also interested in a drivers side, (LH) only, original Buddy Bar open lettered COBRA valve cover with the oil filler neck. Any leads appreciated. Thanks, Mark Hovander   mhovander62@gmail.com   

Some things will always stay with you when you attend a SAAC convention, for me, one highlight was seeing my friend Allen Cheng, it could not of been scripted any better in a Hollywood movie. A group of Shelby Mustangs arrived on Wednesday from Washington state. As it worked out I was mentioning one thing I would like to do was to re-live what we did in the 1980's and the SAAC members did before us in the 1970's. This was to let the sun go down, the California temps would still be very comfortable and just talk about out mutual enjoyment of the cars from Shelby American. All the owners of the Shelbys were present in our group, so it was natural to let each person talk about their car. A few other people who were walking by joined our group, they also hung onto every word each owner was saying. Ever Shelby has a story to tell. As this wrapped up around 10:30pm we walked back to entrance of the Embassy Suites and there was a black 1966 GT350H with Cragars and one very special owner, Allen Cheng.
Now our club knew of Allen's exploits in the past at SAAC 35 but could he do it again, 15 years later?
When we both saw each other, he said "17 hours!" I just shook my head. He did it, Allen, The Crazy Canuck, drove 17 hours straight from Abbotsford B.C., Canada to the convention headquarters hotel. He had been there for about 15 minutes before we saw him. He only stopped for the three essentials; bathroom, gas, food. In a black GT350 with temps in the 90 to 100 range and the windows rolled down caused him to loose a little of his hearing from the wind buffering for all those hours. For those people who got to meet Allen, you probably walked away laughing or shaking your head wondering who would try this.
If you thought he was finished, he did it again, on the way back home. He got into traffic in Portland Oregon ,but he made it through well in Tacoma and Seattle, reaching home exactly in 16 hours. A.I. had it as 15 hours, 43 mins, but A.I. probably did not take into account doing it in a 59 year old black GT350H in the middle of the summer.
Way to go Allen, SAAC 35 and SAAC 50 !!                  

I remember Jeff's photos, stories and drawings in the old Shelby Marques and would talk to him at every convention I would attend. One of few left that had attended every SAAC Convention. Very sad he passed so close to SAAC 50 and even closer to Father's Day. We have lost another member who has contributed so much to SAAC over all these years. RIP Jeff. 

Thanks John, but no drool for the XKE when there is USRRC Cobra in the same photo. Ernie also ran this car at Kent as I have a photo of him spinning the car. Yes, that is Merle Brennan's XKE which won his division in the Western SCCA in 1964. He ran the same car in 1965 but was in the same BP grouping as the new GT350's and we all know what happened that year. When we were compiling photos of 5R002,5S003 (and 5R001) I mention to John Atzbach to track down the current owner of the Brennan XKE since whenever it seemed the XKE was photographed, so was 5R002. I don't think he ever followed through on this idea. They seemed to be very competitive when at the same race. One of the downfalls for the XKE was that they could not easily increase the width of their tires. Don Wester's Porsche dealership had a yellow 904 and later a yellow 906, which a friend of mine bought from him and continued its success in the Pacific Northwest, it is currently owned by a winery in Napa, California.         

I think this is a great way to give Rick Kopec a fitting tribute at the SAAC 50 dinner, everyone wear a Hawaiian shirt on Saturday night. Those people who are on this forum site but are also members of a local chapter of SAAC, mention this at your next meetings. For those SAAC members who know of other people attending the convention and dinner, tell them to get a Hawaiian shirt. It is easy enough to go to a Goodwill, 2nd hand store and you can find them on the racks. Wash it and you are good to go.   

Sorry to hear of the passing of Joe Bunetic. When we were restoring 5R002 and 5S003 we wanted some things to look similar, so we had both carbs restored by Joe. After the various car shows with 003, I started to actually drive the car and noticed some hesitations at certain RPM's. When contacting Joe about this, he said send the carb back and he would fix it. Turns out the first week of production 715's had differences in the metering blocks than the later production 715's. Joe made the internal changes while obviously leaving the outside as they were. He was correct and the car pulled well in all the gears. After close to 200 miles of driving 003, we thought it was sorted out so Chuck Cantwell could drive the car on the Pebble Beach Tour. It performed well in all areas. I tried a couple times to pay Joe for his efforts but he would never accept any reimbursement. Since Bobby Rahal's '65 GT350 carb was also restored by Joe, he was proud to hear the 1st, 2nd and 3rd place winners in the GT350 class at Pebble Beach all had carbs restored by him.
As time went on we became good friends and he was also enamored with the Autolite In-Line carb as I was in high school. He sent me photos of some of his prior cars in the 1960's and 1970's, some SOHC powered and others with multiple In-Lines. I just saw those photos two months ago so I will see if we can get those scanned for the forum members to see. Nothing was stock or concours, but it was what typical hotrodders built back then if they had access to parts as Joe did.
He is still rebuilding carbs, just not for us.                 

Hello Fran,
 I would be interested in the C5 clutch pad and two (2) of the ignition key blanks. Not sure how to pm you or get the payment to you with shipping included. Thanks. 

Joe? Don't get me started.

Hence, SAAC 50 or Bust.

Well I was there, but I should not say who won, since I do not have my past "SHELBY AMERICANS" at my office. Maybe someone can look it up in the issue that followed SAAC 27, Rick usually put together a grid lap by lap who the leaders were. As I remember, there was a brutally fast West coast 65-66 black Mustang that was not an original GT350, but was driven by Boris Said (present TA driver at that time). I think the photo I took of Boris in the car made it into The Shelby American.  The fastest Mustang there a West coast entered multicolored 1971? fastback with revised/widened bodywork with an intergrated rear spoiler that probably was actually functional at the speeds it was going. This car may have "won" but it looked like it should be in an ISMA race.
Personally, I like the lines more of the orignal R models so maybe you have to go down the list of finishers to find the first original chassis that went through Shelby Anerican to find the winner? Converted race cars usually have had hard lives, so how much of the "original" chassis is still present? Not sure there is an easy answer.
Kopec also came up with a pretty clever bumper sticker for the East coast race cars,   that should be in The Shelby American as well. 
Now that SAAC 49 is in the books, we can begin to all pool together and bring out as many original Shelby Mustangs, Cobras and Tigers to SAAC 50 in Califonia. Timing is good, today marks exactly one year until SAAC 50 Aug 1st, Sears Point. I'll always remember it as Sears Point. Spread the word, lets make SAAC 50 something to really remember! Maybe we should start a section just for SAAC 50 now?