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The SHELBY AMERICAN
Spring 2016 1
Notes from the SAAC Mailroom.
“
Curiouser and curiouser.
” —
Lewis Carroll,
Alice’s Adventures
in Wonderland & Through the
Looking Glass.
We sometimes feel like we are
in a Shelby version of Wonderland,
where fiction becomes fact by
virtue of being repeated over and
over, and where people who don’t
know the difference talk like they
do and then start believing them-
selves. The latest thing we heard
that made us shake our head to the
point where we thought it might
fall off was a reference to “match-
ing numbers” on R-Model engines.
To understand the fallacy of
thinking that R-Models emerged
from Shelby American with the
same engines that came in the car
when they were built at Ford’s San
Jose facility, you have to consider
the context in which the cars were
made. In 1965 they were not
$900,000 showpieces. It’s probably
safe to say that very few people at
Shelby American ever knew that
the 289 engines carried the car’s
VIN stamped into the block. And of
those who did, they didn’t care.
The knock-down cars (Ford-ese
for “semi-complete”) were shipped
to Shelby American in three
groups: 15 early cars (which be-
came 5R094 through 5R108); 5 in
the second batch (5R209 through
5R213); and 15 in the last batch
(5R527 through 5R540). Mathe-
maticians will note there is one car
short. One car in the last batch
seems to have somehow fallen
through the cracks, and we’re con-
tinuing to search for it. All cars
were shipped by truck and when
they arrived at Shelby American
(the first batch went to Venice; the
rest to West Imperial Highway),
REMEMBERING THE DAY
YOU BOUGHT YOUR SHELBY
3RD GEN HERTZ CAR
That’s easy for Larry McCurdy of Ashford, Connecticut.
He bought 6S481 on February 14, 1966. You don’t forget a
date like that. This past Valentine’s Day it was exactly 50
years ago, and McCurdy still has the car. As the years go
by there are fewer and fewer original Shelby owners out
there (and even fewer Cobra original owners). But if you
ask an original owner what was the exact date they pur-
chased their car, not many could rattle the date off. They
50
would have to go back and look at their factory paperwork. Not McCurdy.
The cars will be based on the Mustang GT instead of an actual Shelby
GT350 but that’s not likely to matter much to today’s enthusiasts. All they will
see is the black paint and twin gold stripes. The car will be badged as a GT-H
and converted by Shelby American in Las Vegas. They will all be equipped with
automatic transmissions and will be built with a special handling pack, unique
Shelby vented hood and rear spoiler, 19-inch matte-black aluminum wheels
and throaty Ford performance cat-back exhausts. Reportedly only 140 will be
made – just enough to provide plenty of publicity. They will be available to rent
only from Hertz “Adrenalin Collection” outlets. FYI: none near Mid-Ohio.
We were not surprised
that Hertz jumped at the
opportunity to take a third
bite of the Shelby apple,
just in time for the 50th an-
niversary of the original
black and gold Rent-A-
Racer. They used the New
York International Automo-
bile Show to make their an-
nouncement.