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I knew going in that the chance of
winning First Place was slim because
there was just no way that 5S003 was
going to beat 5R002. John Atzbach put
in a massive amount of effort prepping
his car for Pebble. After I got accepted
I spent about $500, focusing my efforts
instead on The Pebble Drive – a 75-
mile circuit that entrants were re-
quested to drive on Thursday. Not all
accepted the challenge, but participa-
tion would be used to break any ties
between cars.
I knew Chuck Cantwell would be
in Monterey and asked him if he
would like to drive 003 in the tour. He
quickly said yes. At that point I knew
this would be 003’s final event. Up to
this time there were only 1.7 miles on
the odometer since its restoration was
completed. They came from driving it
on and off trailers all year.
When a car is being judged in a
number of different concours events,
judges from one show may suggest
changes needed to make the car closer
to perfect. However, when you get to
the next event, the judges there may
not always agree with the previous
judges. When owners start making
changes to correct deficiencies pointed
out by previous judges, they can often
be whipsawed by subsequent judges
from different sanctioned events who
may not agree. We would change a few
things, only to have it suggested that
we change them back. Then other
judges suggested they be changed yet
again. The inconsistency of judges can
be frustrating. I have heard that there
are changes coming in SAAC’s con-
cours and I hope this is one area that
will be addressed. In the case of 003,
all the 50-year old brake hoses, radia-
tor hoses, spark plugs, oil filter and
The SHELBY AMERICAN
Winter 2016 50
The Pebble Beach Tour led out of Carmel, onto Highway 1 and then south to Big Sur. Then back again. It would have been difficult
to find more picturesque scenery. Thursday’s road grime was cleaned off on Friday. Cypress Ford, in nearby Seaside, generously of-
fered the use of a bay and a lift which made the job a lot easier. There was still a lot polishing and primping once the car got on the
show field, but a lot of this may have been just busy work to make the wait for judging to begin less stressful. The subtext of a con-
cours seems to be that a car can never be clean enough.
One of the most often asked questions was, why does the car have different wheels on each side? Pretty simple answer: when the
car was first completed and publicity photos were taken at Shelby American, to illustrate that there was an optional mag wheel,
photos were needed of the car with stock steel wheels and the five-spoke Shelby/Cragar wheels. Rather than swap four wheels
halfway through the shoot, the mags were put on the passenger side. The result was that all early photos of the car with mags were
passenger side shots and steel wheels were driver side shots.