have momentarily let off the gas and
then realized I was the tow vehicle. He
missed second and then third gear,
and finally flew past me at the end of
the quarter-mile. The announcer de-
scribed it as the world’s fastest tow ve-
hicle and told the crowd that in all his
years of announcing, this was the first
time he saw a tow vehicle almost win
a race.
That sealed the deal for me. I
couldn’t have a Cobra but I had to
have this Shelby. By the time the rac-
ing season ended I had become great
friends with Jimmy and his family,
and as the winter approached, his wife
was nine months pregnant. She told
him she needed a more comfortable
car, something with a few more crea-
ture comforts like power steering and
air conditioning. Something other
than the Shelby.
My friend Dave told me I should
buy it. I was just starting out, working
at a Lincoln/Mercury dealership. I was
only making $110 a week as a trainee
technician and didn’t have any money,
but this was a chance I couldn’t pass
up. We met with Jimmy at his house
and he told me he was going to trade
the Shelby in for a Mercury station
wagon. I asked Dave what I should
offer and the he whispered, “
$1500.
”
I said to Jimmy, “
How about
$1,000?
” He said, “
Sold
.” Now all I had
to do was find the money. This was
around Christmas of 1970 and I went
to a local bank where the president
was a customer at the dealership I
worked at. I told him I needed to bor-
row a $1,000 and take a year to pay it
back. This was the first bank loan I
had ever had; I had a savings account
but didn’t even have a checking ac-
count. So the president invited me into
his office where he went over the loan
application process, the terms of the
payment and all of the other legalities
involved in a loan. He then told me
that I had no credit, but he believed I
was good credit risk and he would per-
sonally see that I got the money. Imag-
ine that happening in today’s business
climate. Jimmy traded the car in on a
Monday and I would have the money
on Friday. The dealer agreed to hold
the car until Saturday and the $1,000
offer would be honored until then. I
had since learned that they had of-
fered Jimmy $850 as a trade-in al-
lowance, so this was a big win for the
dealer. That is, until the used car man-
ager got involved. If you’ve seen the
movie “Used Cars,” this guy could
have been a principal player because
he knew every trick in the book. The
Shelby was parked on the used car lot
for that week and it drew a lot of at-
tention. Maybe too much because the
salesman keep pressuring the owner
of the dealership to let him sell it.
I think the best offer he got was
around $1500 and he wanted to sell it
very badly, but the dealer said he had
made a promise and if I didn’t have
the loan by Friday he could sell it on
the open market. The week seemed to
both crawl by and speed by at the
same time. It was a week of agony.
Plan B was to beg my parents for the
money, but $1,000 was a large sum for
them to come up with at that time, so
I didn’t think that would be much of
an option. I got a call on Thursday, at
about 5:00 o’clock, from the bank pres-
ident telling me to come by after lunch
tomorrow and pick up the check.
The car was practically mine. I
went there the next day and signed
the loan papers ($98.97 a month for 12
months). Then I was off to the used car
lot to pick up my new GT350H Shelby
Mustang. At least, that was the plan.
Sam, the used car manager, had an al-
ternant plan. He said I owned him for
storage and I had to pay it before he
would let the car go: he wanted $10 a
day. I threatened to call the dealership
owner and after a few minutes of ar-
guing, he finally relented and told me
to get the car off the lot and out of his
sight.
I finally had it! The car of legends.
A 42,000-mile, 5 year-old Hertz car.
Could it be a happier day? The car was
an ex-rental and a used car, so it
wasn’t exactly a show winner; just a
somewhat banged-up used car with
lots of little problems. The carburetor
and the tach had been stolen in the
late 60s in Glen Burnie, Maryland.
The doors and sides were covered with
door dings and dents and the front
valance and bumper were bent and
twisted from a slight fender bender
the month before. Dave worked in
parts and ordered what we thought
were the correct tach and carburetor.
When the carburetor arrived it was an
S2MS 715 Holley and the tach turned
out to be a Rally tach for a Falcon
Sprint or Mercury Comet. They both
worked and I was just happy to be
driving the car. I straightened out the
bent tach bracket (it’s still in the car
today), slapped on the carb and away
I went.
I spent the weekend cleaning it up
and ordered a new front valance and
bumper. I think the bumper was under
$20.00 and the valance was even less.
One of the guys in the body shop
painted the valance black and I bolted
it on the car. It was my only trans-
portation and I drove it everywhere
that summer. I started making plans
to drive it across the country to the
Bonneville Speed trails in Utah. I left
on a Friday after work and drove
across the great expanse of the United
States between Maryland and the
western Utah. I arrived at Bonneville
only to discover I had gotten the dates
wrong – it was the next week. Since I
only had a week’s vacation I had to go
back and plan again for the following
year. The speed limits at this time
were much higher than they currently
are. Wyoming had no daytime speed
limit and Nevada had the best: the
sign on the border said, “Welcome to
Nevada,” and underneath was the
most important one, “All speed limits
end.”
It was great. Gas was under 35¢ a
gallon and you could drive as fast as
your nerve – and your car – could han-
dle. As I headed back to Maryland I
started planning for the next year’s
trip. I drove the GT350 all winter, driv-
ing through snow and slush on salt-
covered roads. The car had no traction
control and the E70 Firestone Wide
Ovals were a handful. I learned to
steer with the throttle, anticipate my
stops in advance and was careful not
to slide off the road. That spring and
summer I drove the car and racked up
the miles. I watched it break 50,000,
then 60,000, then 70,000, and then
80,000.
The SHELBY AMERICAN
Summer 2016 71