John Chun and Shelby American

[dbegley]

I had the good fortune of running into John at a car show some years ago. Thought I would share something that he told me. As most of you probably know John was hired by Shelby American to work on the design and engineering of the 67-68-69-70 Shelby Mustangs. He had many great stories. But one thing he told me is a good perspective on us and our cars.

One day someone John was talking to in his wife's Asian restaurant, told him he should go to the Muscle Car show the Local GTO club hosts each year, that he might see some of the cars he helped develop. So he convinced his wife to carry his bag of Shelby Stuff on that 100 degree day to the event. That is where he ran into me and my car. Apparently he had no idea or expectation that most of these cars still existed. Back in those days Mustangs were expected to be disposable cars with maybe a life expectancy of ten years or less. John was not connected to the hobby or even attending the Shelby reunion events. He was amazed that people like us had saved these cars and many if not most were still around. In his last years, John did attend the Shelby employee reunions in Vegas.

A couple of stories John told me you might enjoy. When I first met him he walked up to me while I was talking to the GT500 owner beside me and said something like "I designed that car." I mean I am in at a Motorplex in Chanhassan MN. A small Asian fellow walks up to me and says what? I am sure the look on my face suggested surprise. He said come with me and took me to the rear of the car and pointed at the taillights. "65 Thunderbird taillight. I picked them out for this car." he said. Anyone that knows this year car would know about those taillights. So I was not real impressed. So I started asking him questions. He knew all the answers plus some. It was John Chun, ex Shelby American employee.

I talked with many times. I'd have lunch at his wife's restaurant. I had a several car books that actually had pictures of my car in them taken by Nicky Wright. I gave a couple of extra copies I had to John. You would have thought I'd given him a million dollars.

Many stories but one other that stands out is I asked him about his story. He was from what became North Korea. As a teenager he got to South Korea and ended up working on a freighter to get to Japan. He managed to go to engineering school in Japan. When he got to California someone said he should learn auto design so he signed up for a well known school near Los Angeles, the name escapes me right now. It was at that school that he saw an ad on the bulletin board from Shelby American looking for a designer with an engineering background. He said he could barely speak English but got the job. His first task was to finish the design of the 67 Shelby Mustang.

As you know for the 68 Shelby Mustangs, the whole operation was moved to Ionia MI. John was with Shelby when that happened. He told me they had huge issues getting reliable and quality fiberglass for the 67's. None of the hoods fit the cars. The Ford guy assigned to Shelby American was sent to solve this issue. So happened he knew the people at AO Smith and knew that AO Smith was no longer going to be doing Corvettes for GM. And knew AO Smith has production lines already in place. Plus quality fiberglass parts were available through AO Smith. The decision was made to move the production to MI. All the Shelby American production team was laid off including John. The employees were encouraged to apply for a job at AO Smith. John did, was hired and moved to MI.
When the Shelby dream ended they were all going to be laid off again. John went to Ford thinking that Ford would be happy to hire him from Shelby American. He said Ford offered him a job but they could care less whether he worked for Shelby American. One of the other Shelby people went to Chrysler and they were delighted to hire ex Shelby people. John got a job at Chrysler for more than what Ford had offered him.

I asked him what he did at Chrysler. "Designed cars" is what he told me. Ok like what cars did you design? John was in the performance car division of Chrysler.
He said to me "did you ever see one of those Plymouth with that huge wing on the back of it? That was my idea." It was John's idea to put the big wing on the Daytona's. He also told me if I look at a 69 Charger the front radiator screen is the same as my 68 GT350, said he designed both. Chrysler was losing money on their performance cars so they laid the entire department off shortly thereafter. John got a job designing toys for Tonka Toys in Minnesota which is how he got to MN.

I attached a couple of pictures I took of John. The next summer after I met him he called me up and I thought he asked me to bring my car to a car show on July 4th in Delano, where they lived. Sure John, be my pleasure. When I showed up it was not a show it was a parade. I don't do parades in my car. It idles faster than a parade moves. And he had these HUGE banners. We would have been taped inside the cars if I had put them on the doors like he wanted. We compromised and put them on the fenders. I did ok in the parade until we got to a small hill. I couldn't let the clutch out completely since we were going too slow. I smoked my clutch getting up the hill trying not run over the marching band in front of me.

[dbegley]

couple more pictures since these did not show up in the first post
I asked John to sign my dash above the glove box.

[DennyD]

Thanks for sharing. I found your article very interesting.

[Richstang]

Thanks for sharing your stories and photos about John Chun. (I suspect the college in California he went to was "The Art Center of Design" in Pasadena. It's one of the three top schools known for Transportation Design.) It's been a little while since I've read anything about John. Does anyone know when he started at SA?

We've been told Chuck McHose was the Chief Designer on the '67 Shelby. According to an interview with him in a past issue of the "The Shelby American" he arrived from Detroit in May '66. He worked Keith Teter and Pete Stacy and maybe another designer. They started work on the '67 around early June and worked for about a month before the first car arrived. Chuck worked on the wheels until then. Joe Farrer (Art Center Instuctor) and Carl Nasson (Ford employee) were the clay sculptors. McHose left for Detroit before the first '67 Shelby was built.

The renderings from John Chun I have copies of are dated 2/67 and 3/67. That's why I'm asking when he started at SA.

[JD]

There is an issue of The Shelby American that has an article about Mr. Chun and his background and working at Shelby, don't remember off-hand which it is...


That's a rare signature to have on your car!!

[propayne]

He also designed some of the badging on the XR7-G Cougar and had a prototype G badge in his possession when Brian Styles interviewed him.

- Phillip

[Richstang]

Thanks Phillip,
I can't find that interview on Brian's website.

Thanks JD,
I'll have to look in the back issues of The Shelby American for that article.

I was able to find found a news article about his unfortunate passing. It notes he was hired by Fred Goodell but does not say when.
They had this of a '68 rendering from 5/67

[Richstang]

Thanks JD,

The 2015 article notes he graduated in February '67 and started at SA in March '67.
So that would put him on the '68 Shelby design not the '67.

[Coralsnake]

There is no question John Chun was involved and instrumental in many designs.

I think there is some question as to how much ?

1968 Shelby designs likely started earlier

[2112]

So maybe the sketches in Rich's post #3 were his idea of how the '68 should have evolved from the '67?

[2112]

I just noticed the 18" wheels on the sketches. Maybe Chip Foose was, as a toddler, giving tips to the design team at SAI?   

[Shelby_r_b]

Awesome story and pics - thanks! 

[dbegley]

John told me he came to SA in the middle of the design of the 67's and had his hand on that year, then had free hand on the 68. He did say one criteria he had was any mods he wanted should be cheap and he could use anything from the Ford inventory, thus the 65 T-Bird taillights on the 68.

[JD]

Thanks JD,

The 2015 article notes he graduated in February '67 and started at SA in March '67.
So that would put him on the '68 Shelby design not the '67.

Rich, which year and which season was the article??

[Richstang]

Thanks JD,

The 2015 article notes he graduated in February '67 and started at SA in March '67.
So that would put him on the '68 Shelby design not the '67.

Rich, which year and which season was the article??

The Checkered Flag story is in the Fall 2013 issue
The full article is in the Winter 2015 issue