Shelby Buildings -LAX- New 10.02.24 - 4 new colored Pics May 65 w. Comparsion

[Szabo]

Back to the Japan Car Graphic Articel and my first steps of analyzise the hole articel

My first goal was to translate the text and to find an indication of the date when the reporter was on LAX.
Rich long time think that this was shortly befor/after the "Open House Event" 6 - 8 June 1965

After 55 years we have a lot of luck that the reporter described that in the articel...

but first i will show my pics with some explanations.
i will go on in chronological site order:

Bingo, Bingo --- he was there in July 1965, after the Open House Event and some
pure alu shining 427 Cobras was also here...



The next text passage was very interesting because it describes the Cobra Super Coupe ...




What the reporter saw and only can make a drawing can i show in this pics...
nearly the same position like the the pic with the Cobras in his articel




At the End of the articel he described again very pretty when he was very early in
July, maybe the first or second week on LAX
Le Mans was 19-20 June 1965 and Shelby have no success on this year.



Next Step i can show is some easier pics and the translation from the Text



Rich and i think that in the next to pics the text was switched and orgin was planed otherwise





So much to show and learn from that articel that i make a break for today and will go on soon.

What do you think ?
Any Thoughts and Comments, every Pic for the context are welcome...

Greets from Germany

Stephan

[Szabo]

No replys here but i will go on to show more details

Next point in my list of research, after finding the Mag where the articel was
and translate the text for finding a date of visit was:

Where stand the cars on LAX

i will begin with all the "Street Cars" we see, the other pure "Race Cars" i will show later

The first couple i can match together was automatic 289 Cobra and GT/108

They stand directly side to side and from this point i made my research
where



Then I started a comparison with the LAX background that I knew ...

and found it in Hangar 9 in the "Show Car" era.

I don't have 100 percent proof, such as the lettering on a pillar, but after comparing the entire background
with one of the "Open House" photos from the Show Car Aera, I would like to speak of a hit.

From a logical point of view, it also makes sense through two thoughts:

on the one hand, the "Open House" event was shortly befor and all of these cars were
already on display there. So they just stayed there.

On the other hand, there was simply no other place as empty and tidy as it seems here.
In Hangar 9 "Race Shop" there were tools and tool boxes everywhere,

GT350 and Cobras were produced and completed every day in Hangar 8 "Production".

I hope you can follow me and see it the same or at least similar,
i know that is not good to see on the screen, when i worked on the computer
i scroll the pics to maximum



in a further step I then have
started to compare forwards or backwards and came to the conclusion that the remaining vehicles,
like CSX2000 and a GT350R, are in front of the others ...



For the other two vehicles, the rolling Cobra chassis and the Street 427 Cobra, I also have two "Open House" pictures
seized and made some comparisons.
Also not 100 percent proof but enough for me and the logical continuation of my previous thought.

So when you walked into Hangar 9 on the left side, the following cars were shown in a row:

-Rolling 289 Cobra Chassis
-GT350 R
-CSX2000
-automatic Cobra
-GT / 108

the 427 Cobra is driving outside ...

So what do you think, every answer or thought is welcome !!!

Greets

Stephan

[Richstang]

Stephan,
Thanks for keeping this LAX thread going.

It is nice to see the production Cobra and the GT40 prototype roadster parked side by side in the stitched photos.

As we discussed offline, I really would like to see a higher res image of the Ford executives sitting in the Race Hanger.

The last photo above is not a good match to my eyes. The location of the parked cars do not look the same.
The lines you added in red, do NOT match the details
-I don't believe that is a door, on the left, in the Kyoichi photo
-The conduit (electrical) lines are not the same positions
-The white (?) panels mounted on the vertical steel pillars are not the same size.
-The are no horizontal cross support stubs above the conduit.

Even with my added comments, I can't think of any other place these cars could be parked.
I believe you are correct, that they are inside of the race hanger, on the east side. (near the guard booth side in the center)
If we ever find more photos inside the race hangar, maybe we can lock it down, but for now the cars could be parked on either side.

[Szabo]

Hello all,

after a long break i will end up my analysis of the Japan Visit on SAI and hopefully can
bring some interesting stuff to you.

