Tony, may be you can share the story behind the hunt!
Sure.... It goes like this.
In late 2008 my wife and I bought two Barrett Jackson Shelby GTs. There was a method to my madness. One we kept and one we put in the Barrett Jackson 2009 Scottsdale auction with the proceeds to the Shelby Foundation. They were matching convertibles, one with 5 speed and one with automatic, with sequential VIN #'s. (It's quite a coincidence, but the BJ SGT that crossed the block at BJ Vegas 2011 was the third in the VIN sequence). Having vacated the garage space, I left the auction with the Shelby CSX Cobra. I'd noodled on the right car, and the choice at the time was a FGT or Cobra, but I'd always wanted a Cobra since I heard Cosby's routine in 1968 (literally, right after the album came out).
The Cobra is an awesome vehicle. I chose one with carbon fiber construction but most importantly a fuel injected Roush 427IR (Luke Warmwater looked at the power plant and got convinced to do carbs) but there was a method to my madness - I move the car between 6000+ feet, to 10000+ on trips, and then down to sea level. It took several trips to tuners and back to Roush to get the altitude portion of the system working but it was worth it. The Mustangs were cool too. Put a supercharger on it and it beats a GT500. Both had cruise control (
) and we kept the automatic since the chief would drive it.
After I got the Cobra finally running well my wife told me she would no longer ride in it. If you can put "too" in front of anything it was that. It was too hot (engine next to fire wall and heat shielding insulation didn't matter), too noisy, too windy, too smelly, too... She burned her leg on the pipes twice, and the story about the harnesses (shoulder harnesses without a roll bar - you are the roll bar) was the straw that broke the camel's back. So I agreed that we would put the Cobra up for sale. I'd gotten frustrated with the OCD maintenance of the black paint on the Mustang and agreed that we would put both up for sale last fall. The Mustang went in December so she got her garage space back for the coldest part of the season.
The Cobra didn't move but that was OK - I still loved it and did drive it this season, although not as much as the first two years.
Last fall exactly at the time the Mustang went for sale, I was contacted by a friend at Ford. He was the fellow that put together the deal between Ford and the Arizona Ford dealers for the Barrett Jackson Shelby GTs. By the way, my choice of those cars was the color - the black with red stripe was way too cool, and the color was not available on the GT500 at that time. He told me that another company was looking for another BJ SGT to do another charity auction in Scottsdale in Jan 2011. That didn't happen. Anyway we got on the topic of the FGTs (part of the discussion was about gauges
) and asked if he knew of any in dealer inventory. He didn't but had a friend that had one and might be interested in selling, oh, and it's a Heritage with <1000 miles. I noodled on it for a while, and in the interim the Mustang sold, and the boss got her garage space back for the winter. That along with the fact we wanted to refinance (which we did, for 3.99%) I decided to put the FGT on hold. I really did want to sell the Cobra first but it wasn't essential.
In parallel with the FGT I seriously looked at a Shelby Daytona Coupe (built by Superformance but "improved" in the transition to the Shelby CSX9000 to be as civilized as the FGT - air conditioning, nice seats, regular seat belts, etc.) But the boss thought it was just a Cobra with a hard top. In the end I could have gotten a rolled aluminum Coupe for the same price as the FGT. A Coupe will be next on the list but not for a while.
Skip forward to about a month ago. I decided that it was time to look again. I asked my Ford friend if his friend's car was still available, and lo-and-behold, it still was.h
I emailed him that afternoon. The mileage is now a little over 1000 miles. Sigh (not really). He's got another GT (blue) and agreed to sell the Heritage. Now, I'd been locked on a Tungsten since I started the search, even passed up a 2005 silver (which just didn't do it for me). I always thought the Heritage would be too hard to find. In the end, the Tungstens are really probably rarer and harder to find
.
The owner has an in house mechanic, so the miles on it are the "turn it over" miles to keep fluids circulating and seals lubricated. Great! It even has the transaxle bolt TSB, so I know it's been maintained well.
Well, to make everything work out, the Cobra sold on Friday night. So I don't have to get a storage locker for it
and the GT will be here in a couple of weeks (before Rich goes to Texas).
Maybe a small TV and a little chair in the garage?
By the way, I really and truly love black cars. I just hate trying to keep them clean. My wife called me Mr. Monk - at shows I would wipe it down, go around and take pictures for a while, and then come back and clean it with detailer again. That didn't keep me from inventing a new color combo. A black no stripe, and then getting the heritage stripes and bra painted on with red. I still think it would be a great combination. But then I wouldn't need a bed - I'd just get the chair, TV and Ice detailer and spend 24x7 in the garage keeping it clean. Lather, rise, repeat.
