One of the first things they teach you in Writing Skool is Every Story Is A People Story.
It sounds far-fetched, but it has proven to be true. This month’s blog post is about some of the wonderful people I met during the development of the original 1965 Mustang Independent Rear Suspension (I. R. S.) and how those people relate to the Mustang as we know it today.
Klaus and I became good friends. He visited
my shop in Utah and we attended several SEMA shows together before he passed in
2000. I lost track of the Arning name, but I knew Klaus had 3 sons, all of whom
had worked for Ford at some time.
SEMA sponsored an escorted tour of the Big Three (Ford, GM, and Chrysler) in 2005 . The Ford portion visited the Flat Rock, MI, plant where the Mustang is made, and I couldn’t pass up this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. As I checked into the historic Dearborn Inn, originally built as the airport terminal for the new Ford Tri-Motor aircraft, from over the front desk a portrait of old Henry looked down at me. I thought, wouldn’t it be cool if I ran into one of Klaus’ sons during this tour. Yeah sure, of all the thousands of employees at all the Ford plants, the odds ain’t great.
The next morning, as scores of fellow gear heads assembled in the Flat Rock lunchroom, our tour director stood up and said, “Welcome to Flat Rock. My name is Ralph Arning and I’ll be leading your tour this morning.” Coulda knocked me over with a feather.
After the tour, I introduced myself to Ralph, and he said, “I had a completely irrational feeling that you might be here today.” We met at the Dearborn Inn for dinner that evening, and I swear old Henry was smiling at us. We were in “limited production” of the I.R.S. I had chucked a hub carrier into my luggage in case someone was interested in buying an I.R.S. and Ralph was thrilled to hold one of his father’s designs in his hands. To this day, when I hear the term serendipity I think of that night.
About this time, Jim Marietta, Ted Sutton, and Peter Brock put together the Original Venice Crew (O.V.C.). We built two Mustangs, one with an I.R.S. at Peter’s shop “The way we would have done it if time and money didn’t get in the way.” Our first test run was at Willow Springs on the 50th anniversary of the first GT 350 win, and Ralph was able to attend and meet the whole crew. Randy Richardson, along with Mike Eisenburg, are pictured pointing out the finer points of Klaus’ creation.
L – R RANDY RICHARDSON, MIKE EISENBERG, RALPH ARNING
Following that, we did a Back To The Beginnings Tour, and hit all the vintage races and shows we could string together during a 30 day road trip. A stop at Flat Rock, the Henry Ford Museum, and the “Glass House” executive offices occupied several days. The contacts we made were priceless. Everyone was gracious and made time for us in their schedule. A later visit resulted in some marketing agreements.
LEFT: RALPH WITH IRS MUSTANG, RIGHT: RALPH & PAM ARNING W/ PRINT
The cars and the O.V.C. team have been invited to more shows and races than I can remember. One of my favorites was the lawn at Pebble Beach the year they honored the GT-40. Klaus was instrumental in designing the suspension system that helped beat Ferrari. Ford and Lincoln were the honored marques, and Edsel Ford II and Henry Ford III both came by to say hello.
Perhaps my all-time favorite was at Laguna Seca, now renamed Weather Tech Raceway, when Jim Owens asked us to put the cars that we built in Peter’s shop on the front row for a poster shot of the vintage races.
Jim is Shelby and Mustang Brand Manager at Ford, and one of the people who decide who is allowed to purchase a new MUSTANG GTD (almost 8,000 have applied). You have to be someone special to buy the 800+ H. P., 200+ MPH, carbon fiber/aluminum/titanium monster. Prices start around 300K and go up from there, depending on options. You will want the titanium exhaust option at about 2.5 K. It sounds great and saves almost 2.5 pounds! At least 1,000 GTDs will be made to meet homologation requirements. The GTD’s purpose in life is to beat the Porsche GT2 RS and the GT3 RS around Germany’s Nurnbergring. Mustang outsells Porsche in Europe, with equal or better performance at half the price.
Ford C.E.O. Jim Farley keeps a MUSTANG GTD along with a vintage 427 Cobra at his garage/shop/apartment condo above pit row at Weather Tech. Jim, if you’re reading this, I’m available to keep your condo clean, your refrigerator stocked, and see that your cars get plenty of exercise.
In 2013-4, National Geographic’s ULTIMATE FACTORY series decided they wanted to do a show about automobile factories. They contacted Ford at Flat Rock, as Flat Rock is one of the few factories in the world that takes all the raw materials and forms them into a driveable car on site. To put the show together, they needed someone who could interface between the Ford production line workers and the Nat. Geo. film crew, knew the technical side inside and out, and could put together a tour that made all of the pieces come together. The only person that fit that description was the now 7-years-retired Ralph Arning, living at his retirement home/shop in St. George, Utah. Welcome back Ralph! Filming took about a month.
Every story really is a people story, isn’t it? In this case, some really remarkable people.
This month’s post is a little film we made about my grandfather, Elmer Carling, who was one of the first Utah Highway Patrolmen. It’s also about the spirit of human kindness.
I wrote the script based on published interviews and family lore, did Elmer’s voice, and with lots of help from Apple, Harley Davidson, and a bunch of relatives and friends, we made it happen. THANKS !
Things we now take for granted, like paved roads, snowplows, rest stops, guard rails, ambulance service, emergency rooms, morgues(!), places to eat and stay, police radios, and 911 service, had to start somewhere. This is the story of how it all began.
Since we didn’t have a schedule or any other passengers, I convinced Mike we should stop by Baggs, WY, which was kinda on the way home, to see where I came within a hair of being killed on an oil rig. A strange request, I know, but somehow that patch of nowhere has stayed in my mind all these years!