After the Visit inside the Hangar 9 "Show Aera" they go outside with 2 Cars

The GT350 Competition Model and the new Shelby 427,
please remember we are in July 1965

for me a long time unsure where the photographer stands and why are on "R" Model Pics
the Cobras outside doesn´t appear.

i do some layouts, which show very good that one Pic not even all Details are possible to see,

but i will start with orgin pics and translated script





what me always confussed was that on the "R" Pic no Cobras outside was to see, so i suggested
that was to different time codes ... But when you put the Pics in one bird view pic and make some lines
you see that all pics was possible in one timecode and only make some steps forward or backward.





One of the most amazing and biggest surprises was to find this wonderfull colored Pic of the
427 Street Cobra later in the Mag
the photographer was Mr. Yamaguchi again, but the two pics of the "R" Front
and the Cobra was not on the origin b/w articel.

[Szabo]

The last point of my analysis is the hardest and difficult to explain

But where on LAX stands the Race Cars
Where did he see the Super Coupe Prototyp

this Stairway drives me crazy for weeks ...
i had pretty good inside views on Hangar 9 "Show Aera" and "Race Area"
but no stairway was to see
and because i had the blueprints of Hangar 8 "Production Area" hard buisness
was to do and no racecars was ever seen in this Area

but i think i have a solution for "Shelbys Secret Stoorage" Room

i will begin to show the Race Pics from Japan Visit












i rememberd me to see some pics befor here in the Forum of fresh painted Race Cobras and have no clue where
they stands, and of course we have some Super Coupe Protoyp Pics
i will repost them here for better understanding







but the game changer was again this wonderfull colored Cobra Pic with the under roof building of
Hangar 9

For me, in my hole LAX research time from beginning to now i have found very less to nothing
about this building...



the Building make some change during 65 - 67
i think naive only to some office but the truth is other than you might think.

Then in this under roof building, on ground zero was it, the "Secret Room"
here stands the Race Cars and even the prototyp Super Coupe

i had no blueprints for that but i will try to explain it to my best in the next thread...
i only have to do some good photo analiyses for better understanding


But now i would like to read your thoughts, even your other pics or even you critic ...

[Richstang]

Stephan and I talked about this (color photo) location back in November.
I'm still certain this is in the back side (north side) of the race hanger.
It is outside, under the overhang. The photos from the open house show this area with the details like the stairs and catwalk.
We can see the two spray booths in the middle of this overhang covered section
The sliding garage door and stairs are on the wall towards the west side.

Since this was a lease, I don't believe Shelby American could make any permanent changes to the hangers.
They did add a small shed / covered area in the back northwest corner of the race hanger. (next to the added gas pumps

Next I will also add a modified version of one of the blueprints to show where each detail is located.

[Richstang]

Here's my mock up of those details noted above.

The blueprint photo copied smaller than I hoped. The sliding door is in yellow and the stairs are indicated in orange.
The building shape is in red with the outline of the roof in dark red.
The engine photo above shows a second sliding garage door farther in front of the two spray booths. on the north east side.
The cars in Stephan's added photos are parked on the west side of the spray booths. This is definitely the Race hanger.

[68countrysedan]

As usual great historical sleuthing Mr. Szabo.

Besides car details and positions, I enjoy imagining what it was like at the time the photos were taken. Back then, SA was a business to sell cars and run race teams. So no one considered the aura these cars would have 50 + years later. So employees were moving/working on cars as part of their daily duties.

I also discovered something I hadn't really noticed in a photo, reply #63, of all the Cobras in the back ground. First, some are on blocks. Further more there appears to be two cinder blocks to the right of one car. They used cinder blocks to support expensive cars instead jack stands?!

So some SA employees were instructed to remove the wheels. "What do we support the cars on?" "There isn't enough jack stands. . .so lets try cinder blocks. . ."

Plus, please validate or not as needed: the Cobras appear to be bare metal. Where were they painted?

[FL SAAC]

Simply fascinating

[propayne]

In regards the wonderful color pic of the #98 Cobra race car - what I nice shot of how the pre 1968 Castrol logo looked. Red Castrol with green text below it (lubricants or motor oil).

