The Shelby American (Summer 2022)

In 1966 Claude Dubois was an im- porter with Ford of Belgium. At the Brussels Motor Show he sold nine GT350s but discovered that the Ford system was not set up to handle spe- cial orders and none of the cars had been shipped. He ran into Carroll Shelby at LeMans and complained to him about his problem. Shelby told him, “ Let’s forget about those f***ing idiots at Ford. Work directly with me as the sole importer for Belgium, Hol- land and Luxembourg. ” So he did and he became a Shelby dealer. Prior to LeMans in 1966, Dubois wrote to Ford requesting a driving po- sition in their team. Carroll Shelby re- sponded that he already had enough drivers for the 1966 event, so Dubois signed on with a team entering a Fer- rari. The Monday morning after the race he received a letter from Ford of Belgium suggesting it was a bad idea for a Ford importer to be competing against his own company, especially when Ford was attempting to beat Ferrari. He replied that he completely agreed and explained that he had tried to secure a driving spot with the Ford team. He was told that although his driving services were not needed they would work something out. That something turned out to be a GT350 R-Model which was procured for Dubois by Ford of Belgium for 1967. 5R539 arrived at Dubois’ shop and he was able to bring it directly to Le- Mans in April for the annual test ses- sion. After driving it he was severely disappointed by what he described as the car’s “ clapped-out components .” In a strongly-worded telegram to Shelby, Dubois said that unless Shelby and Ford wanted to be embarrassed in front of 300,000 spectators at LeMans he needed to have sent immediately, The SHELBY AMERICAN Summer 2022 51 5S539 at LeMans, driven by Claude Dubois and Chris Tuerlinckx. Tuerlinckx qualified the car at 4 min.13 sec., good for 36th. Top qualifier was the McLaren/Donohue MK IV at 3 min. 24 sec. Dubois testing at LeMans in April. He found the car to be completely worn out from previous racing and would require a total rebuild before the June event. The car was almost exactly as it had been driven by Taylor-Mathews. In fact, although the Ring Free stickers and other sponsor decals had been removed, the Goodyear sticker over the rear wheel remained. As one of Dubois’ sponsors, it did not need to be removed. 5R107 at Hockenheim in 1966. Photo by Jutta Fausel-Ward.