Author: mustangi

 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.”   

 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 7^th and 9^th 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.      

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.

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.

We’ll keep ya posted.

                         

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.

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.

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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!

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.

So, what is a bissextile?

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

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!

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“JUST DON’T SPILL YOUR DAMN COFFEE ON THE DAMN PRINTS!” as my old boss used to say.

All the best.

Duane

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.

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.

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.

Back in the GLORY DAYS of TRANS AM racing, supposedly stock Mustangs and Camaros were turning lap times that could put them on the front row with serious race cars like Cobras, GT-40s and Corvettes. The econo-box tin cans were pushing 150 mph on the straights and pulling over 1G in the turns. Seat belts substituted for a 6-point harness.  On-board fire extinguishers, dual master cylinders, fuel cells, fire suits, full-face helmets and HANS restraints were still years away. Full roll cages weren’t in use yet (except in the “light weight” Camaros, as described in this article: 

https://www.caranddriver.com/reviews/a15141796/the-lightweight-camaro-1967-donohue-trans-am-camaro-archived-test-review/

My friend Pete Feistmann did very well in the Trans Am series driving a ’66 Mustang with a little help from Shelby. One week after the tragic death of Ken Miles, Shelby’s aide-de-camp Lew Spencer offered to continue to help Pete as a privateer racing his own car in the upcoming season. 

Pete was from North Carolina, as was our mutual friend Sylvia Wilkinson. Pete, Sylvia, John Morton and Peter Brock were, quite literally, writing the book on sedan-based racing in the 60’s.  Sylvia’s history of those days is captured in her book Stainless Steel Carrot, much of it written on scene. It was reprinted in 2012 and is well worth the read. Sylvia has a few left at johnmortonracing.net. John’s book Inside Shelby American was written “In pencil on a legal pad with a pile of eraser dust under his chair,” then retyped by Sylvia.  It is full of insights and humor, and now in its second printing … buy it as a present to yourself.  

Pete strongly considered trying for a spot with Team Shelby as a mechanic, hoping to someday  land a job as a team driver, which is how John Morton was promoted from janitor to team driver in 1964. 

TERLINGUA RACING (SHELBY) 1967 MUSTANG, PROBABLY DRIVEN BY JERRY TITUS 

In the pre-SMOG law era in L.A., if there was no wind, a ground fog could come in off the ocean and trap tail pipe emissions and industrial pollution into a deadly haze that could (really!) eat the paint off your car. What it was doing to your lungs…well…you tried not to think about that. When Peter considered living and breathing in that environment, he decided to forgo the try at a spot on Team Shelby.  

“That is what ultimately made the decision,” says Pete. “Maybe if I had been a cigarette smoker, and it seems like everyone at the time was, it would have been different.  I couldn’t see exposing myself to that toxic air, and along with the hazards of those shit box race cars, it just seemed like a sure way to an early grave. The decision to not drive for Shelby probably saved my life.” Subsequent events proved him tragically correct.  

Years later, Pete learned that the Camaros were underweight.  When he told our mutual friend Bob Lazier (Indy Car Series Rookie of The Year, 1981), Bob said that since there was no way anyone was going to beat them, failing to do so might also have saved his life. 

For more racing adventures with Peter, Duane and Bob Lazier, read this.

Until next time, thanks for listening. 

Duane

If you’ve ever watched the Trailer Park Boys TV show on Netflix, the wild antics and wacko characters portrayed could very well have been based on a trailer park I was quite familiar with in my high school days.

I’m not sure if it was an official “park.” In a dry creek bed north of Livermore, CA, it had little grass and a few desperate trees, but it was “home” to about a dozen families. Or something like families. The well-used, single-wide trailers were not lined up in neat rows like on the TV show. Some were oriented east/west, some were north/south, and some were just…there. Were they ever hooked up to water & sewer? Who knows? Electric power was, I think, by generator. A small overgrown burial ground nearby gave it the nickname “Boot Hill trailer park.”

My pal Bob and I– see our earlier post, Learning Life’s Lessons Playing Pool–had befriended two of the park’s residents. Dave and Ray were southern boys who came to the Golden State with their parents after fleeing the dust bowl. Such folks were often referred to as California Improved Okies. Now in their mid 30’s, and not used to having much, the Boot Hill park suited them just fine. We’ll talk about how culturally insensitive the 60’s were in a moment.

When the characters on the TV show saw the roof off a car with a Sawzall, or start a fire by siphoning gas while smoking, that seems just like my buddies Dave and Ray.

