The Shelby American (Summer 2022)

car driver in an AC Bristol and I’d like to offer my services to you. ” Shelby asked where he had raced and got more than he ever wanted to hear about Grant’s 1962 season. “ Well, Allen, I’ve just hired Phil Hill and Dan Gurney, so I don’t need any drivers…but can you weld? ” “ Yes I can ,” was Grant’s reply. “ Good, if you come to work for us and I need drivers, I’ll give you a chance, ” answered Shelby. So Allen Grant drove home to quit Fresno State, sell BEX392, move to Los Angeles and chase his dream. While mom, the teacher, was not par- ticularly happy, dad gave his support so long as Allen agreed he’d go back to school if it didn’t work out. Grant reported to Phil Remington a week or so later and started welding sway bar brackets onto street cars. The whole operation at that point was in one shop; both race and production cars were housed in the same 10,000- square foot shop at Princeton Drive. The Carter Street building would be added a bit later. It didn’t take long for Grant to determine, to his chagrin, that several other guys in the shop had been fed the same line by Shelby; “ When I need drivers; I’ll give you a chance. ” It became apparent to Grant that he was going to have to make his own luck in that regard. Given he was away from home and had no demands on his time, he would punch out of his day job and often hang around to work on the race cars into the evening. Rem- ington soon moved him over to fabri- cation and in March, 1963 Grant was assigned to the travelling squad for the Sebring 12-Hours as a mechanic (on CSX2127, Phil Hill/Lew Spencer), and as an alternate driver. From that start, Phil Hill became a valued men- tor for Allen as his international ca- reer developed. Not long after Sebring someone fig- ured out Grant had a couple of years of college and he was moved upstairs to work the phones as Production Manager, sharing an office with Peter Brock. The job entailed ordering rolling chassis from AC Cars, parts from Ford and selling cars and parts to dealers and independent racers. As an example, he had to deal with Bob Johnson in Columbus, Ohio. Allen would come into work early each Mon- day because he knew Johnson, and others, would be calling in a parts list for the week that needed to be shipped right away. The phone rang one day in late July 1963, and it was Jay Brown, the co- owner with Jerry Stokes of Coventry Motors in Walnut Creek, California, one of Shelby American’s largest Cobra dealers. Brown was looking for a race car and it so happened that CSX2128 had just been retired from the factory team and was available. Using the opportunity to make his own luck, Grant told Brown there were two conditions for the sale, Brown had to hire Grant as his driver and Brown needed to put up an extra $500 for a new race engine. After checking Grant out with the San Francisco Region of the SCCA, a deal was struck and on August 13, 1963 CSX2128 moved on to Coventry Motors for $8,250 plus some spares and $500 for engine work. One has to wonder at the potential conflict of in- terest in the deal, but according to Grant, Shelby was pleased to move along a used race car for a fair price and he was also pleased that Grant found a ride. Grant and Ole Olsen set about building a hot, balanced engine in Shelby’s shop while George Lucas went to work on the car’s paint. The result was the bright yellow paint job with black accents and meatballs that became known as the Coventry Mo- tors car, together with a similarly painted 1956 Ford F-150 tow vehicle. There was a lot of good natured trash talk around the Shelby shop about how badly Allen Grant was The SHELBY AMERICAN Summer 2022 59