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Dear Car F(r)iends

With the recent passing of Burt Reynolds, clips from his movies have been all over the TV. One of his best-known films is  The Cannonball Run.

As most of you probably know, the Cannonball Run–officially known as the  Cannonball Baker Sea-to-Shining-Sea Memorial Trophy Dash–was a real underground race across the USA, run a few times in the 1970s.

Besides protesting speed limits, the race creators really wanted to test which vehicle was best to drive long and fast, coast-to-coast in real-world conditions. The best American cars (and trucks), as well as European cars and exotics, competed head-to-head.

A team of filmmakers is working on a feature-length real Cannonball Run documentary about this iconic secret race. If you were there or have Cannonball material please get in touch with them. They found several of the Cannonball outlaw racers and even hunted down a few surviving real Cannonball Run cars.

I managed to catch up with one Cannonballer and his car the documentary crew had not located yet: Ed Brewerton and the American Motors AMX he ran with his brother Tom in the 1971 and 1972 Cannonballs. Here is our short interview for you:

If you prefer to view this video at higher quality, you can find it on our website.

I don’t know about you, but I can’t wait to see the finished documentary!

Keep on drivin’,

Duane

The Carroll Shelby Tribute is held every year in mid-May to honor the great man who died May 10, 2012.  This year’s tribute was held at the Shelby Gardena, California facility, which is also home to The Original Venice Crew (O.V.C.).  The O.V.C. builds “continuation” Shelby GT 350 Competition Models, also known as “R Models.”

There are two other iconic performance car manufacturers making “Continuation Models” from the same time period.  One of the manufacturers is Jaguar and the other is Aston-Martin.   Each of these car builders is producing only 25 Continuation Models.  Jaguar is reproducing the “D” Type, a race winning car of the late 50’s and the 60’s.  Aston-Martin is reproducing the “DB-4, ” another iconic race car, driven by the renowned Sterling Moss.

The Jaguar continuation model is selling for a reported $1,400,000.  The car is available for race tracks only, it is not able to be registered for street driving.

The Aston-Martin, DB-4 continuation model is selling for a reported $2,100,000. Again, the Aston is for the track only and not able to be registered for street driving.

The OVC Shelby Mustang G.T. 350 continuation model is selling for approximately $250,000.  The G.T.350 is able to be registered for street use as well as a competitive track car.

Since the GT 350 raced against the Jaguar D-Type and the Aston Martin DB-4 GT, and both Aston & Jag are also building “continuation” cars, the O.V.C. Crew took the opportunity to issue a $100,000 winner –take- all challenge.  The challenge issued is:

Bring your continuation cars to Willow Springs Raceway in California, and if the GT 350R cannot beat both the Jag & the Aston, the O.V.C. will donate $100,000 to the charity of their choosing.  If the Shelby wins, we will donate $35,000 to the Carroll Shelby Foundation among other charities.   

So far only Jaguar has responded.  They have customers in the U.S. who “May be interested in the challenge.”   That’s all we’ve heard.  Aston is mildly interested but indicated the Company has no pro-type cars to compete, therefore it would be their customers who may take-up the challenge.

When most people think of Aston Martin they think of the DB-5, the James Bond car, machine guns and all, when Roger Moore was playing the Bond character.   Roger actually drove a DB -5 in the Cannonball Run movie (see previous post).   He was pretending to be slightly mentally deranged, and claiming to be Roger Moore (get it).  The DB-5 claims the title of “The Most Famous Car In The World.”

The DB-4 GT  sports a 3.7 liter all aluminum triple carb straight 6 producing 374 horsepower.  With a 5 speed transmission it does 0–60 in 8 seconds with a top speed of 145 M.P.H.  Aston offered 25 continuation cars at 1.9 million each, and quickly sold out.

Aston made 75 DB4 GTs and 8 of them were light weights destined for racing .  The continuation cars will be built to light weight specs by the newly formed Aston Martin works, in the original building at Newport Pagnell, which has been unoccupied for 10 years.  The new group in the refurbished building is hoping to do more continuation projects.

You will recall Carroll won Le Mans back in 1952 in an Aston DBR-1 co-driven by Roy Salvadori.  That win put  Aston Martin into the same league as Ferrari and the other top marques of the day.

