Beachcomber's Tales from the day

Thanx for the kind thoughts - much appreciated.

She was more like a pal than a MIL !!!! Here she is on our double date [ my 2nd date with Mrs.B [ Sylvia on the right ].

She will be sadly missed - thanx again lads.

 
Nearly back to normal .......................

With everyone's permission the next tale will be the previously promised [ threatened? ] story relating to my dealings with Carroll Shelby.
 
This tale is taking some time to lay out - has to be right.

It relates to my dealings with Carroll, Shelby American, and the Shelby Transplant Trust and will shed a little light on the private and corporate man. There will also be a selection of pix from my private collection - most never before published.

I was directly involved on Carroll's behalf during the litigation between Ford, AC [ Angliss ] and Shelby American, liaising with UK matters.

I was also the chief negotiator when Carroll wanted to endorse some of the better Cobra replicas out there. In the end there was only one - the RAM SC, which I continue to be involved with - albeit in a consultancy capacity now.

In later years I was appointed by Carroll as the Eurpoean Liaison Officer for The Shelby Transplant Trust - involved in organ donation and transplants for underprivileged folk, something very dear to Shelby. It was during this period that there were many opportunities to socialise with Shelby and his contemporaries - Moss, Brock, Bondurant, Salvadori, Brooks and many others - a true privilege and highlights of my life [ birth of Daughters, Marriage to Mrs B etc. excepted ! ]

I was privileged to count Carroll a friend over the 30+ years I knew him and he became a Godfather to my Daughter - what else, but Shelby !

 
Well - part 1 is nearly completed, just looking out some suitable pix to go along with it.

Looks like it might spread over 3 or 4 distinct Tales - stop me at any time you get bored !!!
 
Here they are then as promised – the chronicles of my association with Carroll Shelby and his various enterprises from the mid-seventies on. Hopefully a little insight into the “Cobra Wars”, the private man and his Organ Transplant Trust Charity [ UK and Europe ].


Beachcomber’s Tales from the Day -

The Shelby Connection – March 2014

Part 1 - The Early Years


I first met Shelby during his visit to promote the “Birmingham Grand Prix “ [ UK ] in 1978 . He had been invited to participate through various English racing contemporaries – Roy Salvadori, Roy Brookes, David Piper, Sir Stirling Moss ………….. The event was a lifetime ambition of ex racing driver Martin Hone, who had various enterprises in the Birmingham region – night clubs etc. One famous one being the “Opposite Lock” down by the Birmingham canal system in Gas Street. More correctly the event was named “On the Streets”, as ANY referrence to racing was banned by the city Father’s after massive arguments with the RAC – the sport’s governing body in the UK at the time.

I had relocated back to the Midlands [ with Mrs.B #2 ] and was active in the American Musclecar and Hot Rod scene, and by that time had opened my own speedshop – “Muscle City”. The shop was in a prominent position on one of the main routes into Birmingham – and only 5 miles from the city centre. More importantly – we were only a mile from the main BBC TV studios at Pebble Mill, and a further 2 miles from the ATV [commercial ] studios.

Whenever they needed American cars or memoribilia for programmes – we were the natural choice being well known to them, and we duly obliged. Anything from Street cars to Dragsters ! It was as Martin Hone was putting the finishing touches to the plans for the 1978 “Cavalcade”, he saw one of our pieces on TV. A full blown rolling burnout with a Funny Car on the main road outside the BBC’s Pebble Mill studios ! That was enough to convince him to contact me to see if we could “assist” in any way.

Martin was unable to secure permission from the then governing body [ the RAC – never forgave the bastards ] to run any competitive racing, however the City Fathers did see the value [ commercial and tourism ] of staging the event as a Cavalcade. So it was that Martin called by the shop one day to ask us if we could organise various American cars and Hot Rods for the event. What I didn’t know was that he planned to have the cars as a static display – due to the resistance [ harrumphing ] of the Veteran and Vintage Car Club [ and others ] who thought the cars would “lower the tone” alongside their Bugattis, Maseratis, Ferraris, et al. I had agreed to take my partner’s [ Craig Purser – RIP ] fully loaded Trans Am – “the Mexican Missile”, which in the style of the day sported fantastic murals [ Vic Rollins ] depicting a Mexican sitting on a rocket drinking Tequila [ looooong story ]. It was felt that my Boss 429 Nascar Mustang – looked “too ordinary” ??