In the summer of ’65, my running buddy Ray Smith and I convinced ourselves we should go to Rock Springs, Wyoming, and become oil rig roughnecks (sounds cool), make lottsa money, and have great adventures. Through a mutual friend in Rock Springs, we found a crew that needed 2 new hands, if we were willing to move to Baggs, Wyoming. Baggs had a population of about 25 souls, is 2 ½ hours east and south of Rock Springs, and 1 hour north of Rifle, CO. We’d be working 12 hours a day, noon to midnight or midnight to noon, 7 days a week, with a place to stay. The money was OK, so we took it.
There were 2 crews and Ray went with one and I went with the other. My crew was headed by a guy named Beauford. The house we stayed in was directly across the unpaved street from the Western Hotel, where Butch Cassidy et. al. stayed after one of their train robberies. The scene where Butch (Paul Newman) is with a lady watching from a second story window as the posse rides through town actually took place at the Western. The Western is the white building third from left.
The main boss was a guy named Calvin Ledges who worked for Exeter Drilling Company out of Denver. He was tough as nails and had seen it all. One night, we arrived and found there was a fishing tool rigged up on the derrick. Somehow the drill bit had gotten jammed on the end of the drill stem and Calvin and the “fisher,” a special guy with specialized tools, were trying to pull it up. The fisher and Calvin had been fighting it all day, and it was not cooperating.
In desperation, they rigged a “hammer,” which is a hydraulic valve you can pull on with the cables of the rig. It will trip at a preset pressure, then catch and hammer the pipe upward. The particular rig we had was designed to handle about 500,000 pounds of that kind of hammer pressure. After several attempts at full rated pressure, Calvin told the fisher to raise the pressure to 750,000 pounds. Man did that make a noise! Every joint and bolt was stressed to the max. The night was cold and dark and windy, and money was being lost at a furious pace. Even in those days, leasing and operating a rig cost thousands of dollars per hour.
Finally, they told us to get far away from the rig as they were going to raise the hammer to 1,000,000 pounds. No problem, we’re outta here! From across the sagebrush we could hear the rig screaming in the darkness as its lightbulbs danced and shattered in the wind. I’d never heard metal hitting metal that hard. Somehow nothing critical broke, and whatever was down there yielded and came up with the fishing tool. It turned out the drill bit had “cratered,” which means one or more of the interlocking diamond-studded wheels that grind their way into the earth had come loose and jammed against the side of the hole, stopping the drill cold. Calvin swore to never use that brand of drill bit again.
A “work over” rig means we set up over an old well that needs revamping. Read the book THE DEEP HOT BIOSPHERE: The Myth of Fossil Fuels by Thomas Gold. Get the real story on where oil and gas come from, and it ain’t dinosaurs. Many old oil & gas wells refill with methane, the main component of oil and gas, after a few years, and become paying assets again. Methane is very common in our universe. There are whole planets made of it, and it all sure as hell didn’t come from rotting dinosaurs.
About a week later we arrived for our shift and found out we had hit the strata we were looking for and were coming out of the hole for the last time. Beauford (our leader) decided to re-rig the drill cable so it would run faster, and probably impress Calvin with his initiative.
We carefully laid the blocks, the big metal assembly that all the cables run through, on the drill floor. It’s about the size and weight of a small car. As Beauford backed the cable off the drum, the big metal end unhooked itself and slowly started to rise in the morning light. Every guy on the job started screaming RUN!! as loud as he could. Unfortunately, I was on the drill floor with Beauford. For some reason, I ran across the entire drill floor, with heavy cable falling through the air to a small operator platform where Beauford was standing.
As the cable end with its lead-filled steel hook rose into the sky (135 feet up and 135 feet down), it tore through the sheave wheels and started its way down. Somehow–GUARDIAN ANGELS, or whatever–I was about 3 inches from Beauford as the 3-inch diameter metal weight passed between us, nicked my new hard hat, and destroyed Beauford’s right ankle.
Suddenly all was quiet. Cable was lying everywhere, and Beauford’s face turned pale. The ankle was starting to swell, so we carefully cut his laces and took his boot off. Someone went to Baggs to get Calvin, and someone else took Beauford to the hospital in Rock Springs. That’s the closest I ever came to getting killed while not driving a car.
Some people say there is a feeling, at times described as a “dark spirit” that inhabits places of tragedy. 9/11 comes to mind. There sure was that feeling when Mike and I stopped by the old drill site. We didn’t spend more than 15 minutes there, but looking back, it felt like hours.
Can you feel it?
The “work over” must have been successful sixty years ago. Maybe it has been refilled and reworked multiple times. The 2 metal tanks in the picture are typical of a producing gas well. When gas comes out from the underground pressure, a light, almost clear, fluid known as “drip gas” condenses and is pumped to one of the metal tanks, where a truck picks it up when it’s full. “Drip” is about 80 octane and you can run your car on it if it’s an older model, like my ’55 Ford. Convenient.
Over 60 years in the making … Thank You, whoever you
were (are) for saving my butt. God
really does look out for little children, helpless drunks, and a few oil field
workers.
I did the wood cut below when I got back to art school. It depicts the dull misery of oil field work. Cold, wet, exhausted, with ever present danger shown in their faces.
About 10 years ago, I stopped by my friend Peter Brock’s shop in Henderson, just outside of Las Vegas to show him a large blueprint of Ford’s not for production independent rear suspension (I.R.S.) for early Mustangs. Modern digital prints are marvelous, but nothing has quite the panache of the old ammonia-based prints. Warm, fuzzy blue lines (hence the name blueprint) can only be made with one of the old, clunky ammonia machines, and I happen to have found one. Go here to get a print of your own.
Peter was able to see me between appointments and mentioned that some of the old guys (that’s us) were thinking of building a GT-350 clone, incorporating all the good ideas we’d had back in the Shelby days, which weren’t used due to cost, time, or difficulty. The IRS I had resurrected from old prints and a few parts, and was now selling as a bolt in kit, would fit perfectly with that concept.
