The Shelby American (Summer 2022)

The SHELBY AMERICAN Summer 2022 2 THE CORALSNAKE – 20 Years Old And Just Getting Into Second Gear. 3 pages. There is only one website to go to for 1968 Shelby information and it’s celebrating its 20th Birthday. Hard to believe, but true. Pete Disher, the website’s Grand Master has been compiling details on these cars from major breakthroughs on engineering cars and prototypes to picayune tidbits on in- dividual dealers. The more time you spend on this website the more you will learn. Disher is like the Energizer Bunny – he never stops. AMELIA 2022. 3 pages. This the 27th year for this event. Time flies by. Amelia is different from most other shows. Each event has several themes and they are usually widely divergent – which adds to the fun. The Cars ‘N Coffee show is basically bring-it-and-park-it. There are no special require- ments and you get to see a wide variety of cars in different states. Then the lawn is cleared for the Concours, the cars are parked and the judges curcu- late, inspecting every car. There’s also a show for oddballs and wacky cars. FORD TIMES. 3 pages. In case you weren’t aware, FoMoCo had an in-house publication that they sent to dealers and new car buyers. It lasted about fifty years and was filled with all kinds of articles and pictures, sort of like a cross between Reader’s Digest and The National Geographic . Sprinkled between articles on travel, recipes and historical subjects were new product introduc- tions and other topics concerning the company. Between 1964 and 1969 Ford Times kept readers up to date on what Carroll Shelby was doing. IT’S ALL IN THE NUMBERS. 4 pages. Two original Shelby American fac- tory photos prompt super-sleuth Steve Sloan to try to determine the serial numbers of the cars depicted. It turns out that you can tell a lot by studying photos. You don’t always get the full information you are searching for but you can narrow things down considerably. All it takes is time, perseverance, dedication and some locic – all of which Sloan has in spades. Especially time, now that he is retired. CSX2386 – Love Measured in Miles. 4 pages. We’re always saying that every car has a story. And the owners are characters in that story. Rocky Meisel has been part of CSX2386’s story for more than forty-six years. That means he’s not a recent owner, not some dot-com millionaire who shelled out more than a million Big Ones for the honor of parking this car in his garage. The car is a part of his life and as such, it gets driven a lot. It’s what he’s al- ways done, and always will do. Something that’s nice to see these days. ALLEN GRANT – The Early Years, And Then Some. 8 pages. Allen Grant played an integeral role in the Cobra’s racing history, especially in 1965. But he was over-shadowed by the drivers with bigger names. No matter: he drove in Europe and helped the Cobra win the World Manufacturers Champi- onship. When the season ended and he was not needed as a GT40 driver he left Shelby American and went back to college and graduated with a degree in business administration and was successful in the construction industry. 5R539 – THE UNTOLD STORY. 6 pages. After more than fifty years, the history of some GT350 R-Models is still coming out. It’s not bubbling to the surface by itself; rather it’s the work of dedicated and persistent enthusiasts like Wolfgang Kohrn in Dusseldorf, Germany. Claue Dubois, who raced 5R539 at LeMans, passed away recently and the car had disappeared, prob- ably because the fastback roof was cut off and replaced with a notchback so the car could continue to be raced. Kohrn put on his detective hat.