Anyway – the day of the Cavalcade dawned and we arrived in the paddock area early to scope out the fantastic old racers. Once we got wind of what was planned for our display – I legged it out of there in the Missile and parked myself up with some of the race cars. It was just as I was parking up and doing the obligatory static burnout [ hooligan, I know ] that Carroll came up and tapped on my window indicating for me to get out. Expecting a severe bollocking, I was surprised when he complimented me on the paint job AND burnout and invited me to join him for breakfast. In reality, it was probably a very foxy Mrs.B that he wanted to come along, but I’m not proud !

It wasn’t long before we got to talking cars – and Cobras in particular. I had just tripped over a pair of likely lads in Birmingham who just happened to have a set of moulds – albeit in two halves – a front and rear section. They wanted me to design a chassis and running gear to produce what would have been the first UK / European replica. We must have made an impression [ OK – Mrs.B made the impression ! ] because we found ourselves invited to join Shelby at his table for the evening Black Tie event organised by Martin. It was during the evening, that I came to realise that away from the spotlight Shelby was a real down to Earth guy – what we in the UK would call “one of the lads”.

The Cavalcade was planned for the following day, with the City Centre roads all being closed down. So we were able to socialise and visit with some of Shelby’s racing contemporaries. With Carroll’s accreditation we were accepted immediately into their circle – and again, were surprised at just how relaxed these motoring celebrities were when out of the public eye.

When the Cavalcade got underway the following day, we tagged ourselves onto the rear of the Bugatti display – much to the amazement of the crowds – and especially the Musclecar and Hot Rod boys !

When we got back to the paddock after the parade, Carroll insisted that we kept in touch and signed a copy of his “Shelby’s Wildlife” for me. Of course we never expected to hear from him again after the event – but I was pleased to get a letter from him a month later together with some Shelby American memoribilia and an SAAC certificate and membership for my Boss 429 Nascar Mustang.

We kept in sporadic contact for the next several years – during which time I imported 2 Arntz replica Cobras [ POS ] courtesy of my pal Keith Harvie [ Performance Automotive Wholesale – PAW ] and after we had totally revamped the bodyshells [ they WERE shite ] and I had designed a new chassis – I again contacted Shelby to tell him what we were up to.

I expected a round of fucks to come back – as this was the time he was getting somewhat peeved at all the replicas springing up. Not that he was against the replicas per se – but some of them WERE dire. NO, he fully encouraged me – especially when I sent drawings of my multi tube chassis design and 302ci Ford powerplant !

It was at this time that Shelby introduced me to one of his personal mantras – “OPM”, or “Other People’s Money” whilst recounting his own personal use of OPM when his Cobra plan was hatched. I liked this theory so much, I adopted for my own future business ventures !!

Most of you will be aware of Shelby’s Texas Two Step he performed with both Ford and AC Cars to enable the Cobra to come about – the ultimate application of OPM. It’s worth the telling as some may not be aware – and anyway, I got it first hand from the Man, so please indulge me !

Shelby recounted how his long time heart condtion came to a head in the 1959 season, forcing him to take the decision to quit racing before the heart situation caused him to have an accident – or worse. Like most seriously active men, Shelby needed something to fill the void, and turned his attentions to business. A flurry of businesses were attempted – the most successful being a truck haulage company – but this was not car racing !

A move back towards racing was on the cards and when Shelby won the West Coast distributorship for Goodyear racing tyres, he took the opportunity to set up a Racing Driver school at Riverside. It was at this time that a young Pete Brock was hired as a race instructor – later to become significant with Shelby’s graphics requirements and later, his design of the Daytona Coupe.