Now before you go thinking these were a couple of no-class losers that college-bound honor students shouldn’t be hanging around, you need to know that Dave and Ray were absolute experts on 1952 to ‘55 Lincolns! They always had 2 or 3 in various stages of (dis)assembly lying around their trailer. Generator went junk on the 2-door? No problem. “I think the one on the four door is good.”

Introduced in response to the 1949 Cadillac and Oldsmobile, the “ALL  NEW” 1952 Lincoln featured an overhead valve ( OHV) V-8 motor. A  big-ish motor in a small-ish body, they were the Original Hot Rod Lincolns.  

In 1954, a Southern Cal grocer named Ray Crawford entered a bone stock 1954 Lincoln in La Carrera Pan Americana. The “Mexican Road Race” was a 2,100 mile race run the length of Mexico on the Pan American Highway, which, theoretically, ran from the southern tip of Argentina to Prudhoe Bay Alaska (theoretically). Some of it was paved, some was dirt, but all of it was open public road. Run from 1950 to 1954, it ended in 1955 due to the high number of driver, spectator, and animal casualties. Duh!

Ray was an Ace P-38 Lightning fighter pilot in The War, and soundly trounced a team of “specially prepared” Lincoln factory cars, plus a handful of Ferraris and other exotics, several driven by big name drivers.

The factory cars were scheduled to make a triumphant tour of Lincoln Mercury dealers to celebrate their victory. “No problem. Just paint ‘em to look like the Crawford car and send ‘em all out as Race Winners. No one will know the difference.” Apparently, it worked.

The original Henry Ford did the same thing when publicizing the 10 MILLIONTH MODEL T. He had several painted in 10 MILLIONTH livery and sent them out to dealers as The Car to promote show room traffic.

If there’s a Trailer Park Hall of Fame somewhere, I’m sure Dave & Ray occupy a special spot. Dave was working on the steering column of one of his beloved Lincolns when he felt the need to go into town (probably out of beer).  Rather than waste time reinstalling the steering wheel, he just clamped a pair of Vise Grips onto the splined shaft and trundled off to town.  When a passing cop noticed Dave steering with Vice Grips(!) he lit up his roof mounted Gum Ball and took off after him.

Livermore in them days was a farm town surrounded by vineyards and fields, with a patchwork of public and private roads, some paved and some not. Some went thru and some were dead ends.  When Dave got into that warren of back roads, he easily outran John Law, Vice Grips and all, thus enshrining himself into teenage hearts as Our Hero!

Back in the day, if you were the wrong color, the wrong class, or just looked funny, and you didn’t have 10 or 20 dollars cash on you (it varied) you could be arrested for VAGRANCY. Our boys were frequently brought up on charges of “VAG” and given 10 days, probably to pay for past, present, and future sins. Everyone knew everyone, everyone knew the game, and somehow it all worked.

The Lincoln romance wasn’t all roses, however.  After several days of trying, and several cases of brew, one of our heroes couldn’t get his Lincoln to start, so in a fury took a hammer and busted off all the spark plugs. “Thet’ll teach ya!”   

Like I said, the script for Trailer Park Boys was written long ago.

After I’d been in college a couple of years, I stopped by the Park to admire the current selection of Lincolns. Or maybe it was just for old time’s sake.  I found Ray had married a gal who could have been Aunt Jemima’s sister, and moved her into the trailer. In many places, interracial marriage, miscegenation, was against the law. Ray introduced her as Hawaiian, which I guess was a little more acceptable.

Thus, Dave and Ray, the Trailer Park Boys, without a hint of advanced education or sensitivity training, turned out to understand Diversity, Equity and Inclusion better than most of today’s “Progressives.” And they were good guys too.

To be continued …

You can order a nice color DVD produced by Mobil Oil of the 1954 race at this site.

Until next time, thanks for listening.

Duane  

Today, we’ll take another trip in the Wayback Machine. This is a story I wrote for UTAH magazine in May of 1993.  Wow, how time flies.

“Know Thine Enemy”
— Sun Tzu “The Art of War”
China, circa 300 BCE.

Knowing as much as possible about the products and problems of your competition may save your company time, money and effort solving problems on your own. Welcome to the world of espionage, think and counter think.

The Society of Computer Intelligence Professionals (SCIP) based in Washington D. C. makes a science of finding out everything about the competition. “Every business has a spy.” Says a P. I. (private investigator) who is a member of SCIP. They don’t use the word ‘spy.’ They prefer to be called Business Librarians, Strategic Planners, or some other euphemism, but what they really do is spy on the competition. They know where the C.E.O. of your company went to school, what he/she likes and what direction he will take given a particular set of circumstances.

