The Shelby American (Summer 2022)

The SHELBY AMERICAN Summer 2022 23 THE RACE BEFORE THE RACE – Building the Shelby American Cobra and GT350 1964-1965 a memoir by Bruce Junor. 10 1/4˝ x 10 1/4˝ hard- cover; 94 pages, 18 color photos, 50 black & white. $40.00. Self-published. Former Shelby American employ- ees all have a story to tell. They each have a unique perspective from which they viewed the very special and excit- ing account that unfolded before them. Bruce Junor is no exception. He came to Shelby American as GT350 produc- tion was being conceived and his job title described what he did: Manager of Production Operations. He was re- sponsible for taking the original GT350 from concept to completed pro- duction. This included hand-building the first 50 cars at the Carter Street location in Venice (almost next door to Shelby’s 1042 Princeton Drive facility) while finding and leasing the two for- mer North American hangars and 12 acres of pavement on the edge of the Los Angeles airport and laying them out to include Cobra production, the race shop, the dynometer facility and the GT350 production line. And mov- ing in. All under the pressure of need- ing everything done yesterday. Bruce tells the insider’s story of how the first year GT350s came into Well, why not? Sure, we’ll review our own book. Conflict of interest? It’s not like we’re a pack of slimy swamp creatures: elected government offi- cials, two-faced ambulance-chasing lawyers or toadying bureaucrats back-stroking through the putrid swamp that passes for our nation’s capitol. The latest edition of SAAC’s Registry covers the 1967 cars. It is the work of Registrars Dave and Nancy Mathews and edited by Yvonne Kirk. By now there should be no question of what it is. The only question is, how well is it done? And the answer is, ex- ceptionally well, as you would expect rom a SAAC Registry. It carries all of the data that makes a registry a reg- istry: a grid of current or last-known owners and states or countrys where the cars are located; detailed histories of each car – as much as is known from production to dealer and through each known owner, and details about each car along it’s life – color changes, en- gine transplants, car shows it has ap- peared in, events attended and anything else of note. There’s also a brief history of the 1967 model, op- tions, colors, running production changes, specifications, DSO numbers, an owners index, a list of 1967 Shelby dealers, serial number explanations and everything else an owner or po- tential owner needs to know about ‘67s. There is a picture of every car thoughtful owners have provided (most in color). In short, it’s like all previous SAAC Registries – a compre- hensive volume of information about 1967 Shelbys. Owners of other mar- ques wish they had a book like this about their cars. The only thing more you could ask for is if somebody could read it to you. Unfortunately there is no audio version. 1967 SHELBY REGISTRY by Dave Mathews. 8 3/8˝ x 11 3/8˝ softcover; 648 pages; 1297 color photos, 29 black & white. $100. Published by SAAC: www.saac.com being, and it didn’t happen in a vac- uum. There were so many other things going on at the same time within the company it’s amazing they were suc- cessful with all of them. But they were, thanks to people like Bruce. Sometimes we need to be reminded of that. We know the GT350 story and we’ve been looking at Dave Fried- man’s pictures for 50 years but when someone like Bruce Junor recites the details and explains what only he can know from the pictures it brings everything to life. This book is not for everyone – but neither is the 1965 GT350. Only 300 copies were pro- duced. To get your autographed copy send a check for $40, made out to “Bruce Junor” to: Susan Dobak, 7642 East Appaloosa Trail, Orange, CA 92869. If you would like a personal- ized inscription include a note with de- tails.