Jaguar would only say their 25 continuation light weight D Types presold immediately for “significantly more’ than 1 million pounds.”  At current exchange rates that’s about 1.33 million Yankee dollars.  The chaps at Brown’s Lane had intended to build 18 light weights, back in the day, but a fire stopped production at 12.  The new cars will carry serial numbers continuing the original sequence.

The C Type (1951), the D Type (1955),  and the E Type (1961) Jaguars were all designed by Malcolm Sayer.  Malcolm applied mathematical principles of aerodynamics to the body design which he learned from a German professor before the war. During WW II Malcolm worked for the Bristol aircraft company,  where  he helped design the Bristol Beaufighter,  a twin engine fighter bomber with a top speed of 333 M P H,  which  was very fast for its day.

Interestingly, the aluminum bodies are riveted, instead of welded, as was the practice in WW II fighter planes.  The alloy bodies save 205 lbs.  New wooden patterns had to be made to cast the engine block and heads as the originals had been thrown out, a considerable expense.  Each motor produces about 340 horses, with chain drive dual overhead cams and triple Webers.  Transmission is a 4 speed, and all cars must meet F.I.A. specs (see previous posts).

Well things keep getting curiouser and cursiouser  as we dive down this mid-60s rabbit hole.  Lottsa fun, lottsa bucks (none of them mine), and where it stops nobody knows.  See ya next post !

Dear car friends:

We just shipped our first European order.  The car had to meet Federation International Automobile (F. I. A.) specifications, which are a little different than we are used to.  The Federation International Automobile is the authority that supposedly regulates all automobile racing in the civilized world.  I suppose that includes Southern California.

Actually it makes some sense historically.  In 1965 Alan Mann Racing out of London raced modified Mustangs coupes before Lee Iacocca asked Shelby to turn the new Mustang fastback into a race car.  Ol’ Shel  took advantage of some of that groundwork, and of course Holman & Moody built some killer Falcons that won their class in the Monte Carlo Rally (remember Grace Kelly & Prince Rainer ?) before Mustangs even were.   The Mustang, of course, was built on the Falcon platform.  There’s a gnome in Switzerland with documents and photos that we had to satisfy before our customer could race his car in Europe…took a little doing.

JEREMY HALL -LEFT    JIM MARIETTA -RIGHT   Signature wall behind

Jim Marietta & I went to dinner with Jeremy Hall his last night in town at the Portofino Inn in Redondo Beach.  Jeremy is based out of London, and is the F.I.A. inspector for the U.S.  The Portofino was the finish line for the Cannonball Run, a no holds barred race organized a few years back by the late Brock Yates, publisher of Car & Driver magazine.  The plan was to see who could get from the Red Ball Garage in N.Y.C. to the Portofino in the shortest time, by any route, driving your choice of vehicle.  There were several movies made about it, including one staring Bert Reynolds.  Google “Cannonball Run.”  Designer and fellow O.V.C. member Peter Brock, ran the first race with a couple of friends all dressed up as priests, while driving a tricked out Mercedes sedan.   Bibles and religious statues were strewn on the dash, sort of like ticket repellent.

Brock Yates and co-driver Dan Gurney won that race driving a Ferrari Daytona.  Dan said they drove responsibly, “Never went over 170.”  Coincidentally, that was as fast as the car would go.   I think Brock Yates would approve of the car we built.  The motor makes about 455 ponies out of 289 cubic inches.  Our “normal” car makes 440 horse power out of 330 cubes.  I guess that proves the old saying “Nothing beats cubic inches…except cubic money.

We took the F.I.A. car to  Willow Springs race track 3 times to get everything working right.   Our test driver Rick Titus (son of original Team Shelby driver Jerry Titus) tested it against the I.R.S. prototype car.   He said the I.R.S. car is more nimble and predictable in the corners, but the F.I.A. car could “Run off and hide on the straights.”  As you may recall, when we finished the I.R.S. car we took it to the Shelby & Ford Nationals in Tulsa where it won its first race, so it’s no slouch.   I’m looking forward to the F.I.A. car setting the tracks in Europe on fire.  455 horses in a 2,800 pound car…like killing flies with a sledge hammer.

