Shelby and SAAC at Odds

I feel sorry for the investors who paid $6.00 a share in 2003 and now it is worth 24 cents.

Link:

http://investing.businessweek.com/research/stocks/charts/charts.asp?symbol=CSBI.PK

 

I would like to thank SAAC for all their hard work over the years and all the volunteers for what they have done for all the Shelby owners. I have belonged to the club since they started and only have good things to say. I think it would be great if the new Shelby company has a new club for the newer cars. There is plenty of room for two clubs. It would also be nice if they would keep a registry like SAAC has on the older ones. The only reason the older cars have the value that they do is because SAAC has kept the cars documentation instead of probably letting someone that did not care anymore throw it away. That is the reason people are willing to put the big dollars in the cars because it is no doubt that they own the real McCoy unlike many other brands of cars that people are always arguing about. Try sometime to prove you have a real 68 or 69 Z/28 Camaro without any paperwork and see how far you get. SAAC has done all the research for us and has done Shelby the biggest favor in the world by holding his Brand name to the highest standard. SAAC is the only people I have seen Shelby associated with that has this high of a standard that has held his name high. All these companys that Shelby has tied his name to in the last couple of years have all busted and that is not good for his name. Everytime someone came along with an idea to build a car he was quick to jump on the band wagon to make a few dollars and we all knew it was not going to last. I think he or they have done a great job with the new Shelbys and these cars will stand the test of time if he does not screw this thing up with the club. What he needs to realize, most of these guys that buy the new ones are the same guys that have the old ones or used to have the old ones. I can not believe his company is so stupid as to shoot them selves in the foot by pissing everyone off that are going to be his customers. I really hope these guys can work something out and Shelby gets off his high horse and wakes up. I will be sending money to SAAC to help them and I won`t be ordering a new Shelby till his company wakes up.

 

One thing I do not understand about big business such as Ford for example, and Shelby, is that they pay out the ars for marketing and ads and product exposure to develop a following. Everything from google pay-per-click to paying Hollywood to place their cars in TV shows or movies. So far that strategy makes since to me. But then the corporate bonkers department (control freaks with attorneys) go haywire and send out cease and desist, attorney letters, threats, court invitations to small businesses that actually help with product exposure ... maybe for years without costing the big guys a dime ..or let us say for free. If SAAC had been an advertising agency for Mr. Shelby for the last three decades, what would their pay have been over the years? If Mr. Shelby had gone to an Ad agency in 1975 and said I want you guys to make sure I'm an icon, I want to be put on a pedistal, I want extreme coverage of every car I ever touched and I want special services offered to my past customers and for you to keep it up for 33 years... what would his bill be? And can you imagine a real world ad agency figuring that bill? Someone should come up with a guess. Can you imagine a real world ad agency performing like SAAC has? ..not even close.

 

Well spoken.

Shelby: The begining of the end.

 

I'm not so sure everyone knows how bad this could be for the vintage crowd. Some very questionable things are going on.
Jon

 

I have been working with SAAC for a few years now to get the Tribute Edition Shelby's produced by MUSTANG F/X (under contract) in the Shelby Registry. Permission was granted but I was asked to wait until they were ready to work on the Mustang Registry (they were starting the one for the Cobra & GT40) The paper work on all of the Cars was finnaly mailed in a couple of weeks ago and today it was returned to me with a letter explaining that they were forced to return it because SAAC is NOT allowed to deal with the Late Models in their Registry, only the Vintage. I am not to happy about this BUT, I am NOT upset with SAAC. I would like to thank Rick Kopeck for all of his Help in the past and I hope someday to meet him in person. He is a COOL guy. Thanks.
David.

 

I am very happy with Shelby, he didn't have to Lincense me to build them but he did. At the time the contracts were signed (December 1998) I believe I was the only one licensed to produce limited production Mustangs using the Shelby name, so it was an honor. I got to meet him several times AND I got to fulfill a long time dream of mine.
David.

 

That brings up an interesting question....the "return of records" request for Registry purposes in the Cummings letter uses 1996 as the start date.

Will that mean that the CSX4000 and later models of the continuation series of Cobras also be dropped from the Registry?

 

Link to the News Release from Automotive News:

http://www.autonews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071203/ANA04/712030330/1021/rss01&rssfeed=rss01

 

Here is the text of the article in case it gets deleted. It looks like it just boils down to greed and Carroll thinking he can get his hands in SAAC's wallet.














Carroll Shelby: "I'm tired of them. I want the registrations and the records under my control."




Carroll Shelby goes after 2 former business partners

Kathy Jackson
Automotive News
December 3, 2007 - 12:01 am ET



LOS ANGELES — The tangled business affairs of Carroll Shelby grow more complicated by the day. The 84-year-old racing legend is now in disputes with two key partners.

Shelby says he won't renew a licensing agreement with the Shelby American Automobile Club, a 5,000-member organization that keeps records on Shelby cars and verifies their authenticity

In another development, Unique Performance Inc., a company near Dallas that refurbishes 1960s Shelby Mustangs under license, has filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy to liquidate the company. Some consumers who fear they have lost their deposits now want to sue Shelby's company, Shelby Automobiles Inc.



Unique Performance refurbished under license 1960s Shelby Mustangs such as the 1965 Shelby GT350, shown here. Unique has filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy.
Club plans to fight
In a Nov. 14 letter, Carroll Shelby's lawyer demanded that the Shelby American Automobile Club return all Shelby-related merchandise and turn over its financial statements, demands that club director Rick Kopec says he will fight. The club's license expires Jan. 31.