Well, a bunch of us old guys led by Jim Marietta and Ted
Sutton built TWO cars, now known as continuation cars, since they now
had Shelby serial numbers in Peter’s shop.
They were a big hit at Willow Springs Raceway, to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the GT-350’s first win at Texas Motor Speedway with Ken Miles driving. FAST and reliable, just like the old days. We realized that what we needed and wished for was a real shop. The old Shelby engine facility in Gardena had been sitting vacant and dark for years. What would it take to bring it back to life? As usual, just time, effort, money, skill, and a boat load of nostalgia.
The Flying Mustang, driven by Ken Miles
A greasy engine building facility, with a sheet metal trough for a urinal, no kitchen, minimal lighting, and a back alley entryway didn’t exactly scream race shop/party shop to the untrained eye, but my son Michael and I took on the task. Let’s do this!
We left it to others to bring in some real lighting and refurbish the compressed air system. Our task was cleaning every surface with a high pressure washer, scrubbing the floor (!) and painting everything to look like new again. Installing a kitchen with a real kitchen sink and turn the sheet metal urinal restroom into an attractive facility complete with mop sink, hand sink, shower, urinal, and a potty.
Oh, and a short deadline too: 12,000 square feet of neglected yuck!
As the project took off, more folks came by who wanted to use (rent) the storied facility for their car club, car show, or car related activity. The word was getting out.
The local Sherwin Williams Pro Industrial paint dealer was a big help on the floor, which was painted “Battleship Grey” at one time. How to fill all the gouges, scrapes and patches where there was just no paint was everyday work to them. It turned out great, and Mike & I took full credit, of course!
Jim ordered two lift racks in anticipation of our own and future customer’s cars needing under car repairs. “You guys gonna finish soon so we can install these damn racks?”
And as things often do, “mission creep” became a daily distraction. Jim wanted to turn one of the old dyno cells into an office and name it TEN FORTY TWO, which was address on Princeton Drive of the Shelby facility in Venice.
Peter himself stopped by to marvel at the progress. Cars were lining up to occupy our new shiny floor and visitors were encouraged to sign the Shelby Signature Wall.
The day we finished and allowed cars on the whole floor, we were already short of space.
Of course, we had to have a Grand Opening Party. Friends and family were declared Original Venice Crew for a day. TV and print media covered it and we were all Stars For A Day too!
We were there for 7 YEARS–July, 2017 to June, 2024. Besides all the old and new friends we saw, and their cars, we hosted two weddings, with drive-thru receptions (!), and three Christmas parties.
What a great time !
As they say, all good things must come to an end. Having a huge facility like that only used occasionally, sitting in a busy commercial area, just didn’t make business sense. The Shelby people sold it after our restoration, in June of this year, but it was great fun while it lasted. “Our” space has become part of the building supply store next door. I think all the Shelby facilities and business will move to Nevada, where they already have a large presence. Below are a few shots you may find interesting.
Jim Marietta filming a TV segment. Of course, everyone wanted an official opening day poster signed by the Original Venice Crew.L.–R. Peter, Daniel, Jim, Duane
Careful what ya wish fer–these guys can make it happen! Until next time, thanks for listening.
I spent the summer of 1965 working on oil rigs around Wyoming’s Wind River Valley. It’s tough, unforgiving country, but beautiful and rewarding at the same time. A college friend and I thought being “rough necks” sounded cool, so we signed up for what we thought would be fun summer jobs. Fun if you think working midnight to noon or noon to midnight (yew takes yer choice !) 7 days a week is fun. I did find that thick black coffee with a little help from Uncle Jack (Daniels) would get ya thru the night. I also found that working on rigs is a very good way to die young, and I often wonder what ever happened to my old crew mates.
It takes 4 guys to run a rig. Other guys came and went,
including my college friend, but 3 of us, Blacky, Buzz and “Slim” stayed
together for most of the summer. I picked up the “Slim” handle from somewhere
and it stayed with me ‘til I went back to school. Few people went by their real
names, as it was just plain easier to call someone by a name that they looked
like. I suppose it was also handy in case you were running from something or
someone.
Blacky was the rig runner and he had a lovely single-wide mobile home–OK, a trailer house–that he kept parked behind the gas station in lovely Jeffery City. “Been runnin’ rigs fer years, and do it better with a few beers in me.”
Buzz was the derrick hand, and he was from Shoshoni. A champion rodeo cowboy, now retired due to age (35) and injuries, he had a two-horse trailer custom painted fire-mist metallic to match his custom painted 1962 Oldsmobile. I don’t think he really lived anywhere, and Buzz told me that he and The Black One went to fist city the first night they met at a bar, but went home that same night as best friends.
I was the floor hand, and whoever we could find to help me work the wrenches made us a foursome. That’s me in the white hard hat (optional). There was intense bar room discussion about whether a real man would be caught dead wearing one … or something like that.
My daughter, Michelle, and I made several trips to the Wind River over the years. It was always fun to revisit those drill sites and tell her, “Daddy used to work on one of those big towers. We drilled holes to get gas to run our trucks. Neat, huh.”
Shel and Dad overlooking the Wind River Valley
I spent a few days recently with Michelle and her friends on the Wind River near Jackson Hole, Wyoming. How we got there is quite a story.
Michelle is a New York-trained actor/screen writer, and as a summer job she worked at the Jackson Hole Playhouse. She worked there for three summers as both an actor and production manager. During a weekend visit there, I asked the owner, Vicki, where she was from, and she said Orem, Utah. I mentioned that at one time I wanted to be an art teacher and I did my student teaching at Orem Junior High. By adding up the dates we found that Vicki was a student of mine in 7th and 9th grade Arts & Crafts Class. Wow, what a connection! Fortunately no student brain cells were harmed in the process of me deciding not to become a teacher.