It occurred to me that after we get all 36 of the Continuation Competition Models finished, some of us may be joining Mr. Shelby at that sports bar in the sky, or the sports bar in that other place.  Either way it’s been a hell of an adventure.

My son Michael taking a farewell shot as our offspring leaves for battle in Europe.

 

The Shelby GT350R continues to get some great press, this time from Autoblog.com. Check it out to get a feel for what it’s like to drive the car.

The OVC Mustangs continue to get some great press! There’s a new article in Fuel Curve.

What a lovely lady Alice is.   At almost 92, she’s sharp as a tack, and full of wisdom & fun.

Alice is the widow of Sam Hanks, who won the Indy 500 in 1957.   With tears in his eyes, and his wife’s arms around him, Sam retired from racing in  Indy’s Victory Circle.  He continued to work for the Speedway for 22 years as Director of Racing, in addition to being a spokesman for Raybestos Brakes and Monroe  Shock Absorbers.  He drove the Indy pace car from 1958 until 1963.  His ’57 win was his 13^th attempt, after finishing second in 1956.  He passed away in 1994.

For those of us who were around in those days, it seems like yesterday, on another planet.   You can watch a short film of Sam’s 500 win on You Tube, narrated by another racing legend Cris Economaki .

Alice recently spent almost two hours with me, in her lovely home overlooking the Palisades surf.  It was amazing how many friends we had in common.  I was a crew member on various Indy cars from 1981, well into the 90’s with the Lazier family.  Alice and I wondered how it is that so many people at the top levels of racing know and like each other, from Roger Penske down to the lowest tire changer.   The only possible answer we came up with is….It’s so darn hard to get there!  Ya start out working all day, driving all night, sleeping in the truck until the track gate opens, then you get out and do it all over again.  If you’re willing to do that for years, or even decades, you must have something in common.

That leads to another question I wanted to ask Alice “What advice would you give to someone just starting in racing?”  Her answer was precious, “Work hard and find someone with money.”

Sam’s 500 winning race car was the Belond Exhaust Special, built for team owner George Salih by Quin Epperly in his southern California shop.  Almost all Indy cars in those days were powered by a 4 cylinder “Offy” engine, but when Sam saw that Quin had laid the Offy down 72 degrees from vertical, reducing the frontal area, lowering the center of gravity, and increasing the weight bias to the left side, he knew he could win in that car.  It was the ultimate evolution of the “roadsters”, which were  replaced by the rear engine cars in the 60’s.

That lead to another question, “What was your most enjoyable moment in racing?”

Without any hesitation, “When Sam stepped out of the car.”  If you watch the You Tube video, you’ll see race drivers in tee shirts and baseball caps, with no roll bars or seat belts.  Some even raced while smoking cigars.  Fires, crashes and deaths were very common.

The next question, “What was your most enjoyable moment in life?”  With no hesitation, “When I met Sam.”  They met in the Midwest while Sam was in the military, then married right after the War.  They moved to booming Southern California in 1947, where Sam continued his career racing sprint cars, stock cars, anything with wheels.  Soon he was moving up to Indy roadsters.

For the 1957 Indy win Sam received a check for $107,000 in the winner’s circle (about 2.2 million in today’s money) then immediately gave it to the team owner who paid expenses and salaries out of it. That was common practice in those days.

No contract, just a gentleman’s agreement.  “We bought our present house in 1958.” said Alice.  “There were no lawyers or agents in those days.  When we travelled we stayed in hotels usually run by the family who also lived there, and when we sat down to dinner we had real food, often prepared by the wife and daughters of the owner.  It was a very different time.”

When I asked Alice, “What is your favorite car?” she answered “Usually the one I’m  driving at the moment.  I tend to keep my cars a long time.  I treat them well and they treat me well.  I’m currently driving a Mercedes C 320.  It’s a lovely car.  I’ll be sad when I eventually trade it.  Everybody I’m close to is a car person.  I don’t know why people love cars so much.  I guess we just do.”

What a great afternoon.  Thanks to Alice for spending the time with me, and thanks to Sylvia Wilkinson for setting up the interview.  I hope we can have both of them over to the Shelby shop in Gardena, where we are building continuation Shelby GT-350 racecars.  Turns out Alice is a Shelby fan also!

