The Shelby American (Winter 2021)

Winter 2021 22 The SHELBY AMERICAN This headline in the New York Post caught Brooks Laudin’s eye. It refers to one of Carroll Shelby’s non-automo- tive inventions, the “ball-getter” used to retrieve a golf ball from a pond. It was reportedly good for up to 25 yards. No details were provided as to how it works. Can anyone out in SAACland clue us in? The short article contained lots of info on Shelby. “ If you’re playing golf on Labor Day, you might think of race-car legend Carroll Shelby when you shank a ball into a water hazard. Shelby – who was a dedicated member of LA’s exclusive Bel Air Country Club – invented other gizmos besides hot rods, and apparently spent much of his time on the links trying to con- coct the perfect device for retrieving golf balls from the drink. ‘I saw Carroll every day,’ the late driver’s pal, Dr. Phil, told us. ‘We were really good friends. You know, he was a Texan...I’m from Texas, and we were both mem- bers of the same club where we played golf. I met him there close to 20 years ago. He was a fun guy.’ The talk show host added of his pal, ‘He was such an inventor! The most valuable club in my bag is the ‘ball getter’...he was con- stantly inventing these retrievers that could go 25 yards out into these ponds.’ Phil added that ‘he did that more than he played golf.’ In addition to creating cars, Shelby was known as an eccentric entrepreneur. He started the first-ever chili cook-off in Texas, and then provided the seed money for restaurant chain Chili’s in the ‘70s. He held court at lunch at the starry Bel Air golf club – and even tried to patch up his seventh marriage and move back into his marital Bel Air home be- cause he missed his club pals, his son Pat said. An Automotive News re- porter said in 2011: ‘Carroll once took me to lunch at the Bel Air Country Club. Very posh, but what impressed me was actor James Garner walking over to greet Carroll, who introduced me. ‘Now Jim, he’s a reporter but not a Hollywood type. He writes cars.’ Dr. Phil, who turned 70 last week, recalled Shelby telling him, ‘Every day you’re upright and on the right side of the grass’ is a good day. ‘He had a good at- titude,’ Phil said. ‘He’d come [to the club] in these Shelby GTs. He’s say, ‘Get in, Doc!’ I’d get in and holy s--t! He’d forgotten he was 78.’ Shelby, who was portrayed by Matt Damon in last year’s ‘Ford v Ferrari,’ died in 2012 at 89.” If it’s a Hertz car you can bet Steve MacDonald will be all over it. This Bel- gian car magazine ran an article about this GT350H which was purchased by a Belgian enthusiast. It hadn’t actu- ally arrived in the country but the ar- ticle was featured in the magazine. What took them so long? The Hamil- ton Collection just put out a 1:18 scale model ‘05 Ford GT diecast. It’s priced at $229.95. Vincent Liska found this reference to COBRA, and that’s cool. But our ques- tion is, what the heck was he doing on this website? Is it possible that he has finally worked his way through every last porn site?