Shoulder Harness

[Steve Z]

   Was the Shoulder Harness an option in the 69 and 70's or was it required in certain models? Thanks Steve

[Bill]

   Was the Shoulder Harness an option in the 69 and 70's or was it required in certain models? Thanks Steve

The shoulder harnesses were part of the Shelby and were not an option.

[Steve Z]

  Does that mean all 69 and 70's came with them? coupe or convertible?

[Coralsnake]

All real Shelbys   

[Steve Z]

  I thought by 1969 that Ford was basically in charge of the Shelby program and CS had stepped away? Steve. (Still learning)

[Coralsnake]

There were three entities involved in the program. Ford, Shelby and AOSmith. I think its fair to say all had an equal amount of power. This complicated relationship would eventually lead to the end of the Shelby program when AOSmith decided not to build the 1970 models. Each party blamed someone else when problems arose. AOSmith was upset they did not receive clear direction, resolution or payments. To say Shelby Automotive was not involved is not correct. Shelby did not end the Shelby program, AOSmith did.

[Steve Z]

    Thank your the clarification. Always learning something new from the Forum. Steve

[Coralsnake]

I think Shelby was every bit as involved as the earlier years. Plans for the 70 and 71 model years were well underway. It was Shelby engineering that directed a lot of the program.

[shelbymann1970]

I think Shelby was every bit as involved as the earlier years. Plans for the 70 and 71 model years were well underway. It was Shelby engineering that directed a lot of the program.

Thanks for the clarification  Pete. I get tired of those who say 68-70 are not real Shelbys as Shelby wasn't involved(??). BTW I was not aware of AO Smith ending the program. Always learning. the "story" I heard all too often was the $$$$ from the B9 program hidden in the cost of the Shelby program plus the competition of other models(Mach and bosses)  had Shelby  end the program. How did you come about learning of the correct history on this? Thanks. Gary

[Steve Z]

  In a previous post , it was commented a Real Shelby? Are you stating that all the 69's were not built at the A.O. Smith facility?

[Coralsnake]

All 1969s were built by AO Smith.

The comment was made because the original poster implied someone had a car without the retractors. If you have a 1969 built without retractors it wasnt built by AOSmith (ie., not real)

[CSX 3183]

OK, if AOSmith was the culprit, and Shelby Engineering was already working on 70 and 71.

Why is it "we" don't have info as to the equipment, or drawings of the cars, they must have had that, with the lead time involved??

[shelbydoug]

OK, if AOSmith was the culprit, and Shelby Engineering was already working on 70 and 71.

Why is it "we" don't have info as to the equipment, or drawings of the cars, they must have had that, with the lead time involved??

"We" are still missing lots of design information on the earlier cars as well. In fact, we don't even know what we are missing because we have never seen it.

It also has to do with the way that the cars have been covered over the years.

To say that this was just SA on the Shelby's in the beginning is in my opinion, misstatement.

This was Ford's project all the way and it was just "assigned to Shelby".

There was such short notice to market the car in the beginning that it was purely a priority basis of getting the car "ready to race" and discovery as to what the "street market" was.



Market identification was really "in discovery" as was Ford's experimentation as to how to produce small runs of "higher quality identifiable vehicles".

Smith just had a different concept and bid on building a different concept.

Their profitability required a fast turn over of vehicles and was getting crushed by the 600 pound gorilla in the room, Ford.



The way Ford deals with special vehicles now is considerably different but you can still see the general concept.

I don't think any of their special vehicles were ever profitable? It's just a question of how much cost they were comfortable with in bringing a vehicle to market.

The current GT's are probably the first cars that even come close to breaking even as to what it cost them to build them.

The others were all "loss leaders". All of them.


Don't blame the discontinuance on Smith or Shelby. It was Ford that got tired of the project and wanted to move on to something else.

Their new toy/shiny object was the Pantera. Another loss leader.


Remember, this basically all started in OUR lifetime because Ford wanted to crush Ferrari. That is the key element of EVERYTHING here.  It's ALL FORD money. All of it.

...and it wouldn't hurt if they squashed GM, Mopar and anyone else in other racing either. Just icing on the cake.

You can credit all of the winning race drivers if you want to but if FORD didn't bankroll it all you could have gone racing with Herbie the love bug. You needed a winning vehicle to drive first.


IF someone asked me for an example of how "trickle down economics works", I'd pick this one. An eccentric billionaire effectively "investing" in projects that benefited millions.

I need clarification as to whether or not it is still "trickling down"?

[Coralsnake]

Ok, if AOSmith was the culprit, and Shelby Engineering was already working on 70 and 71.

Why is it "we" don't have info as to the equipment, or drawings of the cars, they must have had that, with the lead time involved??

You mean because you havent seen it must not exist? It does.

I havent seen a letter from Ford saying we are shutting things down due to cost. I havent seen a resignation letter from Shelby saying "Im going to Africa in five years"

I have seen plently of documents dealing with 1970 and beyond...efi, 4 wheel disc brakes, discontinuing the GT 500, etc....

[CSX 3183]

That was not my inference, simply put, if there was work being done, and you have information that the program was supposed to carry on, it would be nice to see/read all of that, so we can all say " boy, it's a crying shame that it all ended, just look what was in the pipeline"