Dear Car Friends

It’s been a while since we last spoke.   My son Mike & I are still building new/old GT 350 race cars at the Shelby facility in Gardena CA.  We start with 1965 or ‘66 Hi Performance Mustang street cars, just like Carroll Shelby did back in the day, and transform them into clones of the GT 350 Competition Models ( R ) race cars that dominated B Production racing for years. One of our first buyers is from Germany. He visited our shop and brought the German equivalent of The Discovery Channel with him to see where the car is being built.  They also filmed a track test of our prototype 98-I race car, compared to a high performance street model ’65 Mustang  at Willow Springs Raceway.  They’ll put together a segment for their show later this summer, May or June, once the buyer’s car is delivered.  Someone came up with the story line “Suddenly It’s 1965.”  I kinda like it.

Meanwhile, back at the shop, we’re pretty excited about a real, actual, BARN FIND, or more correctly a SHED FIND.  When we were at the Monterey Concorso back in August, a gentleman was admiring our car and mentioned he had one “just like it” that he bought years ago.  Turns out he’d had the car “30 or 40 years” with the intention of restoring it to its’ former racing glory.  He parked it between 2 sheds behind his hanger at the Monterey Airport, covered it with a tarp and went on with his worldwide business.  He’s now liquidating the contents of the hanger and wanted to find a good home for “the car out back.”

We were the right guys at the right time in the right place.  Five months later that car is back home with us, after 50 years away.  It’s going to be fun to bring it back to racing condition.  This car is not one of the 36 R models Shelby built & sold in ’65 & ’66, but it was built to race with them.  Non-factory sponsored drivers were called PRIVATEERS  back in the day, and used the over the counter Shelby racing parts, and the same chassis tricks.

Occasionally they beat the factory drivers.  If it’s not a sibling, it’s at least a cousin.  Unfortunately the guys working on these cars have little chance of turning themselves back into 25 year olds, but it’s sure fun to restore the cars back to their youthful vigor.  Each one seems to have its own unique personality, and to see and hear them come to life is a thrill like nothing else.

Duane

Here’s a Christmas memory from Ralph Arning’s (Klaus Arning’s son’s) wife, Pam:

Christmas Eve is very special to me. It was 27 years ago today that Ralph proposed!

I think the funniest is how he did it. He didn’t tell a soul – not even his parents or his BFF, Dave, or me, of course!

Ralph always took his mom out Christmas shopping for the family gifts and she asked him what he was getting me for Christmas. He told her that I really liked his bathrobe, so he wanted to get me a big bathrobe. Well, she didn’t go along with that, to say the least, and tried to steer him into a jewelry store. Ralph often bought jewelry as presents for his mom.

When they got home, Ralph’s mom had said to his dad, ‘Klaus Arning – YOUR son bought Pam a BATHROBE!” (like it was his fault that his son did that). All this is even funnier because my in laws sounded like Boris and Natasha and were very animated, being that my mother in law was Dutch and my father in law was German.

We went to my mom’s house first for Christmas and there was that big box – which did hold the new bathrobe. After I opened that, I saw a small box still under the tree. That’s when Ralph proposed.

Later we had gone to my in laws and his mom gave Ralph the ‘evil’ eye and asked him, “Vell (‘well’ in Dutch – haha), how did Pam like the BATHROBE?! Ralph’s response, “she loved the bathrobe, but she liked the engagement ring even better.”. First time I saw my mother in law speechless – and my father in law’s face was priceless – he had his arms crossed and smirked as if to say, “Told you so – give me some credit” – 🙂

Happy Engage-iversary to my ever-loving, wonderful husband. Love you bunches, Ralphie!

Hi Everybody,

December is off to a good start.

Three Shelby cars, including our GT350R IRS, are featured in this year’s Robb Report Ultimate Gift Guide, which is on shelves now.

The Shelby mgt. team, along with Jim Marietta, is attending the German version of SEMA as we speak, in Essen, for the first ever launch of the Shelby brand in Germany.  Nice timing to also appear in Robb.  Who knows, maybe we’ll sell one or two.

Our car would look great under the tree, don’t you think?

Merry Christmas,

Duane