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The SHELBY AMERICAN
THE MUSTANG IRS STORY.
5 pages
. Ever since the first European sports cars
were imported into the U.S. in the 1950s, one of the features that defined them
as being sports cars was an independent rear suspension. While not exactly the
Holy Grail of sports cars, American cars were always seen as coming up short by
not having one. When the original Mustang I was created, it was as a sports car
and an IRS was essential. But by the time the four-place Mustang went into pro-
duction in 1964 the IRS had disappeared. But it’s back now.
SAAC-41 CONCOURS. 3
pages
. Here are the winners and photos of their cars,
all eagerly awaited. The concours was, again, reorganized slightly, reflecting the
evolution of the event as head judges continually add to their knowledge about
what is “right” and what is “wrong.” This filters down to the entrants and their
cars reflect this in following years. A concours gold winner twenty years ago prob-
ably wouldn’t even qualify for a bronze award today. The quest for perfection is
continual, with the goal posts continually being moved back each year.
Summer 2016
A FOREVER SHELBY.
9 pages
. Every car has a story. When one person owns
the car for a very, very long time it can be a very, very long story. This story starts
with a used Hertz car, seen by a high school student as it drove by every day as
he was walking home from school. He befriended the owner and began accompa-
nying him to the track. The Hertz car was used as a push car for a B/Gas Mustang
with a one-piece, flip-open front end. Well, one thing led to another and he even-
tually bought the car. And he has had it ever since. It’s a long story...
HERTZ CRUISE.
3 pages
. It was a terrific way to roll into the “Hertz” conven-
tion at Mid-O: in a caravan of six black-and-gold Hertz cars, coming from Chicago
on a memorable road cruise. One car was an original ‘66, four more were 2006
models and there was one new 2016 rental – still owned by Hertz! Troy Kruger
started in Minnesota and collected the other cars along the way. They even
hooked up with a ‘65 Mustang R-Model look-alike along the way. It made for a
very memorable convention.
THE SHELBY PLAYBOY CONNECTION.
3 pages
.
Playbo
y magazine has al-
ways tried to be on the cutting edge of trends and they were quick to spot the
Cobra as a car worthy of special notice. Shelby American’s marketing department
realized that
Playboy
was an excellent place to advertise but their rates were
prohibitively high, so the company was forced to be creative and get in the mag-
azine on the editorial side. We chronicle how that happened through the years of
Cobra and Shelby production.
VINCENT LISKA.
7 pages
. We catch up with the hard-working 1968-1969-1970
Shelby Registrar. How did he get started and what keeps him going? Maybe it’s
the fact that he bought his first Shelby in 1968 – and turned it in on a 1969 model.
And don’t forget, he has been overseeing Tech Inspection at national conventions
ever since we had the first open track event. When you pick up a registry you
can’t imagine the work that went into it, especially at the beginning. We get him
to reveal how a lot of that happened. It’s fascinating stuff.
SAAC-41 VINTAGE RACE.
3 pages.
This year’s race was a start-to-finish run-
away with none of the first five cars changing leads throughout the entire eight
laps. They finished in the order that they started, which means that after the
green flag dropped none of them made a mistake or had a malfunction. Sixteen
cars started and fifteen finished. Most of the racers were double-dipping. They
were entered in the SAAC race but were also there for the SVRA weekend so
they got plenty of track time, which what it is really all about.