Dad, Shel, and Vicki on a recent visit
Jackson is now officially “One of the most expensive zip codes in the country.” The billionaires have finally chased out all the millionaires, and Dubois may be the next real estate opportunity. Don’t bother using the correct French pronunciation, “Dubwaa,” as none of the locals will know what yer talkin’ about. It’s “Du Boys.” And most of our theatre friends have moved there.
I’ve always loved Wyoming, especially the Wind River Valley. Dubois is the main commercial center where you can pick up your mail and groceries. The skyline is not as well known as the Grand Tetons but it’s just as beautiful in my opinion. It’s only an hour from the Jackson airport , which has good connections to the rest of the country. As the world gets crazier, and the option of “work from home” becomes more common, the Wind River looks ever more attractive.
Our friend’s ranch near Dubois
I’m a little past my oil rig days, but I could sure
supervise the construction of a nice cabin, and the installation of a few Wind
Wheels to power the place.
Imagine if you will, the war in Europe is over. Germany is in ruins. There is little activity except for cleaning up the rubble of war. Most of the clean-up crews are women–known as Trummerfrauen, or “women of the rubble”–as there are few men left following the final blizzard of destruction.
In the last years of the war, 1,000-plane raids over Germany were common, and the B-24 bomber made at Ford’s Willow Run was a mainstay of the force. Ford produced one plane per hour, 24 / 7 around the clock. Bomber losses of ten percent per raid were the norm, which meant that the finest aluminum alloys in the world fell daily from the skies over Germany.
Into this unreal world steps an earnest young German who has spent months recuperating from a land mine explosion. Badly wounded, he was evacuated from Leningrad by railroad flat car just before the Russians broke through. His passion is automobiles, and he is determined, against all odds, to build his own car from the rubble around him.
Though he will eventually recieve a degree in Mechanical Engineering, his uncommon intellect and natural feel for the subject will in years to come help produce some of the finest automobiles ever built. The car in his mind now is a two-seater with front mounted engine, rear wheel drive, 4-wheel independent suspension, a “back bone” chassis (years before Lotus claimed it), an alloy body of course, and a two-cylinder motor sourced from a DKW- Lloyd delivery truck. Rear hinged “suicide” doors and styling touches common on 30’s and 40’s cars (rear deck ribbing) complete the picture.
Two cylinder engine, transmission and front suspension from a DKW-Lloyd delivery truck. BMW independent rear suspension.
As his wounds healed, the young man named Klaus Arning
rested at his parent’s home in Bremen, which was also home to the bombed out Focke-Wulf
aircraft factory. Klaus’ father was a Lutheran minister, so the American
occupation authorities allowed him sufficient gasoline for travel in Klaus’ car,
once it was complete, to visit his congregations. The car had several hidden
compartments which were used for smuggling … according to Klaus’ son Ralph.
Klaus spoke good English, was very personable, played a mean accordion and an even meaner piano. He was often recruited to entertain U.S. troops, and in payment received a few cartons of American cigarettes, and/or maybe a bottle of Genuine U.S. Whiskey. In the right hands, this contraband could be bartered for enough food to feed a congregation for days!
I remember Klaus playing piano in small lounge for a few
friends in the Las Vegas Hilton during SEMA week. Linda Vaughn, Miss Hurst
Shifter, walked by, spied Klaus, walked over and sat in his lap. He continued
playing, with a big grin on his face, while his small audience clapped and cheered!
American high-octane gasoline was a Godsend (oops … bad choice, sorry) to the German economy. Shipped by tanker from the U.S., it replaced the low octane, dirty fuel Germany had been making from coal.
The DKW motor needed new pistons, probably as a result of the low-quality fuel, so Klaus simply made new ones. Selecting a suitable alloy from the “gefallene Fruchte” (literally fallen fruit) of wrecked Allied and German aircraft, he cast new pistons by pouring molten aluminum into two holes in the ground. With a foot powered treadle lathe in his parent’s attic, and a whole lottsa smarts, he soon had new pistons and the motor was purring.
Think about all the factors inherent in designing new pistons. First, are rings available? What are the ring clearances required? What skirt clearances are needed as the pistons heat and travel up and down in the bores? What about compression ratio, combustion chamber shape, wrist pin offset, not to mention piston weight and counterweights?
All these hurdles and more were overcome. I’m sure the German authorities gave the car a thorough inspection when Klaus announced, “I made it myself.” and asked for a license and registration. Later earning a degree from Bremen Polytechnic seems almost redundant.
During his stay at the University, a thief stole the precious car and wrecked it in the ensuing police chase.
Regular readers of this column will recognize the name Klaus Arning as the 1960’s head of Ford Advanced Suspension Design, and the mind behind the Mustang I.R.S., the GT-40, several Foyt and Gurney single seaters, and much more. Check the MEDIA section on mustangirs.com for two very well-done articles in RACECAR ENGINEERING, written by Richard Nisley, to whom we are indebted for the pictures of the car. I got to know Klaus researching the “never-made production” Mustang I.R.S. These pictures were taken when Klaus paid a visit to my garage about 1990. He’s trying to explain his design to me, as I try to imagine it installed into an inverted Mustang chassis.
Klaus apparently got to take a GT-40 home once in a while. I wonder if there are any hidden compartments.
“I’ll vote for it if you’ll put a plant in Salt Lake City.”
In the early 80’s, the new Rough Field-Short Take Off C–17 transport plane was stuck in the Senate Appropriations Committee. Senator Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) was saying it was too expensive and not critical to the defense of the country. McDonnell Douglas was the winner of the design competition and was anxious to get started on the fat military contract.
In exchange for a YES vote from Senator Hatch, Douglas constructed a multimillion-dollar building on the mud flats that surround the Salt Lake International Airport. Without a purpose in mind, it was 160,000 square feet of “assembly area,” 12,000 feet of “office,” and 21,000 feet of “support area” … basically a big square building with nothing in it.
