Shelby American Collection annual party


twobjshelbys

GT Owner
Jul 26, 2010
6,365
Las Vegas, NV
So today was the Shelby American collection party. It's a little "museum" that has more Shelby cars than I've ever seen. Well, maybe Miller's museum, but they swap cars (really - Miller cars are here).

I took almost 200 photos, so I'll give a couple of teasers.

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Yes, it was there. I passed up the opportunity to "steer" it in to the building so I could take pictures.


Bob Bondurant in my car

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It will take most of tomorrow to sort through almost 200 pictures, make exposure corrections and stuff.

Cleo Shelby was there. Peter Brock, Jack Sears, Allen Grant. Awesome.
 
Tony ,
Pony up some more pictures!
 
Here's the pictures from yesterday. Several replies will be needed to get them all in. I'm organizing by a theme rather than by strict time.

Note I have a video that is going to take some time to resize. It's 54MB. It may be a day or two before I figure this out since I've never done video before. The camera I used was my Nikon D300s. Normally I prefer the full-frame of the D700. I got the D300s to replace my failing D100 as a second body, and it is a DX format sensor, but also does HD video, and I knew there would be some cars fired up so I used the smaller frame camera.

First set is "general" photos.



Ford GTs. In all there were 5 there. I didn't know about show parking since I got my ticket on line and it wasn't mentioned. Those who called the museum to get theirs got "preferred parking". The rest of us were up in the nosebleed section.

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Allard. I don't know if it is an original or recreation but it was gorgeous.

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Ferrari 458 Italia. The paint was really cool. It changed colors in the light but appeared to be a grey with a splash of green.

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There were lots of original Cobras brought there by their owners (besides the ones in the museum). One especially is my favorite because its owner drives it. There will be more on it later. It is the 3rd one to the right (with the person standing by it). The second red car is an original AC Ace with the 6. Again more later.

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Lots of Mustangs, but I didn't get very many pictures of them. Don't know why, just too many others to get this time and I've seen most of them before too. This KR was one I hadn't seen.

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A Kirkham "bare naked lady".

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Bob Bondurant (left) and Bill Murray (right). Bill (along with his brother Dave) is one of the principals of the collection museum and a world-class Cobra restorer. Most of the Miller cars were restored by them. Oh and he's a damn good racer too, racing Cobras and GT40s in Vintage Races all over.

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GT40 "J7" inside the museum. It couldn't be started because the starter went out when it was on a trip to one of the 50th parties. Dave is rebuilding the starter.

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Photo of Larry Miller and Otto Werlin. Otto was the owner of the black Cobra I mentioned above and a great supporter of the museum. His (now Peter's) car resides in the Museum over the winter months.

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Bob Bondurant driving a 1000HP Cobra replica. It sounded nasty and from the owners description it was a good thing there were no law enforcement officers nearby.

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1000HP Cobra engine twin turbo.

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Inside the museum.

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This is the section on the Cobras. This is CSX2052 owned by Otto (and now Peter) Werlin. It is a 260 (not 289). The 2x4bbl carb setup is very rare.

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Peter, his daughter, and Allen Grant (one of the guest speakers, and Cobra driver) who came over and gave us a pretty good history on the car. Apparently some of the pieces on the engine are truly unique and showed that these early cars were pretty much built individually.

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The AC Ace badge from the red car.

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The Bristol 6-cyl that AC lost access to and what gave Shelby the idea of putting the 260 and 289 Ford into the body.


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The AC and a couple of the other CSX2000 series cars had retractable steering columns. This disappeared later.

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This is CSX2210 - the blue car next to 2052.

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Some more general things.

There is always a silent auction of Shelby memorabilia and collectables.

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This is a signed (re)print of the GT350 design. There were some articles on him recently.

http://www.herald-journal.com/archives/2011/stories/chun-designer.html


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This interesting print is on the wall in the men's restroom. I've never seen one any where else.

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After Bob got back from the ride in the Cobra on Steroids he sat in my car for a few pictures and also signed on one of the rails.

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Another couple of shots of Bondurant with the Cobra. There is a story somewhere about the sock monkey but I don't know what the legend is. The blonde lady is his wife Pat.

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Speakers. At about 5:00 there is a storytelling session with the guests. They tell stories of driving and working (and, at the end, living) with Carroll and the rest of the team. Everyone had some kind words to say about Carroll.

Peter Brock (the designer of the Daytona Coupe) was up first. I didn't get a chance to hear all of his because it started while I was over with the car with another friend who is going to help me with some racing stuff.


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Bob Bondurant. His stories are the best and he really likes to tell them.

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Allen Grant and Jack Yager.


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Mrs. Cleo Shelby. Hers was pretty emotional recollections of Carroll.
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Steve Volk (the major force behind the Shelby American Collection and owner of J7 among other notable cars in the collection), Bob Bondrant, Cleo and some guy who I still don't know who he is :)

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Next up: P1015.
 
GT40 P1015 is the 1966 Le Mans car driven by Ken Miles and Dennis Hulme in what was to be the photo finish three-way tie. The FIA judges awarded the win to Bruce McClaren and Chris Amon due to a technicality - they started later in the pack and thus had driven a slightly longer distance - feet. So Miles/Hulme in P1015 were awarded 2nd.

P1015 is currently owned by (the family of) Larry H. Miller, of Miller Motor Sports and Utah Jazz and tons of automobile dealerships in Utah and even one in the Denver area.

P1015 appears in many photos. I have this poster

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Seeing this car in person was the highlight of the day. Hearing it was even more awesome.

There are enough photos that I'll have to split them into two posts - daytime and night time.

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Very sticky tires. See the rocks? Love that engine compartment.

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At about 7:30 they PUSHED the car back inside. This is where I get to see the car up close.


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The car is not a perfect museum piece. It is vintage raced and shows stone chips on the front and other wear. It makes me glad that this is still allowed to show what it's got.

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Inside. No creature comforts here. Switches have dyno labels!!!

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Look at the dings on the top!!! See, I told you it was driven.

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The door has some scratches too. I wonder if something was dropped on the top or something. But it almost looks like a scrape.

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Rock chips on the front.

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What a car!!!

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At the end of the guest talks Bill Murray started it up. I got a video on the D300s but it is 1280x720HD and 54MB for about a 20 second clip. I'm trying to figure out how to get it to a reasonable size. I will post it when I master that skill :)
 
Thank you for all the great pics and write up. :thumbsup
 
Thanks for sharing. really awesome.
 
At the end of the guest talks Bill Murray started it up. I got a video on the D300s but it is 1280x720HD and 54MB for about a 20 second clip. I'm trying to figure out how to get it to a reasonable size. I will post it when I master that skill :)

Just put it on youtube as HD and post a link.
 
Great pics. Thanks to u, Nikon ans especially the subject material!
 
Wow, great coverage of the event. I don't believe there will be very many sources on the web with as many fine photos and commentary.
 
P1015 video

[video=youtube_share;uVDSGG1_kXo]http://youtu.be/uVDSGG1_kXo[/video]
 
Great stuff, Thanks
 
Great photos of a great event twobjshelbys! Thanks.

Ed