Carroll Shelby says he is angry with the 33-year-old organization, which has been licensed by Shelby since 1996. He says Kopec and other club directors have excluded him from decisions on how the club is run and have not shared financial information.

"I'm tired of them," Shelby says. "I want the registrations and the records under my control. They've made a lot of money but never counted me in on anything. I don't want my legacy to go down under their thumbprints."

Shelby says he wants to bring the club in house. Kopec says he doesn't mind if Shelby wants to end the license and start his own club, but the group won't hand over registration information or comply with other demands.

"It came as a shock; we were blindsided" by the letter from Shelby, Kopec says. "We have put a lot of hard work into this club."

Kopec would not say how much income the for-profit club takes in. "The club pays for itself," he says. "There is no money left over."

He says revenue comes mostly from dues, which are $47 for the first year and $40 annually thereafter. The club also makes money from its annual convention.

License pulled over lawsuit
Meanwhile, Shelby is immersed in the problems at Unique Performance, which since 2002 has partnered with Shelby to re-engineer and refurbish vintage Shelby Mustangs. With Unique in bankruptcy protection, Dallas lawyer Scott Palmer says he is investigating a multiplaintiff suit against Shelby.

"Shelby's name was the whole draw," Palmer says. "It was a licensing agreement, but Shelby's name was attached to the marketing and advertising. That's what made people jump up and give the money."

Last month, police in a Dallas suburb seized 61 cars from Unique Performance. Each of the 58 Mustangs and three Chevrolet Camaros confiscated had false vehicle identification numbers, according to police.

Before Unique's Nov. 12 bankruptcy filing some consumers who paid deposits but never got their cars sued Unique and Shelby. That prompted Shelby to pull Unique's license in October.

"It's a disgrace that (Unique) did that," Shelby says. "I would be very angry myself. That's why we canceled with them."

 

And life will continue.....................

Remember it's only a car.

Health and wellness is the most important thing in life.

The rest is just trivial.

Michael Mark, BSc EE, P.Eng.

 

Ouch!!! Is that his side? I have no inside knowledge of the club, but I doubt they have made a lot of money. I know the Registry is big in our minds but its no Times best seller and has many authors. It would be a big money looser in a corporate environment.

Were they required by the licensing agreement to share financials and give Mr. Shelby a cut? If not, this has no basis.

 

I know I am not the most active of users here . . . but here are my two cents, even if they will probably be blasphemy to some of you.

These cars shouldn't be about the brand. They weren't built to be desirable, expensive, or hoarded (even though they are). They were built to be fast. Plain and simple. It isn't worth worrying about being an official club, or losing the records. We can still go fast!

Maybe I am just a bitter Dodge owner, but trust me, being told "you're not a Shelby" isn't that big of a deal. So what if you aren't able to verify that you have a "true" Shelby. I have never checked the lineage of my car. (Granted a big part of that is because no one in their right mind would clone a Dodge) And you know what, I still love it.

But what do I know, I drive my CSX in the rain.

 

I have a clone,
All my disappointment and disillusionment is fake too.
I'm pissed at Gumby.

 

Well. I have had 3 Shelbys dating back to 1970. I still currently have owned my 67 GT 500 since 1972. I didn't buy the car to make money, I bought it to GO FAST, and because it was cool looking, and different than my friends Mustangs & Camaros.
But here is a problem I encountered many years ago.
While selling some extra parts via the Snakebite ( SAAC's classified publication), I mentioned to a prospective buyer over the phone the Shelby serial # of the car the parts came from.
When the SAAC Registry came out a year later, there was my old car registered in Oregon by some guy I had never heard of, knowing full well where my old 66 GT 350 Hertz car was...and it was NOT in Oregon !!
Rick Kopec went after the guy, and finally it was resolved. And it didn't cost the owner of my car one dime!!!
That is the value of SAAC keeping the records.Do you want someone else challenging the authenticity of a car you already own?? Or some guy trying to sell you one that has been rebodied?
If Shelby gets that paperwork, all the owners are in danger of having their paperwork go public, and that could be a disaster. Not because of the value of the cars, but the violation of some schmuck of your confidential info,that you voluntarily gave to SAAC to preserve and guard, and now someone else demands it, when you did NOT give him the right to your information on YOUR car.
When you purchased the car, that paperwork is legally owned by YOU.
Whom you choose to share it with is your personal business, and no one else's. not even Carroll Shelby. He passed that right to you when the car was sold.

 

Not to step on anyones toes but......... Contracts WERE signed and if those Contracts were anything like the one I had with Carroll Shelby Licensing then Carroll is in the Right. Contracts are NOT endless, they exspire and are NOT gauranteed to be renewed, and if it is not renewed, you must do what was stated in that Contract, and yes, that includes turning over Financial Records.
David.

 

Lawyers usually try to include everything but the kitchen sink in their License Agreements. By doing so they can use the same form for multipurposes. Financials enter into the royalty portion of documents where all parties concerned need to keep their bookkeeping straight in order to divide up payments from sales of items or residuals. In cases like the agreement between SAAC and Shelby, there was only a one time fee of a specific amount for the contract term. There were no royalties or residuals so that requirement is not valid. Your situation may be different.
Dave

 

FE Mann,
You Rule!!!!