I was working for Honeywell at the time, selling maintenance contracts on heating and air conditioning (HVAC) systems. Since the building had all Honeywell controls, I approached the Douglas people (all 5 of them) about doing an HVAC maintenance contract. I told my boss what I was doing and he said,“Why don’t you pitch them on maintaining the whole building.”
I said, “You mean on ALL the equipment in the WHOLE building.”
He said, “Sure, for the right money, we’ll maintain anything.”
For the next week or so, I crawled around the building’s mechanical spaces writing down model and serial numbers on overhead cranes, boilers, compressors, anything that moved or made noise. I was basically writing the maintenance manual for the building.
At the end of my slide show/sales pitch in the empty lunchroom, the plant manager said, if I ever wanted to leave Honeywell to come see him.
“Let’s talk,” I said. That is how I became the sixth person hired at Douglas Salt Lake.
At about this time, the labor unions representing Douglas workers in Canada were threating to strike. They made the floor panels for Douglas’s biggest seller, the MD-80, and a strike would stop production of that very profitable aircraft. Someone at our Long Beach headquarters said, “Why don’t we move the assembly jigs to Utah, which is a right to work stare (that’s code for no unions) and let them assemble the panels.”
Hooray! We had something to do besides keeping the place clean.
When the jigs arrived, I looked at the I.D. plate and found they were constructed in 1958! The same floor was used in the DC-8, the Stretch-8, the DC-9, and now the MD-80 and soon the MD-90. The floor had gone from 4 props mounted on the wings to 2 jets mounted on the tail. Working for an aerospace giant, I had expected to see carbon fiber, titanium, and who knows what else. Surprise!
Now that we were “in production,” the plant manager thought it would be wise to have some machinery out on the floor, for looks if nothing else. He sent me to Long Beach to comb through the Douglas “bone yard,” which was several acres of mostly World War II era machinery, sitting outside, that no one had the heart to throw away. Precomputer-age drill presses, Bridgeport milling machines, sheet metal brakes, tube benders, you name it, we got it. When a flatbed semi-trailer chock full of WW II machinery arrived in Salt Lake, I thought, All these old veterans have a soul, and I’m going to give them a second chance!
Company policy said we had to build a chain link fence
around our new shop. I asked Personnel,
oops, I mean Human Resources, to keep an eye out for people to staff it.
Showing up for an interview with grease under your fingernails was considered a
plus.
We also built a fence around what would soon be the parts storage area. Douglas had adopted the then-fashionable “Just In Time” (J.I.T.) management theory. Parts were delivered within hours–or, at most. days–of when they were needed. They were also touting the “Total Quality Management” theory (T.Q.M. of course), which basically said, Do It Right The First Time.
We’ll see how all that worked out.
Without too many hiccups, we assembled our first floor panel and shipped it by flatbed to Long Beach. Most of the parts were made in Long Beach and shipped to us for assembly. Ain’t congressional politics great!
THAT’S ME RIGHT FRONT ROW IN COVERALLS. I’d often come to work in a suit & leave in coveralls.
People being people, sometimes a part was ruined–or “butched,” in the lingo. “I drilled the hole in the wrong place,” or “I drilled a big hole when I should have drilled a little one.” With hundreds of parts and thousands of hand operations, the laws of chance said you would screw up eventually. By failing to account for the humanness of what we were doing, we set ourselves up for failure.
Since there were no backup parts, we were stuck (J. I. T. and all that). Delays weren’t to be tolerated (T.Q.M. and all that) so what were we to do? In the best of Yankee ingenuity, the crew on second shift arranged for a hole to be cut in the parts cage and a roll away tool box conveniently placed against the hole inside, with a matching tool box placed against the hole outside to mask the new portal. A “scout” would access the cage late on second shift to find a part that, with a little love from our freshly cleaned and refurbished machine shop, could be substituted for the butched part. Little Suzy can keep her job, and vows to do better next time. Of course, when the schedule said it was time to deliver the previously purloined part, nobody knew nuthin’.
If I, as a lowly facilities guy, knew about the underground railway, I’m sure somebody in management was wise to it too.
Apparently, this and similar problems were widespread within
the company. By failing to account for us humans, the soul of the company was
lost, and problems multiplied. The solution was to create TIGER TEAMS, usually
made up of hard living, hard drinking, multi-year or even multi-generational
Douglas employees. TIGERS would jump on a Douglas private jet, show up at the
offending Douglas plant or supplier, and with a combination of profanity and
arm waving solve any problem.
After three years, I got tired of TIGERS and of playing the game and left.
When Boeing married the nearly bankrupt Douglas in a shotgun wedding overseen by the defense department, the Douglas team took over Boeing. The current Boeing C.E.O. and most of the top management are Douglas alums. Milton Friedman once famously said, “The business of business is to maximize profits.” and Milton’s philosophy fit Douglas perfectly. Apparently, Boeing bought into it too and let the Douglas folks run the show. By focusing purely on profits, they killed the soul of the company.
That could explain the aircraft parts, and whole airplanes falling from the sky. Let’s hope Boeing sees the error of their ways…and soon.
Now that I’ve got your attention … it’s a year with an extra
day, usually at the end of February.
The evening of the 29th of Feb., I was checking our web site, www.mustangirs.com, and noticed the counter was at 98,999.
Hey, wouldn’t it be cool if we reached 99,000 visits before midnight on the 29th? With just a few minutes before the date rolled over to 1 March, someone, somewhere, logged on and we hit 99,000 visits.
We should celebrate! How about we give everyone a prize?
The first thing I did after deciding years ago to track down the elusive Mustang Independent Rear Suspension (IRS) was to contact Carroll Shelby. He suggested I try to find German-born Klaus Arning, who had designed the IRS, now retired and possibly living in the Detroit area.
