The Shelby American (Fall 2021)

prototype. The minimum weight for a 325 cu. in. prototype is 2123 lbs. (oddly enough, there is no minimum weight for homologated GT cars.) A 427 is being shoe-horned into a GT40 in Dearborn as this is being written, in- cidentally, but probably won’t be ready for LeMans. Presumably, the only thing holding down the engine size at this point is the lack of a suitable transmission. As Shelby is impressed by the quality of Hewland gearboxes, we asked Rem- ington about the new Hewland LG 500, designed to withstand the torque of 7-liter V8s. “Physically, the LG 500 is a little too big for the present pack- age.” It’s pretty safe to infer that the 427-engined GT40 will be experimen- tal until the second generation Ford GT. But could the GT40 chassis take it? “There is no doubt in my mind,” said Miles, “that the basic chassis con- figuration could cope with the kind of power we would get from the 427.” Shelby commented that they were, “sitting better with this chassis than any chassis that’s been built in the history of auto racing.” As to body changes, there is already a roadster variation, with a new tail. No one seems to know who wanted the roadsters in the first place, though. By consensus, the only place the drivers would prefer it would be the Targa Florio. Elsewhere, they wouldn’t want to give away the aerodynamic advan- tages of the coupe, not even on the Nürburgring’s roller-coaster track. The roadster hasn’t saved much weight because the absence of a stressed roof meant the chassis had to be beefed up to maintain rigidity. One of the two roadsters arrived at Shelby’s just as we were leaving. We asked Remington what he was going to do with it. He scratched his head. “I dunno—use it for evaluating new com- ponents, I guess. Like if we want to try out a ZF; brake test; a new nose; see what we can’t do to clean up the back end.” Otherwise, no major body changes are planned, although as Remington said, “the body is still bad, dragwise.” Shelby was more optimistic: “We’re working in much smaller degrees than most other companies in this field be- cause we have so much experience be- hind us.We probably know more about aerodynamics than anybody.” Natu- rally, improvements aren’t going to go on ad infinitum . At some point it will be more sensible to “freeze” the design and start producing it in a series. A Ford official indicated that it would be “competitively” priced with compara- ble Ferrari models. This means about $16,000, a price Lunn opined people will pay if the car is a winner. The fi- nancial wheels at Ford aren’t out to make a big profit, but they wouldn’t like to take a bath, either. So the ac- tual production date, figures and prices are largely contingent on the car’s race record. Immediately after Sebring Shelby’s two GTs will be shipped to England where they will be readied for the Le- Mans test day in April. Then they will be brought back to Ford Advanced Ve- hicles’ Slough facility and prepared for the race itself. For the all-out assault on LeMans, Shelby’s GT40 will be joined by the one being managed by Wyer and one from Ford of France. Where else Shelby’s cars will appear depends on how they do at Sebring and LeMans. The schedule is being planned one race at a time and played by ear. Eventually, Shelby would like to stop fielding a team of factory cars— let the customers do the racing with his support and turn Shelby American into a manufacturing and marketing company, leaving research, develop- ment and racing to other organiza- tions like All American Racers, Inc., in which Shelby is Dan Gurney’s partner. When the GT40 goes into produc- tion, Shelby American will be listed as the official manufacturer, though in fact, they will be welded up in England and finished by Shelby in California. The Slough “factory” consists of three little buildings with a total area of about 1,000 square feet. It’s really just a collection and assembly center for all the pieces made on the outside. Ford will be the “vendor” of raw GTs to Shelby, just as Ford is the vendor of raw Mustangs to Shelby for the Mus- tang GT350. Shelby plans to built 100 cars—50 “strictly for racing” and the other 50 as street cars. The GT40s will be marketed in the U.S. through a group of about fifty high-performance Ford dealers set up around the coun- try who will specialize in stock cars, sports cars, drag racing cars and en- gines, speed equipment, Cobra kits and the like. Eventually, actual manufacture of Ford GT-type cars will be transferred to Shelby American, but probably not until Ford Advanced Vehicles comes up with a successor to the GT40 that is both competitive on the race track and more adaptable to series-produc- tion techniques. This could point to- wards plastic, as had been rumored, because it’s light and easy to work with. By all rights, it should be a wor- thy successor. “We now have a basic car,” says Lunn, “from which to de- velop better products.” Can it be true that racing improves the breed? You better believe it, Henry. The SHELBY AMERICAN Fall 2021 60