The Shelby American (Summer 2022)

vacation during that week. It’s a big rolling party. SAAC: You do that every year? SERB: We’ve done it for thirty-four years, now. Even through Covid we did it. SAAC: At first we didn’t hear too much about the Cobra 1000. It was like a secret among Cobra owners. SERB: Well, I didn’t want to be stuffy about it, but I wanted 2000 and 3000 series Cobras only. Thirty-five years ago, the replicas were inconsistent at best, and our goal was to always keep it to a small group. I also wanted like- minded people. People who were either dumb enough or smart enough to mortgage their house to buy a Cobra. We also try and make it a couples thing, so we don’t end up with a bunch of guys in a speed contest. Remember, our goal is to drive the cars! By the way, that’s 1000-miles in an open, noisy car for four days. Sounds like a lot of fun, Right? Not if you are the passenger. The passenger seat goes 40 miles-per-hour faster than the driver’s seat. In the beginning it’s a real test of your marriage commitment. We al- ways go where the roads are the best, not necessarily with the best accom- modations. We have been caught in a sandstorm, rainstorms and even snow- storms. We like Utah, Wyoming, Idaho and Montana the best. Janet and I have done all 34 trips, plus 15 or 20 others in our 427. We have a few par- ticipants who have done 20 and 25 trips in a row. Unfortunately, in the last few years, we’ve lost several of our good friends. We really miss them. SAAC: If the people with replicas and the later continuation cars really wanted to do this they would set up a tour of their own. But nobody has. SERB: I’ll tell you what, man – it is a lot of work. It’s one detail after an- other, after another. Actually, we got lots of comments at the museum about others not being able to attend the drive like the 1000, so we created a shorter version. It’s a 2-day drive that is called the “Shelby Spin.” Initially the goal was to have it be Shelbys, but we are happy to include any Ford-pow- ered vehicle. The first year we went to the mountains, and last year to the ocean. We will host the 3rd Annual Shelby Spin this October. We haven’t decided where we’re going (that’s code because we can’t agree on the destina- tion yet). SAAC: If it’s done right it doesn’t look like a lot of work. SERB: No, it doesn’t But there’s only about a million things that can go wrong. The SHELBY AMERICAN Summer 2022 44