I got lucky on the first try. Klaus turned out to be a great guy, and receptive to the idea. He went to the Henry Ford Museum (HFM) where he knew any surviving prints would be stored. “I show them my credentials. They give me the microfilms,” he said.
What a find! Drawn in FULL SCALE, by hand, in ink–no room for error– they are an absolute work of art. Full scale means that the entire assembly, third member, ½ shafts, coil overs, brakes, the whole banana, is brought into the drafting room and put on a huge table where a very large sheet of vellum (you can Google that) drafting paper is taped. From there a highly skilled draftsman measures each part with a ruler or a tape, maybe even a micrometer, and then draws it full scale in relation to the rest of the assembly. WOW.
From Klaus’s microfilm, I was able to put the images back onto vellum and print them using one of the last ammonia powered blueprint machines in existence. They print in blue, hence the name.
From there, I started–along with a small cohort of fabricators and suppliers–to reconstruct Klaus’s magnum opus into what it is today. Our web site has instructions on how to contact my friend Jim Marietta, former Shelby employee and member of the Original Venice Crew (O.V.C.), who now offers the IRS for sale separately or installed in a 1965 K Code Mustang with a Shelby serial number. The complete car is then dialed in by some of the best vintage race drivers on the planet, usually at Willow Springs. Its new owner will shine at show, street, or track.
Helpful hint: bring money.
As we all know, the digital revolution is here, and to celebrate 99,000 views you can now have a print of Klaus’ master work FOR FREE by taking or sending these images to a good quality print shop. At Alpha Graphics, an 11 X 17 on photo-quality paper will cost you about two bucks. A good size for a wall hanging is 24 X 42, which, of course, will cost more. Happy bissextile day!
The first thing to do with any new print is check the TITLE BLOCK, usually in the lower right corner. There you’ll find the drawing title, T5-G.T. FALCON. Both Mustang and Cougar were being considered at the time as names for the new car. Since the Mustang as we know it was still being hammered together using the Falcon platform, T-5 GT Falcon made sense. When the Mustang was exported to Germany, Ford found the name Mustang was already taken. German Mustangs were named T-5 s. I like to think it was a tribute to Klaus. Hey, could be.
The drawing number, LRR-81952, is what you’ll need if the drawing is still available at the HFM. The companion drawing, LRR-21950,shows the modified front suspension which became known as the SHELBY DROP. It was adopted for the ’65 GT 350 and later Shelbys as it only required modifying existing suspension pieces. It turned the Falcon-based platform into a winning race car.
Next, the date, 12-3-1963, lets you know the April 14, 1964 intro date for the Mustang was looming large.
The owners of the initials in the DRAWN BY,CHECKED BY and APPROVED BY boxes have, unfortunately, been lost to the mists of time.
The IRS car was meant to have KNOCK OFF WHEELS. I’d love to see someone reproduce those. The “kidney bean” magnesium wheels (mags) were popular back in the day. The simple adapters shown convert the five threaded lugs into 5-pin drives. The spinners were designed by Ford Styling and used later as the basis for the Deluxe “spoke type” hub caps. “Huge” 6-70 / 15 TIRES were called out.
Four piston Kelsey Hayes DISC BRAKES are shown front and rear. Vintage racers still use them today and love ‘em.
After The WAR, American talent scouts roamed Germany looking for outstanding intellects, and discovered Klaus working for Borgward, the German auto manufacturer based in Klaus’s home town of Bremen. After a trip to America and a tour of Ford’s facilities, he was offered a position. Klaus soon rose to be head of advanced suspension design. He was also head of the team that built John F. Kennedy’s presidential limo.
The last time I saw Klaus we were sitting in the rotating bar at the top of the Stratosphere Tower in Las Vegas. Klaus was drinking schnaps and trying, without much success, to explain to me the finer points of roll induced camber change. It was 2 AM after a hard day at SEMA, and I’m afraid I was a poor student. For more about Klaus, go to https://www.mustangirs.com/pdf_articles/mustang_monthly_1983-09.pdf
L – R – Klaus, Shelby, Yours Truly World Championship Chili Cook Offs, Las Vegas NV
Klaus and Shelby were good friends and I was able to spend time with both of them at several SEMA shows. Ah, the stories they could tell!
You may pick up something I’ve missed on these blueprints. It’s a great way to spend some time reliving the history of FoMoCo. If you’ve seen the movie Ford vs Ferrari, you’ve seen what Klaus and his contemporaries could do if given the chance. The GT-40 conquered the racing world, three years in a row!
“JUST DON’T SPILL YOUR DAMN COFFEEON THE DAMN PRINTS!”
as my old boss used to say.
When I was looking for someone to restore the 1953 HARLEY K MODEL motorcycle I rode when I was 18, my first stop was to my friends at the Salt Lake HARLEY dealer. They had been a huge help with the video I made a few years ago about my grandfather Elmer Carling who rode a 30’s HARLEY with a side car as one of the first members of the UTAH HIGHWAY PATROL.
To my surprise, I found they said they didn’t work on anything 10 years old or older. The nice guy at the service desk recommended I stop by DIRTY RAT MOTOCYCO, which was only a couple of blocks away.
To my surprise, behind the “out there” name, the owner and staff were very much customer oriented, and most of all, very competent and knowledgeable about bikes 50 years old and older. I knew I’d found a home where my old bike could come back to life.
Which years interchange, what fits what, who makes it, where to find it, and how to make it all fit together is specialized knowledge that takes years to accumulate. If you are a guy like me, who wants to modernize the machine while we’re at it–front disc brake, 12 VOLT alternator instead of a generator, electronic ignition (no more points and condensers) a modern carburetor, larger chrome wheels with stainless spokes, hydraulic shocks that actually work, etc. etc.–the task gets even more difficult.
