The Shelby American (Fall 2021)

The SHELBY AMERICAN Fall 2021 6 Another subject rarely discussed is what to do with the old batter- ies. You can’t just dump them into a landfill. They have to be properly recycled, whatever that means. When the time comes and there are hundreds of thousands of these thousand-pound dead bat- teries to be recycled, the cost is sure to be expensive (Duh!) and will further diminish the value of a used EV. If you think you’ve seen a lot of derelict cars sitting in va- cant lots, behind buildings, on side streets or in the center of a city, you ain’t seen nuthin’ yet. All these things will have to be figured out, and it doesn’t appear that will happen until the prob- lems are staring us in the face. Long-range planning seems to be in short supply. Like an EV’s cruis- ing range. Even less mentioned is the re- placement cost of the batteries. They are more expensive to re- place than we can presently envi- sion ($5,000 to $10,000 is the figure most often batted around), but in that they are predicted to last upwards of seven years, when it comes time to replace them most cars will be into their second or third owners. When faced with the major expense of replacing the batteries, the value of used electric cars will drop like anvils. No Cobwebs Settling on These Cobras In 1923 a New York Times reporter asked mountaineer George Mallory why anyone would consider climbing Mt. Everest and he uttered the immor- tal words, “ Because it is there .” At 12,096 feet, Independence Pass in Col- orado is not exactly Mt. Everest, but it is the second highest paved crossing of the Continental Divide in the U.S. Dave Wagner from Michigan, Lee Cross from Delaware and Roger Mor- rison from Kansas planned a three- day drive in Colorado on their way to Janet and Drew Serb’s Cobra 1000 tour in September, 2020. Their plan was to meet in Vail, drive three days and 700 miles, and then continue on to Sun Valley, Idaho, to join the Cobra 1000 tour. On September 7, 2020, when Roger, Felicia and Lee Cross arrived to meet Dave Wagner accompanied by Pat Cooper, they had already trailered 2,300 miles to Colorado three days earlier. In mid-afternoon Dave sug- gested they take a quick, sunset drive so the three Cobras headed off on the 128-mile jaunt through Leadville to the top of Independence Pass. The ap- proach from Vail is considered the more gradual ascent with a few pucker-inducing curves with no guard rails. Because they wanted to return home by dark they proceeded at a brisk pace. The summit is a spacious area with plenty of room to park and hike the stairway up for the spectacular view. It was a beautiful day: clear, cool and crisp. After taking the photos they re- versed course and drove about an hour in the dark. The spur-of-the-moment decision turned out to be a good one. The next morning brought cold hard rain, intermittent sleet and the forecast of massive snow in the area of their planned three-day drive. After an absolutely miserable morning, includ- ing having their windshields fog up on the inside and outside in the tunnels and Roger’s wipers failing, they elected to pack the cars up in their trailers and head to Utah. That is an- other story. All three cars preformed brilliantly in the altitude. The Cobras were quite a topic of conversation at the summit. Has the Hemmings Motor News blog finally scraped the bottom of the barrel? The an- swer is a strong “maybe,” if they follow up their May 5th blogpost with another soporific, sleep-in- ducing article like this one: “ Which one of these four would Left to right, Dave Wagner with Pat Cooper in CSX 2174; Felicia and Lee Cross in CSX 2393; Roger Morrison in CSX 2181. Photo taken by a good Samaritan.