The race school was an instant success and fueled Shelby’s desire to produce an American Sports car – capable of beating the best. Many others [ US ] had tried with varying success along the way – but all failed to make the breakthrough. The sale of the trucking company reelased some capital, but nowhere near enough for his project needs.

The answer for Shelby came during a luncheon with an Auto magazine writer [ Ray Brock ] – when he told Shelby that AC Cars in England no longer had supplies of the Bristol engine used in the Ace sportscar. The chassis was a design by John Tojeiro and were available to anyone to slot their own engines into. AC saw the chassis as a basis for their own planned sports car [ they made boring saloons and Invalid carriages at the time ! ] and promptly did a deal with Tojeiro to buy the rights to produce the chassis.

Initially the Bristol engine was chosen and that was how the car was launced in 1953 – no hint of what was to come ! After the supply of Bristol engines ceased, AC briefly went onto use the modest Ford six, which normally found itself in Ford’s [ UK ] Zephyr and Zodiac saloons. This got Shelby thinking – a V8 was the answer ! He was able to rustle up a Bristol engined AC and after taking basic measurements, decided it would fit the bill. The body shape was by now somewhat outdated, but the chassis had plenty of potential. So in 1961 Shelby decided that was the way to go and wrote to the AC owners [ Hurlock Brothers ] to put his broad proposals for a US / English hybrid. Shelby at the time was based at Dean Moon’s facility – Moon sold Shelby’s Goodyear Tyres and in return offered him a small office complex [ OPM ! ]. Shelby saw first hand various Chevy engines on Moon’s dyno and was seriously impressed – that was the one. But after a series of preliminary enquiries, it became obvious that GM were not interested – after all they had the Corvette! Then the fates intervened as Shelby got to hear about a new Canadian V8 Truck engine that had just been launced.

Then came the first part of the Texas Two step ………… Shelby contacted Ford saying he had this “deal tied up with a top UK Sports car company – just looking for a suitable tuneable V8” – and even had the “first rolling chassis sitiing in his workshop”. In reality it was a customer car he had borrowed and simply removed the Bristol engine ! Anyway, Ford took the bait and shipped Shelby a fresh 221ci Canadian V8 - foc. Pete Brock, Phil Remington and the good ole boys dug in and within the weekend had the motor installed. This was to be a proof of concept project and the car was never rolling under it’s own power. However, Brock took plenty of photos to whet Ford’s appetite.

An agreement in principle [ still no contracts at this point ] was reached whereby Shelby would ship one of the V8s [ supplied and shipped FOC by Ford ! ] over to AC cars and THEY would install it and get the car up and running [ OPM ].

By early 1961 the car was ready and Shelby flew to England to view the car and test it out at Silverstone.

Although the concept looked right, Shelby highlighted many little niggles with the car – the most serious being poor braking and the ancient Moss gearbox that was very much on it’s limits. A switch to a Ford box solved that and most of the other concerns were attended to before the car was shipped back to the US. Strangely, the engine didn’t make it back with the car !

Bizzarely some 40 + years later history repeated itself when Shelby sent a Caddy Northstar power unit over to us at RAM to be installed in a RAM chassis for Shelby’s evaluation. That car went to the US to undergo testing [ successful ], before being returned to RAM – less engine !

The boys soon found a suitable engine [ 260ci ] amongst Moon’s stash and within the day had it installed and running.

Now was time for Shelby’s biggest application of OPM. There was no formal contract from either Ford or AC at this time and Shelby somehow had to persuade both that the other was already signed up !

AC were the first to get the Shelby treatment – telling them that Ford would supply all the engines and development. So, when Shelby had his meeting with the Ford brass his racing credibility went before, whilst he gave the impression of being a wealthy Cattle Baron ! Taking along the Pete Brock photos of the POC car sealed Ford’s interest. The snake oil worked and Shelby secured an agreement that Ford would not only supply the powerplants, but would in fact bankroll the first 100 cars to ensure success – OPM of the highest order !

With that contract in his pocket, Shelby didn’t need much to persuade AC to fall in line, especially when he dangled the initial order for 100 cars under their noses !

