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The SHELBY AMERICAN
Summer 2016 4
We totally understand this.
Many present owners of perfectly-
restored Cobras and Shelbys find it
inconceivable that fifty years ago
someone who purchased one of
these cars actually used it as a it
daily driver. Parked in the lot of a
movie theater while he went inside
to catch a film. Drove it in the rain
or snow. Parked it in the driveway
or out in the street at night. Treat-
ing it like...like...a
car
.
Imagine finding a Cobra or
Shelby today, with 100k miles on it,
which had not been abused but nei-
ther was it showered with gobs of
TLC. Imagine driving it like it had
been driven during the first year or
two of its life – long before it appre-
ciated and became a revered auto-
motive icon. Imagine experiencing
the essence of the car without hav-
ing to worry about any downside
from driving it. It would be like
stepping into a time machine and
traveling back to 1965.
It was a feeling that was totally
foreign to a good number of other
collectors whose commitment to
their hobby and to the cars that
captured their interest was more
historical than anything else. Their
goal was the pursuit of perfection
in restoring the car flawlessly and
then trying to maintain it in that
condition for perpetuity. They were
incapable of seeing Seinfeld’s
Speedster the same way he saw it.
In fact, later in that same issue
of
SCM
, classic car collector Miles
Collier took to his keyboard to au-
thor a counterpoint article, essen-
tially stating that conserving an
original car was sometimes prefer-
able to totally restoring it. He ac-
cepted the fact that Seinfeld’s
Speedster could certainly be used
as it had been intended to be used
based on the desire of the owner,
but he saw the car as a time cap-
sule that would be better saved
from further deterioration. He also
thought it had been purchased for
more than it was really worth.
Now, to the nut of this column
(which you were probably wonder-
ing where it was heading and when
FEELIN’ THE BERN
COBRASKIN WALLET
Hot rodders are known for their cars being continual works-in-progress. The
longer they keep them, the more they continue to modify them. In some cases
they are never “finished.” Take this ‘32 Ford roadster, for example. It was
Bernie Kretzschmar’s ride in the early 1960s. It was originally powered by a
Ford flathead but a Chevy V8 replaced it when he was active with the famous
L.A. Roadsters hot rod club. The car was featured on the cover of
Rod and Cus-
tom
and when the surfing and beach blanket movies became popular and movie
producers needed hot rods to be in their films, they contacted the L.A. Road-
sters who were only too happy to supply members’ cars. Kretzschmar drove
this car to Shelby American in Venice when he applied for a job in 1964. When
he went inside to find someone in personnel, most of the fabricators and me-
chanics went outside to have a look at his car. They gave it the “thumbs up”
and he got the job, not necessarily in that order. The Deuce was his daily driver,
powered by a Chevy V8 so he always kept the hood closed up. One day Shelby
saw the car and its Firestone tires. He told Kretzschmar to get some Goodyears
on it. Within a couple of days the car was wearing Goodyears – Cobra take-offs
up front and a pair of large race tires in the rear that came from an R-Model.
Kretzschmar has kept the car all these years, despite some healthy offers from
collectors interested in historical street rods. He recently completed a retro
move, swapping the Chev V8 for a flathead and changing the chrome reversed-
rim wheels back to the wire wheels that he originally had on the car. The sixty-
year-old black paint remains, polished and buffed and looking as good as ever.
Conventions seem to be an endless round of “Show and Tell.” We can’t recall
who showed us an original (still in the box) Cobra wallet with a gold Cobra
logo. Shelby gave these away around 1963-64. This one was never used.