The Maestro
A virtual fruit salad of parts old and new that all work together to create a machine that looks old, but is actually very modern. So far, it’s exactly what I wanted. Even the dogs seem happy!
My son, Mike, is a natural at painting. He painted the inside and outside of all the custom homes we built together. I don’t know where he gets it from, but when he was about 14, he asked the guy who was painting the living room of the house we were building if he could try the spray gun. At the first stroke, the painter exclaimed, “He’s a natural!” And so he is, which is handy because I hate painting.
The bike wore CANDY APPLE TANGERINE paint back in the day. Candy paint was invented in the 60’s by Joe Bailon of Bailon Custom Cars, located conveniently just down the road from where I went to high school.
The theory is, you first lay down a reflective metallic underbase–gold or silver is the most common–then you apply the color coat, in this case tangerine orange which has lots of clear added to it so the light will pass through it instead of just bouncing off. The light is then reflected back by the underbase after it has picked up some silver or gold tint, in our case gold. It then comes back through the color coat again, picking up more color, and then through a generous coat of clear that you have applied over the whole thing. That’s what produces the “elbow deep” look of candy apple!
When we brought the gas tank, fenders, and other parts back
to the DIRTY RAT shop, everyone was amazed at how great they looked.
Well, the old “K” is together again, after more than 50 years scattered around by brother-in-law’s garage floor. It looks and sounds great, but now I’m too damn old and creaky to ride it!
What will I do with it?
Current plans have it sitting in the living room of Mike’s condo as an
“object d’art” …. but we’ll see what springtime brings. The local HARLEY dealer
has several organized tours, so maybe Mike will drive and I can ride on the
back!
I’m sure the K will be a big hit with all the HARLEY faithful. Most have never even heard of a K, must less seen one. Could be fun.
Today I want to share a great piece written by Steve Johns. I’m sure you’ll enjoy it as much as I do.
Duane
No Stone Left Unturned: The Last Cobra
by Steve Johns
“No stone left unturned.” This is a saying we’ve all heard but is it something we practice?
Years ago, I had discovered a lost 1967 Shelby Trans AM notchback coupe hiding in plain sight and, except for the fact you couldn’t see it, it was exciting to find. Proving its history was a different matter, and months of dead ends were followed by one single casual comment from a Shelby TA driver named Pete Feistmann, which sent me on a different path.
See last month’s post for the scoop on this photo
I always close a car call with, “Do you know of any old race cars or stuff from the old days?”
This time, after looking under another rock, I turned a pebble and got a yes!
“An old friend and neighbor back in Utah has a car that was the last Shelby race car. A guy named Duane Carling, I think?” A possible car, name and location was just enough to take me on one of the greatest rides of my life.
After a frenzied day, I had Mr. Carling on the phone, and to my amazement everything I heard about and imagined was in fact true, hiding in plain sight, rested the completely original and untouched Shelby American tub (chassis) destined for the 1967 Can-Am racing series. Shelby American and Ford planned on closing out the racing season with the Can-Am car that was sitting in obscurity that I had found. A deal was struck and I was off to the races documenting this rare, last of three produced, Shelby.
Soon, I realized that the Can Am team cars were so obscure that most of the available information was pure guesswork and not based in fact at all, this mainly because in 1967 car #1 was buried in a landfill in Los Angeles, then car #2 was bumped and bruised before going missing, and my #3 was off radar for decades sitting in the rafters. Mr. Carling is a true car guy, as evidenced by sharing his detailed knowledge and every sheet of paper he had on the car and then got me started. He truly passed the baton.
A precious few photographs taken by Dave Friedman and a couple of period-original Shelby letters and documents were just enough to point me in the right direction. First and foremost was a strong desire to recreate a Dave Friedman photograph from Riverside. This 1967 photograph with Jim O’Leary, John Collins, Mr. Smith (d), Phil Remington, Carroll Shelby and Driver Jerry Titus (d) was truly inspirational. Going directly to Mr. Shelby was the key, and Scott Black of TimePiece PR and Marketing, proved to be instrumental in helping not only with that fateful meeting but throughout the evolution of finishing this last Shelby American car.
The initial meeting with O’Leary, Remington and Collins was inspirational because it was as though they were seeing an old friend and instantly the specific memories of the car started flowing in conversation. Their good and bad memories were filmed and their casual anecdotes of Collins stopping by designer Len Terry’s shop in England after Le Mans, Remington making trackside alterations to #1 at Riverside, and Shelby’s dislike for the car because he got stuck paying for it were amazing indeed.
In a matter of hours with these Shelby icons, this obscure footnote Cobra had the ingredients for me to further document and investigate it, especially after Phil Remington verified not only the Cobra’s true identity as being Shelbys “King Cobra” and that it was indeed the last car ever produced by Shelby American. The significance of this last Cobra kept evolving and growing after each interview, photo and document was discovered.
Notably missing from the initial meeting was Mr. Shelby who actually arranged the meeting, location and time – that left me puzzled. Mr. Remingtion, sensing this, graciously said that Mr. Shelby “always has people wanting him to waive his wand and validate some random car” and he didn’t want to waste his time if it didn’t check out. Shelby chose to wait until after they verified that it was truly his long lost King Cobra before he became involved with validating the car and solidifying its place in the Shelby American story.
The document trail and photographs were scant but exceedingly rich with invaluable information like the original dated 1968 sales invoice for the remnants of the Can Am team or the original letter from Mr. Shelby stating that “Remington was the builder of Len’s design”. Photographs from the great Dave Friedman documented Chassis #1 through
its development and race at Riverside proved instrumental in
getting my #3 correct.
