May 15: Carroll Shelby Memories

Carroll Shelby dies. Well it had to happen, ol' Shel hit 89 and the end of his road. A great life full of car memories and car dreams that his imagination gave to the rest of us. A great life that gave us his cars from 1963 until today. A great life that was extended many years by a new heart tranplanted in 1990. What a coincidence that his new heart had as much heart as his old one did. Not many people (Ferrari?) have had their name so associated with great cars. I have a couple of personal memories of his cars that I'd like to share..........

Back in '68 I was in charge of getting cars for our annual Winter Carnival parade (University of New Brunswick in Saint John). I'd call the local dealers and they were always ready to offer up their latest convertible to show off in front of those souls braving the cold Febuary night. A call to the local Lincoln-Mercury dealer, brought an offer of two cars for us to use, a Meteor Montcalm and a Shelby GT500. What?? Who in their right mind would offer a red hot GT500 to a university student for even a couple of hours. In this case, they said to pick it up around 2 in the afternoon and bring it back in the morning!

Saint John was a muscle car deprived city, a lunch bucket town with very few hot cars. You can imagine my surprise that Casey Motors even had a Shelby, let alone the green GT500 that awaited me (like the one in the above pic). I spent the afternoon driving around town like a god and of course, I just happened to cruise by the high school as the students were leaving for the day. Oh, but that was sweet. Even left the dance early that evening, so that me and a couple of buddies could hit the highway for some fast action. What a memory!

The second one features a car like this..........

In the early 2000's, I dealt with a dealer whose owner had an small, but very interesting muscle car collection which included a 1965 Shelby GT350. I believe it was originally bought in California and immediately road raced. Sometime in the '90's it was restored and even featured in a US magazine. The dealer and I often talked muscle cars and shared memories. He called me one day and said he had bought this Shelby and I should come by for a look and a ride. This car was built for speed  -  no back seat, no heater, no radio. The exhaust was side pipes coming out just in front of the back wheel. When he revved that GT up, the exhaust cleared away any dirt surrounding the car. When he shifted it at the redline, the front end lifted and that car flew. Raw power, minimum comforts. Another great memory.

Carroll Shelby. What a terrific life doing what he loved. His time had come, but he'll be missed.

A few of you have asked what the CMC  -  Car Modeling Cat  -  has been up to lately..........

Well, here she is looking over our latest project, a 1963 Buick Electra 225. Probably we'll wrap this model up over the next couple of weeks. Good story behind this one.

Until next time.......