The Shelby American (Fall 2021)

The SHELBY AMERICAN Fall 2021 12 Pardee Needs Help – Of Course We ’ ve Heard This Before If They Drove Shelbys In Top Gun Instead Of F-14s... The Grumman Aircraft Engineer- ing Corporation was one of the leading American aircraft producers in the 20th century. They built the iconic TBF Avenger that kept America in the fight in the early days of WWII in the Pacific. This was followed by “Cats” – the F6F Hellcat, F7F Tigercat and F8F Bearcat which helped turn the tide in the Pacific. The end of the Cold War at the be- ginning of the 1990s reduced defense spending and led to a wave of mergers as aerospace companies shrank in number. In 1994 Northrop bought Grumman for #2.1 billion to form Northrop Grumman. At its peak in 1986, it employed more than 23,000 people on Long Island. The new com- pany closed almost all of its facilities on Long Island and a portion of the airport is now the Grumman Memo- rial Park. Which leads to this pictue of 67400F8A00328. Rick Zappia has lived on Long Island all of his life. He’s owned this Shelby since 1970. It got a 427 engine around then and has had that powerplant ever since. On a ride one day he ended up at the park and it was a natural photo opportunity. The F-14 is the aircraft “flown” by Tom Cruise in the 1986 movie “Top Gun.” As part of his preparation for playing the role of Pete Arons in the movie “Grand Prix,” James Garner attended the Carroll Shelby School of High Performance Driving where he was tutored by Bob Bondurant. The movie began shooting March 2, 1966 so that would have put Garner at Willow Springs before that. 1965-66 Registrar Howard Pardee is trying to determine the serial number of the school car Garner drove. The three school cars were 5021, 5029 and 5S451. 5S451 wasn’t sent to the CSSHPD until 4/11/67, so it had to be 021 (which was consigned 8/10/65) or 029 (which was at the school before 6/2/66). Both cars had ‘66 style rear quarter win- dows installed before they were returned to Shelby American but the photo clearly shows ‘65 rear vents. Pardee requests that anyone with info on this picture contact him: saachp350@gmail.com