The incorrect repos that proliferate stand out like a soar thumb to me.

- Phillip

[Szabo]

Thanks all for your answers and thoughts...

I totally agree that the Workers just doing her usual thing, maybe for somebody was it a
honor to work at shelbys, but for most just usual, hard and long working in a very noisy
and dirty place ...

All the Big Airplanes landing and starting, overall engines and racecars, no air condition and
long hours a day...

Also i see the cinder, there was simply solutions for bringing the slave wheels back zu AC
and also having not the right wheels ther.

The Cobras came bare metal from AC, the plans were to paint it on SAI, i know from the 289 production
that often the Paint Job was to repair befor selling it to people

there was almost 4 Paint Booth on SAI Hangas 8 & 9 together

and we know that the Raceprogramm for the 427 was canceled and selling to customes
was that easy because high price and nearly buying a racecar.

[68countrysedan]

Mr. S

Thanks for the fyi.

Hadn't considered the aspect of shipping painted cars versus painting them here.

[Szabo]

Hello all together,

After a while i will try to post something i research a while

I have a lot of lose Pics, sometimes i can sorted it togehter because of the same motive or
other details.

Sadly for only a minimum i have correct Timecode and can back or forward from this on.

Sometimes i have luck and found a Pic with a date ...
and so i can posted here.

First i have only the Pic with the Twins, the Cobra and the Daytona Coupe



Then i found a little more from the twins...



and a little later i found a articel in a Riverside Raceway Magazing,
so we know the Name and the motive for the Shooting



but at last and most importent i found a correct Timecode




My thoughts about that...

-for the hole time i thought it was an Advertisment for American Airlane, pretty much work for only presenting to race categories on one Race,
but i found nothing more about more Advertisment from the Twins.

-but for my LAX Thread the most important is that we dont see any GT350 in the Backround,
but it nearly the same Point and angle that later the cars stand on the other well known pics,
we see clearly the Small Building at the End of the Blast Wall.

so the Cars still was produced in the Carter Ave. Building at this point of Timecode.

the Birdview Pic must be later



the 30+x GT350 in a Row Pic must be later
this Pic was also in the 65 Press Kit.



i look for help for the last Pic to get a good timecode, or a higher resolution to read the Numbers
on the Windshield Papers, maybe someone here who reads and want to help can share someting

Thats all for the Moment, i hope i can come fast back to share more well researched stuff.

Greets from Germany

Szabo

[Richstang]

Becuase of the April 23rd date for the twin in front of the hanger with that Daytona Cobra...
We are still in discussion of which Daytona is in the photo.
Does anyone have info to lock it down for us (everyone looking)

It don't believe it is;
2287 had the different cowl with straight narrow cut lines between it and the door...it also has a flat ended rear spoiler
2601 and 2602 were noted as racing in Monza on April 25th.
2300 had the larger rounded left hood vent at Sebring (before) and at the Nurburgring (after) the 4/13 date.
2299 also appears to have a larger rounded nose left vent at Sebring that hangs over further on the left side

2286 sounds like the best option, but the twins photo shows the Daytona with white painted wheels and the 'Daytona' white script above the side rectangle vent. Photos of it at the open house in early June show dark painted wheels and no 'Daytona' white script.   ?

[68countrysedan]

Mr. Szabo:

Your investigation continues to be brilliant.

Two questions: Do we have a list of Ford executives that attended the press function?

Also have you searched the Petersen photo achives for images? I have to believe that an editor(s) from Hot Rod/Motor Trend/Sports Car Graphic was in attendance. Or not.

In addition, I enjoy looking for the everyday details, since like a historical excavation, these are details of daily SA jobs.

i look for help for the last Pic to get a good timecode, or a higher resolution to read the Numbers
on the Windshield Papers, maybe someone here who reads and want to help can share someting

In that photo of unfinished GT350s, there's three rows there's 54 cars I can see in the photo, although it might be 76 (26x3).
And in a observation that's unlikely to mean anything, in the second row, the second car has Le Mans stripes unlike the other 75. Why was it parked there? Another lost detail of SA historical minutiae.