So the Cobra was born – Shelby claiming the name came to him “in a dream”. In reality the name was later to be contested bitterly - I was involved in the litigation. [ in Shelby’s corner ].

From the outset Shelby referred to it as a “Shelby Cobra” – AC Cars as an “AC Cobra” and Ford as a “Ford Cobra” !! It would only end in tears – and lawyers making a ton of money. Later in the Tale.

Ford insisted on the name “Ford Cobra” and agreed that AC could market the cars in the UK and Europe as “AC Cobras”. Eventually the cars were badged [ fender ] with the Cobra name, with the rider “Powered by Ford”. That was my first lesson in OPM from the master’s side.


Shelby was a regular visitor to the UK – and especially to visit his buddy Engelbert Humperdink [ remember him ? ]. I met up with him socially on several of these these visits. We met at several shows, but had no official contact until the early 90’s, when Shelby was prepared to personally endorse some of the best replicas to help him promote his other passion – his Organ Transplant charities.

By this time I had wound down my own Cobra replica business due to the market being flooded with crap alternatives. Having sold my Cobra project to one of my German customers - who now bears the rights to the “AC” name and logos, I was now concentrating on Porsche replicas [ 356 Speedster and 550 Spyder ]. However, I was carrying out design consultancy work for my old pal at AC Realm Engineering [ RAM ] – concentrating on their new one make RAM / Bardhal Series race car – the SEC. Additionally I was fronting shows both in the UK and Europe on his behalf and carrying out marketing and advertising duties. It was in this role that I received a call from a guy [ Arley Dealey ] at Shelby American to enquire about arranging a visit for Carroll and his SA team to come over to evaluate the RAM [ amongst others ] as to the possibility of offering an official Carroll Shelby endorsement of the product. I’m not certain if he believed me or not when I told him that I knew Shelby well and we considered each other friends. Within an hour I got a phone call direct from Carroll – he was totally unaware of my connection with the RAM replica ! He asked me to officially assist with the hunt for suitable UK / Eropean replicas and also to discuss setting up the European arm of his organ transplant charity – the “Shelby Transplant Trust”.


Shelby had shortlisted several UK replicas [ none in Europe ], and arranged to come over to check them all out personally. He did say [ unnoficially ] that although his SA team had shortlisted 4 makes, in his view it was between the RAM and the DAX Cobra.

That neatly leads to part 2 - later…………………………

The Shelby Endorsement, blagging free show stands and the Innes Ireland Memorial rally

A shot on Birmingham's Main Street - 1978 event and NO the Birmingham City Bus was NOT included on the parade !



Crap picture of the "Mexican Missile" - Vic Rollins, the artist is trying to locate better pix.



"Shelby's Wildlife" - the signed copy that Shelby gave me in 1978



 
Hmmmm - no feedback to the Shelby Tale ....... perhaps car related Tales are a step too far?

I'll take this on advice before I get into the remaining 2 parts of the Shelby Years - maybe outstaying my welcome ........................................
 
Shelby truly a legend. You were blessed in your connections (sounds like you married up well). You also must have had some business sense yourself to have had several successful ones in early-market products and services. The people we meet throughout life become part of our life's story, and it seems yours is quite rich! What is the next chapter?

Sent from my LePanII using Tapatalk 2
 
Hell no keep em coming TJ, I read through it, enjoyed the tale but got called away from the PC before I could comment. So as for feedback, keep on tellign the stories, any and all, bike, car, trips to the pub whatever.

Cheers,

Maritime.
 
beachcomber said:
Hmmmm - no feedback to the Shelby Tale ....... perhaps car related Tales are a step too far?

