The Shelby American (Summer 2022)

289 Cobra FIA roadster (CSX2260) at the R.A.C. International Tourist Tro- phy where he came home 6th OA, 3rd GT Over 2.0L. At LeMans Jo Schlesser and Grant ran well and among the leaders in CSX2601, but ultimately re- tired as result of the Ford head bolt fi- asco. That led to the last race in Europe at the Reims 12 Hours where Shelby American would be in position to clinch the World Manufacturers Championship. Grant was entered in the race with Bondurant in CSX2601 but at the last minute Ford France de- termined it would be better politically to have a Frenchman in the car, so Allen Grant and Jo Schlesser swapped rides; Schlesser coming over to run the race with Bondo while Grant moved to a Ferrari GTO (4153, owned today by David MacNeil) co-driving with Guy Ligier. Bondurant and Schlesser came home 5th OA, 1st GT Over 3.0L. It was a DNF for Grant and Ligier that day. A couple of weeks later Allen Grant was back at Shelby American to prep the Lola T70 Shelby had offered Grant for the Can-Am series that fall. After Ford pulled funding for that ride, Shelby offered Grant the King Cobra Parnelli Jones had driven to the win- ner’s circle at the L.A. Times Grand Prix in 1964. Grant started to disas- semble and prepare the car for the 1965 Can-Am series, until Shelby came out to the shop floor one day and found Grant, who knew something was up because Shelby was uncharac- teristically sheepish. Sure enough, Shelby told him that Lothar Motschenbacher wanted to buy the King Cobra and Shelby needed the money, so the ride was going away. Shelby had already told Grant that Ford was going to be hiring the drivers for 1966 for the GT40s and that they would all be international stars. The gig was up for Allen Grant and true to his word with his dad, he decided to go back to Cal State to earn a degree in business and accounting. Meanwhile BEX392 had been sold in the summer of 1963 to Bob Allen, a fellow autocrosser and Ecurie AWOL member in Manteca, California. Grant had not paid much attention to the old car as business in the ensuing decades The SHELBY AMERICAN Eric Broadley’s Lola GT6 was the precursor of the Ford GT. Between 1962 and 1963 he built three cars. The second car was built with an aluminum monocoque and Broadley entered it at LeMans in 1963. It retired after 15 hours following an accident caused by a gear selector failure. The car, powered by a 289 Ford V8 mounted in the rear, caught the interest of representatives of the Ford Motor Company who were at LeMans looking for a car they could use to jump-start their sports car endurance racing program. Broadley’s Lola was perfect. They bought the car and contracted with Broadley to continue its development, setting him up as Ford Advanced Vehicles. After a year Broadley, used to being his own boss, could not accept Ford’s constant oversight and quit. Grant bought the first car and over a long period of time restored it to its original condition. Allen Grant’s current project is the restoration of the AC Ace he originally raced in 1959. Summer 2022 62