Most of these rare cars have some hen’s teeth parts and on that we can agree. The King Cobra seems to have a full set – in rows no less. The King Cobra came along at a time of transition from sleek aerodynamics to brute McLaren power and downforce and it was not on the winning side as a result. History knocks the performance and handling of the car when in reality, it qualified 13th on a grid of 36 cars that started. Of note was its outrunning and out qualifying the Ferrari 330 P4.
Seeds of greatness with the Can Am effort were there but the winds took it in another direction. Len Terry’s revolutionary suspension design collided with proven conventional suspension favored by Phil Remington, and driver Jerry Titus suffered an ill-handling car as a result. An innovative cooling system failed, lack of development time, late engine delivery and a long list of unproven prototype components fueled conflicting approaches.
Ironically, many of the cutting edge developments that plagued the original effort have proven to be the most unique and rare attributes unique to this last Cobra. On the heels of designing Dan Gurney’s winning Eagle and the Indianapolis 500 winner of Jimmy Clark, Terry was the magic man for the King Cobra. Shelby and Gurney owned All American Racers (AAR) so Terry was tasked with using as many of the proven Eagle components as possible for both cost and saving time.
In addition to the innovative suspension, the King Cobra is the only Cobra with AAR uprights and wheels powered by an XE351 block topped with Gurney Weslake heads. All roads Weslake lead to Jay Cushman of Cushman Competition in Windham Maine and John Garrote of Cobra Automotive in Connecticut, whose passions for helping those in need, like me, to keep the rarest of the rare on the road. Shelby cast and used “COBRA” valve covers on the Weslake heads for this singularly amazing application.
The aforementioned XE block is one of about 65 produced in 1967, and although there are a couple of known original assemblies, this is believed to be the only example in the world running without having been modified for a modern crank or other upgrades. A small block bottom end with a tall deck, an XE distributor and an original crank unique to this engine were tough things to source indeed. The first generation 48 IDA carburetors were part of the original purchase and are believed to be from the Shelby GT40 program in 1967, and thanks to the capable hands of engine builder extraordinaire Rob Kazan, it lives!
The 5 speed ZF transmission is icing on the cake after you absorb seeing the original doors and nose section from chassis #1. These original doors and nose section are the only known original Shelby werks yellow body panels and remain just as they were in 1967 after spending 45 years in a storage box. As each rare part pulls together to form the whole, it’s taken a village of mechanical artists to breathe life into the King Cobra and get it back on the track, its natural habitat.
A parallel journey to completing the Cobra mechanically has been the relationships forged together with passion for motorsport and Shelby American. As I reflect on the journey of finishing what Mr. Shelby started, one word comes to mind – family. Shelby American is about legacy and looking ahead to the next iteration of ‘America’s Car.’ Carroll Shelby is in our hotrodder, muscle
car DNA.
Shelby Team master mechanic and manager John Collins entrusted the job of finishing the King Cobra to his son Graham Collins in Santa Ana, who is carrying on the Shelby American way of doing things. This has led to an amazing group of artisans as unique as the one of a kind parts that comprise the King Cobra. Give some flat sheets of aluminum to Kris Kopp in Oregon and watch him start hammering them into the amazing body that covers this masterpiece of innovation.
Matching the 55-year-old paint was never a concern because I called longtime friend Nick Clemence from European Collectibles in Costa Mesa, CA.
“Hey Nick, I got a weird Porsche here that needs some paint, can you do it?”
“Yes.”
“Oh, it’s a 55-year-old match, is that O.K.?”
“Sure.”
“OH ! I guess it’s a water pumping Ford Cobra afterall, is that cool?” I could hear him shaking his head over the phone!
“O.K. bring it over.”
Nick – “Anything else?”
“Well, I need it for the Quail in a couple weeks.”
“No problem.”
For a long while I thought a gifted fabricator lived outside the box but after working with Victor Hertfelder (RIP) from Jarupa and Sid from Classic Competition in San Marcos CA, I discovered that the only shape they didn’t grasp was the concept of a box. Little details popped up like making an exhaust system. It’s sorta important so there was some head scratching about who and where to go. Eventually, I made my way to Jack Burns in Costa Mesa CA, and when we raised the rear body I saw the face of a teenager as he formed the entire system in his mind and I swear he started to drool. I had my exhaust!
Of note is the passion everyone has had in jumping in to get done and is evident in the Cobra itself when you see it. Top to bottom it’s a window into the greatest time in American racing and many call it the heyday. But is it the greatest time? As I mentioned earlier, Shelby American is rooted in its past but it’s evolving into the future. Innovation is omnipresent and it’s gratifying to see Gary Patterson and Vince LaViolette glancing over their shoulders to the past as they forge ahead with what Shelby American does – build fast cars.
Marking the end of Shelby American in such a lackluster way, the Can Am effort was reduced to a third rate afterthought of a program until all the pieces of the puzzle came together over the last 16 years. After turning over so many rocks and pebbles coupled with good old fashioned luck, Shelby’s only true King Cobra is holding up its place in the history of Shelby American. Lightning struck when the King Cobra was invited to participate in the Shelby’s 60th anniversary at the Quail in Pebble Beach, and as the adage goes, about lightning striking twice, the King Cobra was invited to the Goodwood Revival 2023 for Shelby’s centennial celebration. The King Cobra is now considered one of the most influential cars in the career of Carroll Shelby.
This Aaron Shelby quote sums it up:
“Chassis #3 represents an end of an era when it comes to the Shelby Cobra line. From the first Cobra in 1962, to this car from 1967, the Shelby Cobra became synonymous with American Muscle and Victory and formed the foundation of a Shelby brand that still lives strong today.” –Aaron Shelby
Fortunately, taped interviews complement photos and documentation validating its place in Shelby history. There’s only one first and only one last, and the Len Terry T10-003 King Cobra makes for a fitting bookend to CSX 2000 as mentioned here by Aaron Shelby, Carroll’s grandson who just happens to fill the family boots perfectly.