I'll take this on advice before I get into the remaining 2 parts of the Shelby Years - maybe outstaying my welcome ........................................
Hell of a story. Bring on the car tales. I was always a fan of Shelby despite being raised mostly with Mopars and VWs. It's amazing how down to earth the car guys can be. While I can't claim such established relationships, I've had the privilege of meeting a few NASCAR legends back in the day when my parent's spring company (dad was plant manager and mom a machinist) was given the contracts to make springs for Richard Petty and a few others. At 12, we started building cars back in the corner of the plant where the bars were stored so we could take advantage of the overhead hoists (and stay out of the way). I'll never forget the day the King walked in with his entourage all smiles and glory to inspect the facilities. To a greasy home-building kid, it was a dream come true.
I can't wait to hear more. You sound like one heck of a legend yourself.
 
beachcomber said:
Hmmmm - no feedback to the Shelby Tale ....... perhaps car related Tales are a step too far?

I'll take this on advice before I get into the remaining 2 parts of the Shelby Years - maybe outstaying my welcome ........................................

I retold the tale at work if that is any feedback. Also my girlfriend knows when I start telling your tales.
 
beachcomber said:
Hmmmm - no feedback to the Shelby Tale ....... perhaps car related Tales are a step too far?

I'll take this on advice before I get into the remaining 2 parts of the Shelby Years - maybe outstaying my welcome ........................................

Don't quit, keep 'em coming, I don't care how many wheels you are talking about, your stories are great and a part of history that should be passed along. AND... you do a particularly good job telling a tale.
 
all your stories have been engaging, entertaining, as well as well written.

being a car guy, i would love to see more about your experiences with shelby and cars in general.
 
Thanx guys ................ I'll finish off the remaining Shelby Tales - then maybe gracefully retire myself. 8)
 
OK - convinced I'm not boring the shit out of you guys [ at least some of you! ] ;D

Part 2 of the Shelby Tales will be coming up before I go to my Summer break in Saxony [ late August ], and the final chapter before Christmas - maybe another Christmas Tale !

There are also a few more Biking Tales for next year - I could be persuaded. ;)
 
Lost a load of my graffix data with the latest PC virus :mad: [ now fixed ] - that's slowing progress somwhat.

More a of PITA than anything as I am having to go through 1000s [ literally ] of stashed olde worlde photos to find the images to go along with the tale.

The tale itself has been storyboarded and just relying on the old memory banks to flesh it out ! ;D
 
Been busy reading this whole thread for the last couple of days, still not a sign of boredom, so keep them coming BC.

Greets Frank,
 
Speedfreak said:
Been busy reading this whole thread for the last couple of days, still not a sign of boredom, so keep them coming BC.

Greets Frank,

Why thank you Frank ...............................

The problems with memories [ a bit like "holiday photos" ] is that what seems like "interesting" thoughts, do not always translate into "interesting reading !!

My main purpose [ initially ] was to give some of the younger peeps here a flavour of what it was REALLY like in the day. In original Cafe Racer terms - that's anyone under 55 !!!!!

There's so much bollox written about the era by people who weren't even born then - or at least [ like Mark Wilsmore - Ace ] only 5 or 7 !! What irritates me particularly is that these so called "experts" of the day will write / speak some total garbage, that will be believed verbatim by the innocents. I've lost count of how many objects I've thrown at the TV when "Cafe Racer" has been showing !

Then there's others who write magazines, make TV programmes, etc. and come out with statements and re-hashed myths as if they lived the day first hand.

I'm not even sure myself how the "Shelby Tales" got into this [ ?? ] - but I did "ask permission" first - and in any case these are first hand experiences I was privileged to experience with the man. Likewise the pix ...... when I finally find all the old 35mm snaps ......... they are MY private photos and many will never have been previously published.

Through my dealings [ and subsequent, friendship ] with Shelby I was able to meet and mix with many of his contemporaries - Bob Bondurant, Pete Brock, Roy Salvadori, Jack Brabham, Stirling Moss ........................ - ALL with their own contribution and fame in the World of speciality Auto manufacture and competition.

Apologies - I mentioned this before - but one of my most memorable evenings was round our camp fire at LeMans where we'd [ RAM ] taken several Cobra reps for Carroll and ourselves to do the pre-race parade laps - when Mrs.B introduced Carroll, Pete Brock and Bob Bondurant to Pernod [ Pastis ] ................... the tales flowed long and hard into the wee hours.
 
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