Competitive intelligence is the underbelly of an otherwise legitimate business discipline. “Let’s say a client hires me to find out all I can about a new disc drive being developed in Silicon Valley,” says the SCIP guy. “Do I get hired as a janitor or place someone as a receptionist? No, I spend a week or two going to every bar within 5 miles of the plant. Get to know the bartenders. Find out who drinks there. Every company has a hangout. People like to be with people they know and talk about things they have in common. When I find out where the company or department drinks, I start going there. I join the softball team. I guarantee within 30 days they will tell me anything, because they are excited about what they’re doing. Of course they’ll say it’s confidential, but engineers have inquiring minds, and they’re not capable of not talking about their work. The European idea of putting a woman in bed is passe’. Just buy him a drink and ask what he’s working on.”

LOOSE LIPS

It seems Americans are much more open with information than their European or Asian counterparts. Kellogg in Battle Creek, Michigan used to give plant tours to school children and serve Froot Loops on ice cream at the end of the tour. Before long kids were being crowded out by heavily accented European and Asian men taking notes. Kellogg tried to ban note taking, but the men started coming on every tour memorizing model numbers of machines and plant layouts. Finally, the company stopped all tours.

“In other countries, it’s part of the culture that no one talks,” says the P.I.
“If you go to a party at the Bulgarian embassy, it’s taken for granted that everything is bugged. Once you leave Foggy Bottom though, no one believes it’s done here. A company in Silicon Valley used to throw lavish parties for the hottest engineers and software writers in the industry. It was an honor to be invited. You get 150 hot shots drinking in a room, and of course they’re going to impress each other with what they’re working on. The morning after the party the host is happily editing the tapes of every conversation. The human voice operates in a very narrow range, and it’s very easy to eliminate carpet scrub, glasses clinking, and the sound of the band. Whatever the parties cost (and it was a lot!) it was paid back easily in information. The ‘Embassy Party’ is the oldest trick in the book, and it worked like a charm!”

The Europeans aren’t immune to competitive thrusts however (don’t ya love that phrase!). A classic case is a placement firm that specializes in putting high level executive spies in the board rooms of their client’s competition. If firm A wanted to bug firm B, it would arrange to have the placement firm find a job for one of A’s “unhappy executives” extolling the value of all the knowledge of A he would bring with him. B would pay a high price for the “turncoat” who would then siphon information from B and deliver it in exchange for a second salary to firm A.

Neat deal.

If you think this sounds like something the C.I.A. would be interested in, you would be right. Atlanta based Business Risk International is a worldwide organization peopled with ex-CIA, FBI and Secret Service agents. They are tasked with finding leaks in firms doing business with the US Government, particularly the Defense Department. “Almost anything is available if you know where to look,” says an agent who prefers to remain anonymous.

Some tips for the first-time spy / counter spy.

Knowledge is power. The more you know about your target and the person in the company likely to help you the easier your job will be. If he/she is an engineer, be an engineer. If he’s ex-military, be ex-military. Americans really do like to be helpful, and you are about to play on that admirable trait. Be prepared to explain how you got their name, and make your contact the solution to your problem.

You need him!

VERY IMPORTANT…You must be able to distill your quest into one pivotal question. Once you have that pivotal question, and the lowest person on the organizational chart who is likely to have your answer, you are ready for the kill shot.

My first job out of college was with a chemical company that made ABS plastic. Management wanted to know about how much ABS plastic our chief competitor was selling … VERY closely guarded information. In an extended coffee drinking session one morning, myself and a couple of other no goods came up with a plan to find out.

One of our female cohorts called the rail yard supervisor of our target company, pretending to be the editor of a material handling magazine, and asked him how he safely handled the highly flammable, explosive and carcinogenic rail cars of butadiene in his rail yard. He couldn’t wait to tell her what a great job he was doing, including how many cars a week he unloaded and how he stored and handled the material. Since we made the same A.B.S. (acrylonitrile, butadiene, styrene) compound, we easily deduced their monthly volume in finished product, and also picked up some valuable manufacturing tips.

Well, good luck in your new role as an industrial spy… but to paraphrase Sun Tzu, “When you bend over to look up your enemies’ skirt, be aware of your own skirt.”

Until next time, thanks for listening.
Duane

As the world gets more homogenous, so does the car business.

Once mighty Chrysler is now a part of Italian based Stellantis Corporation, an amalgam of 14 international companies.

What used to be considered American motorsports, ¼ mile dirt tracks, ¼ mile drag strips, etc. has faded to irrelevance in our connected world, and car companies are looking for promotional venues that can reach a world-wide audience. Happily, Formula One (F-1) is tailor made to fit their needs, and is enjoying a surge of popularity in the United States. The Austin TX USGP race drew over 400,000 fans last year, the most of any F-1 race.

