Messages

[HOT]

I bought 6S1615 on June 30, 1976 (and still own it now, 49 years later). I was told that it was a Hertz car, but it had silver stripes and no "H" in the side stripes. Was it for SURE?? As a 19 year old guy that was HOT for a Shelby, I just had to take the chance. Back in those early days, we only had urban myths and rudimentary beliefs about what MADE a Shelby a real Hertz car - remember the "pop rivets in the drip rails" theory (see The Definitive Shelby Mustang Guide - pg 104) as one of those beliefs? Remember, this was before SAAC discovered / acquired the original invoices and paperwork in Shelby's attic that gave us the documentation we all take for granted these days.

I had noticed that 1615's top stripes and side stripe letters/numbers were all much thicker than just the middle piece of side stripe to the right of the "0" of G.T. 350. I learned later that was because that middle piece of side stripe after the "0" was just one coat of silver paint applied after the "H" had been removed!

Here it is in the summer of 1976:




Here it is in 1978, now with 10-spokes:




And here it is in 1983 at Shelby Parts and Restoration. Jim Cowles took these photos of me pouring on the first of the paint stripper and scraping away the silver paint to reveal the original HERTZ GOLD paint! What an exciting rush that moment of validation was for me:

 

Later in the side stripe stripping process I confirmed that it was just one coat of silver paint applied to mimic a piece of middle stripe where the "H" had been removed.

BTW - I recently brought all of 1615's original windshield and rear window trim out of the attic to do a micro cleaning job on them. I was astonished to discover areas of HERTZ GOLD stripe overspray on them that I had not noticed prior! Yes, I left it on there!! That is HISTORY from 1966.

The stories that many of us have of our Hertz car's missing their "H's" way back in the day to attempt to disguise the fact that they were rental cars sure makes for compelling reading in this day and age!

Kieth   
 

Hi,

I'm the new owner of this 1968 Shelby GT500KR with VIN 8T02R203104-02322. It is a unique all-original survivor car from the first owner! A 4-speed and an original Raven Black car. Al lot of documentation is present. I have a Marti report '68 registry.

I was wondering if someone knows the car and has more information to share.

PM Sent . . .

I just went through all the pages of the nineteen sixty five issue of hot rod in august and these are the only pictures that we're in there for it. You can view the magazines online.And I could go through All of them and take a look but I will need some more time and try to do it later.

  Roy

Thanks Roy.
I mentioned in my initial post at the start above ^^^ that that photo was not in the August 1965 HOT ROD, but Thanks again!

Also, I went thru the Contents page of EVERY month of 1965 HOT ROD at 99wspeedshop.com and did not see any mention of any GT350 articles except of course the ONE in the August issue. However, sometimes the name of an article in the Contents may not give away what it's actually about, so there's that too . . .

Kieth

Thanks, yes, I have seen it in the Petersen Archives - I was just wondering if this one was ever used in a period (HOT ROD?) magazine article, as stated by the caption in Kopec's article:

[CAR CRAFT]

I recently had to repurchase another copy of the May 1965 issue of CAR CRAFT, because I had foolishly used scotch tape decades ago to fasten a continued column from another page onto a previous page of the article. But this time, with my non-hasty, older age eyes approach, I noted an inset photo in the Contents section that I had not previously noticed. Note the small inset photo on page 5 here, about the article on page 64. That photo is not used in the article in this May 1965 issue of CAR CRAFT ("A Two-Fisted Street Machine with Race Track Manners"). Mmmm - I had seen that photo before - but where?? So I went to my "SHELBY ARTICLES - RECENT" folder, and found it in the June 2010 issue of MUSCLE CAR REVIEW, in an article by Rick Kopec titled "The Birth of the G.T. 350." The caption on page 57 states "Testing the G.T.350 for Hot Rod magazine, 1965." But the only 1965 issue of HOT ROD that I know of that tested a G.T. 350 was the August issue, and this "dusty road" photo is not in that issue either. A different "dusty" photo is used in the Aug 1965 HOT ROD article, but it was taken at LAX.

So my question is - have you ever seen this exact "dusty road" photo in a period magazine?
 
If not, it is a 1965 photo that was not "featured" until 2010!!

Kieth

1969/1970 SHELBY/Mustang glove box door.

Autograph by Carroll Shelby at the 10th Anniversary-2006- of the Shelby American Collection X-Mas party/fundrasier.

$1200.00

Contact Kerry via text/call at: 608-485-1549
Or email at: kbwhite60@aol.com

Re: the photo above - no. That is Bob Acton (original owner of 5R528). That photo was shared with me (Kieth Champine) by way of George Watters, who purchased 5R528 in 1982. That photo was previously posted here when he & I were doing "THE GEORGE WATTERS COLLECTION" of original photographs on Forum 1.0 back in the day.

