Ferrari Mailing List: Re: Shelby 3 Hour Tribute this Sunday on Velocity Channel

[Doug and Terri Anderson (dnt]

Yer right George – Shel was everywhere.

 

Early ‘60’s Ol Shel and Gurney got together and got Go Go Goodyear funding to make a real US of A F1 race car in an old warehouse down on Broadway in Santa Ana, CA.  A very patriotic (flying in the face of public opinion then) Gurney named his team All American Eagles and his car the Gurney Eagle with the head of a bald eagle as the logo.  There were a lot of antics that came out of that building late at night.  Heh heh.

 

Subsequently Goodyear came out with their sets of radial-ply racing tires – Goodyear Eagles.  In 1967 AJ Foyt used one set to win the Indy 500.  That knocked Firestone out of the obligatory Indy 500 winning tire circle.

 

Yeah George – Ol Shel had his fingerprints on a lot of early race car stuff.  He talked “The Deuce” into hot rodding his Mustangs, Hertz into renting out super modified Shelby Mustangs (ya had to be at least 25 because at the age the insurance companies thought a man was responsible)

 

Ach – those were the days.

 

DOUG

 

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From: George P. [mailto:ygpz4re [at] hotmail.com]
Sent: Tuesday, May 22, 2012 5:42 AM
To: DOUG
Cc: The FerrariList
Subject: Re: [Ferrari] Shelby 3 Hour Tribute this Sunday on Velocity Channel

 

Let's not forget that Shelby was *also* aligned with manufacturers other than Ford - anyone remember the "Shelby" Dodge Omni GLH (and others of its ilk)?
 
I don't think Shelby was picky about who he worked with, so long as his name was on a product and he got paid for it.
 
Admittedly, I did not watch these shows, but I really have to wonder about how much of the "go fast" engineering he really did (if any), at least on the later products that bore his name...  (or is "none" too obvious???)
 
FWIW.
 
gp
 

> From: Erik Nielsen <judge4re [at] gmail.com>
>
> And so it becomes just another brand...
>