In the TV world, ESPN claims a record 1.2 million US viewers watched their live race coverage in 2022, up 28 percent over ’21. F-1 claims 49.1 million followers worldwide on all digital platforms, up by 23 percent.  40 percent of them are female, up from just 8 percent in 2017.

According to Nielsen ratings, the typical F-1 fan is 32 years old, has at least some college, and can afford $300 for a weekend race ticket, plus food, lodging, and transportation. Just the type marketers are searching for. These same surveys indicate video games and TV series are big influencers on whether to follow F-1.

Part of the reason for the popularity surge may be the Netflix series Drive to Survive, which has, through social media and astute marketing, hit the demographic bull’s eye that all car companies hope to capture. Drive uses a reality show format that features celeb-filled episodes, buckets of cash, and jet set glamour both on and off track. Each episode is filmed during an actual race, and mixes behind the scenes “real life” F-1 personalities with race action to create a cocktail that’s irresistible to fans and marketers.

Don’t be put off by the Reality Show label. There is no sex, no drugs, or emotional meltdowns.  I did see Caitlyn Jenner walk through the pits in one episode, but thankfully no one wanted to interview her. Missed the Miami GP? You can dial up any one of 5 seasons, with 10 episodes per season, each edited into a 35 to 45 minute format, and watch it on Drive. Pretty handy. It keeps all the action, pit drama and faces you’ll recognize, and is available 24 / 7.

Britisher Jenson Button, who won the 2009 F-I Championship and now competes in NASCAR, said, “In America, we love behind the scenes. We like seeing the individuals that are actually competing and a bit of controversy. You definitely got that on the (Netflix) TV show (on Formula 1). That’s a big part of it. Racing is one thing. I think understanding the personalities that are in the sport is something the European fans would want to know.”

Porsche and Red Bull have been talking for a year now about co-sponsoring the Red Bull race car when the Oracle Red Bull contract expires in 2026.  They went from RED BULL / PORSCHE to PORSCHE / RED BULL and back again but could never reach an agreement.  When Jim Farley, CEO at Ford and a successful vintage racer, heard the negotiations were stalled, he pulled out his phone and wrapped up a deal in less than 10 minutes. There should be plenty of meat on the table for both of them.

It’s all about exposure. Each “brand impression,” which is defined as your product or logo on screen for ½ second or more, is worth real money. Farley can use that to justify whatever he spent to reach the worldwide F-1 audience. Ford enjoyed a huge bump in brand awareness after the Ford v Ferrari movie.

Pretty impressive, considering Andretti Racing and Cadillac have been on their knees for the past year trying to convince F-1 CEO Stefano Domenicali to expand the franchise from 10 to 11 teams so they can join the party … especially considering Red Bull is the current champion and has won every race so far this season.

The first car of the new partnership will roll onto the track in 2026 under a new formula where Ford will supply the internal combustion engine backed up by new electric “mild hybrid” components.  

For more adventures in brand exposure see this episode from the Nov 2019 BLOG archives (http://mustangirs.com/blog/index.php/2019/11/). 

Seven-time World Driver’s Champion Lewis Hamilton, now SIR Lewis Hamilton, is currently producing an as-yet-unnamed Hollywood movie that stars Brad Pitt.  Sir Lewis hopes to equal or exceed the excitement generated by the Ford v Ferrari blockbuster (4 Oscar nominations and 2 wins including Best Film). Do you think RED BULL / FORD is aware of all this?  Do you think there is much jockeying for “product placement” shots in the new movie? Yea probably.

There are three F-1 races in the U.S. this year: Miami, Austin TX, and the new venue, Las Vegas. Vegas expects (hopes) that one million people will line their new course now under construction. It will be 3.8 miles long and speeds should top 200 MPH. Standing room only 3-day tickets started at $500.00 and are already sold out. Grandstand seats with a 4-night hotel stay range from 2 to 10K each and are “going fast.”

For something a little more glamorous, how about the SKYBOX PREMIUM / CLUB HOSPITALITY overlooking the start/finish line.  Your purchase includes admission to the Opening Party, and unlimited food / drink with a “top shelf” bar for 4 days. It is only $11,200 per person with tax and fees. It does not include gratuities, and a pit pass, if you want one, and your hotel must be purchased separately.

Ford knows an opportunity when it sees one. With demographics like this (demos in ad-speak), they’ll want to be front and center. 

Good work, Jim.