Author: mustangi

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Dear Car Friends

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

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

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

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

Duane

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Hi Everybody,

December is off to a good start.

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

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

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

Merry Christmas,

Duane

Dear Car Friends,

Mustang Monthly did a nice four page story on our car, which is in the October issue.  “On news stands now” as they say.  Are there still news stands?

Mustang Monthly also has a video supplement.  They used that to cover our Open House in Gardena.

Thought you might enjoy it.

Thanks

Duane