He also stated the words below to me just this morning:

"At one time I had 75 or so original pictures of 5R 528. Some were taken right after the car was new thru 1982 when I bought it. In every picture it has a '66 grill. After I bought the car I was able to talk with original owner Bob Acton and he told that when he received the car, which by the way was delivered on a Shelby American truck, it had a '66 grill and '66 side stripes." George Watters

[THANK YOU]

First off - THANK YOU Stephan (Szabo) for sharing / posting the incredible new-to-us photos of the Kamm tail GT350, especially that one of it at Hi-Performance Motors on Sepulveda!!! (HPM 2). That one really made my year!! I've said several times on this Forum that the greatest thrill for me in this hobby is that the start of every new year reveals photos that were previously unknown to us, and that the thrill of that has never faded for me.

It got George Watters & I to restart previous discussions we have had about HPM 2, and when I resent him that rear view of a GT350 parked outside with the dealership in the background, he added some great directional location info. I took his information and rotated / reworked an aerial photo that I probably had posted on Forum 1.0 back in the day.

Here are George's words, and then the photo that I reworked (with added directional lines):

"The close up rear shot of the '65 GT 350 is the one that you can the exterior of HPM 2 building. The camera is facing South so we see the North side of the showroom. I think that this picture is the only one that I have ever seen that actually shows part of the exterior of the showroom. Again we are facing South. Sepulveda Blvd would be to the left. If you look very closely you can see the side street sign that should say Walnut. ( look closely in the middle of the rear window just above the right top stripe ) Basically looking right thru the small showroom. This was the small street next to HPM and it ran East, West. Sepulveda Blvd ran North, South." 

George

[FANTASTIC]

FANTASTIC photo Brian, Well Done!!

Kieth

Hi Kieth, try June 1965.

Best of luck

Cory

Hi Cory,

Sorry for my belated reply.
The topic had to have rotated out of the "recent" section at the bottom of the Forum home page, and then I somehow missed your Reply.

But I really do appreciate your response, and sent you an email as well...

Thanks again,
Kieth

Notice the "H" removed from the side stripe, a fairly common practice back in the day, I have read.

I don't know the time frame of this picture, but the Blue Streaks seem to infer that it's a period photo.

Does anyone know the date of it??

That definitely is not Lee Kelley.  I worked for him too.  He died a few years ago.   

That's George Elliott in the photo, wearing that shirt.

Okay - Thanks for the clarification!

[The young guy in this photo was the editor of PHR at the time, George Elliott.]

I think it was Popular Hot Rodding. Published between 1962 and 2014, part of the Motor Trend group. Best known for their "Project X" '57 Chevy build series.

Hi Bill,

Yes, that was Popular Hot Rodding. A formerly excellent technical car mag (sort of combining Hot Rod & Car Craft's editorial breadth) that ended up in the soup-kitchen-mess of leftover stuff that spilled on the floor during too many publishing company sales/mergers.

PHR was never affiliated with Petersen, but got mixed-in with the Motor Trend Group (about three more company takeovers after Bob Petersen sold everything in 1996) in its last year or so, and was dead by 2014...a shadow of its former self.

PHR was originally the flagship of Argus Publishers Corp, a much smaller magazine company than Petersen (located in West L.A. about 6 miles from Petersen) that also published Super Chevy, Off-Road, VW & Porsche (eventually became European Car), drag racing specials, Motorcade (a new-car quarterly), Guide to Muscle Cars, Fabulous Mustangs, and others.

Company owners Don Werner and Gordon Behn were former Petersen guys. Werner was editor of Motor Trend (circa 1959) and Behn was in the Distribution (newsstand and subscription) dept.  They decided to compete with Petersen and opened their own company (Argus) in 1962.

The young guy in this photo was the editor of PHR at the time, George Elliott. He had advanced to Exec V.P. when I started there in '81 (George hired me!) He's a great guy, fun-to-work-for, very knowledgeable, and a natural race driver (cars and motorcycles.) 

I worked at PHR from 1982-87, before Carroll asked me to come to work for him, and thus also before I was at Petersen in the '90s-early 2000s. (Car Craft & Motor Trend.)

George and I are still friends, and I talked with him a couple of months ago. He's 80-ish and still loves fast machines. If anyone has a specific question to ask him about that Shelby article, I can pass it along. 
Van

Side-Oilers,

My magazine has this caption on page 60, explaining the period detail shot on page 61 that is being discussed in this thread:

Rex - Sent you a PM

[does]

I forgot to add that it does have a tach dash pod in another photo in the article - that well known photo of the gauges mocked up using paper inside the dash pod...