old 65 photo found

I absolutely agree!!! Please post the pics if you can.

Jay

 

The first old photo is of SFM6S1358, owned by Bruce Turlington Chesapeake, VA) from 1970-78. He was quite successful autocrossing this car with the old Beach Ford Mustang Club. One of his accomplishments was taking FTD (Fastest Time of Day) at the 1975 SOA (Shelby Owners Association) convention in Wichita, KS, beating VENOM in the process. The suspension of this car was highly modified, including 600/200 lb springs, lowered a-arms, converted to overrides, Konis, rear panhard bar, and a Detroit Locker. He also moved the battery to the trunk and installed a 65 rear shelf. One interesting thing in the photo is the Good Year race tires. They are 14", and Bruce had a 1" band added to the original Magnums to widen them. I now have these wheels stored in my barn. This was the first Shelby I ever rode in (1977- I was 15), and I eventually bought 1342 five years later. Wayne Taylor bought 1358 in 1978 and has owned it ever since.

 

The next old photo is of SFM6S2050, owned by Bill Vose (Hampton, VA) from 1968-81. Bill found this car in Nansemond Co in 1968 with no motor, and put it back on the road. He ran it with an iron T-10. He also added 10 spokes and a 65 rear shelf (Ken Blanton found these items for him in Colorado in the early 70s while stationed there), but he eventually went back to the Boss 302 steel wheels. Another veteran of autocrossing, he also ran with the old Beach Ford Mustang Club. This car was never much to look at, but it was extemely fast (and loud). He did some street racing with it as well (I knew a guy who rode with him in a race on 134 (Hampton Highway) one night- said it came out of the hole "like a bat out of hell". Bill was a great tuner (he and his father owned Prestion Carburetion in Newport News). This car had the Shelby aftermarket 2-4V setup with 450 CFM Holleys, and it ran great. He eventually had to sell it to get out of some financial distress. The last time I saw it was in 1989 at SAAC-14 in the Poconos, still had the 2-4s. I last talked to Bill about a year ago while he was setting up a test for us in the lab at the shipyard. The photo was taken around 1974 at an autocross in the back parking lot of Mercury Plaza Mall in Hampton.

Dave

 

On the topic of adding lights. I saw this 67 at a SAAC-MCR show back in the 80's.

 

According to the new registry, that would be 67410F8A03120 owned by John Guyer of Troy, MI who added "a custom grille which housed inboard and out board headlights". also has a 351W engine and G.T.350 side stripes.

 

Bruce Turlington and 6S1358 run deep in my family. After seeing Bruce autocross 6S1358 my brother had to have a 66 Shelby. Bruce sold Jim 6S905, which was a shell at the time. Jim and I restored 6S905 in doing so, now I had to have a Shelby also, but I went the big block route and bought a 68 KR #3739. A few years after buying the KR, I married Bruce's daughter Leslie. I'm happy to say Bruce is still playing with Shelby's and Mustangs.
Kenny

 

This old photo is of SFM5S225, owned by Lew Latham (Virginia Beach, VA) from approximately 1972-87. He was another Beach Ford Mustang Club autocrosser. This was another driven daily Shelby that also got the snot run out of it. Most of the time when I saw this car run, it was sideways at redline. Lew cut it no slack whatsoever. Save for eventually getting a set of Boss 302 wheels, a Toploader 4 spd, and a LeMans cam, this car was pretty stock. But it was well worn- I don't think I EVER saw this car in any show. Lew took it to a Shelby Club Show and Go at Road Atlanta one time with a bunch of the Tidewater Shelby guys (around 1979 or 80). Tried to outleemathias Lee Mathias and promptly blew the engine up. Lew bought the car from David Castle around 1972 or sold it back to him in 1986 or 87. David modified the car with 4 wheel disc brakes, American Mags, etc. I eventually bought all of the take off parts from him. I now have the original drums and backing plates from 5S225 on the back of 6S1342 (I put the nice originals away).

Dave

 

Arguably one of the top Shelby autocross drivers in Tidewater was Lee Mathias (Virginia Beach VA) in SFM5S071. Lee owned the car from 1970-90. Lee bought it from Frank Bernardini in Richmond, and had to de-1966 it (remove the rear quarter windows and rear seat that a previous owner had installed). Other than Boss 302 wheels and a rear sway bar, this car was all stock engine and suspension. The Magstars in the photo were very early in Lee's ownership. Lee used to write articles for the old SOA newsletter and the SAAC Marque. In one of them, he stated his philosophy on autocrossing: "Just leave the damned car alone and learn how to drive it!". It seemed to work well for him, and was a pretty good piece of advice. In addition to being one of the fastest Shelbys around, it was always one of the nicest. Both Lee and Bruce Turlington kept their cars in nice shape (in fact they eventually built a B/Production GT350, SFM6S1774 that was probably as nice as either of their street cars and well engineered to boot). Lee also used to run an original set of Magnesium American GTs (R-Model wheels), which I now own and use on 6S1342 for display on old Goodyear Blue Streak Sports Car Specials (I seemed to end up with pieces of a lot of local Shelbys) .

Dave

 

Dave,
Thanks for sharing the photos and the personal history on the cars and their owners. This is great stuff.

Jay

 

Dave,

Awsome photos, thanks for sharing them!

Do you know if Stan Simm, current owner of 5S071, has that pic, or any others you may have if it?

Dave

 

This photo is SFM6S1342, Frank Likert, Norfolk, VA. Frank owned it from 1970-82. Frank was looking for a HiPerformance 289 Mustang and found this car of the local Dodge dealers used car lot. He repainted it and drove it for about a year, then started seriously drag racing it. I ddin't realize until much later in my ownership that he had started autocrossing the car at about the same time. Wasn't the best handling autocross car at that time, but it was a great drag car (best of 11.78 @ 120 at Suffolk VA, but mostly low 12s). The above photo was taken around 1977, near the end of its drag days (at which point it was de-lettered and the suspension properly setup for handling). He lowered the front, installed konis and overrides, and 14x7 magnums with Radial T/As. He also did some One on One Drags at Langley Speedway in 1980 (see the Shelby American, Vol 5, #5). He also ran the car in a couple of Shelby Club Show and Go events at Road Atlanta, in 1979 and 80, I believe. I ended up with the car in 1982, and have since repainted it the original blue, added a roll bar, rear shelf and Americans. I did my fair share of Autocrosses, drag racing and open track events with it for about 15 years. Now I feel fortunate to still be around and drive it 2 or 3 times a month on the street.

 

SFM6S1788, Gary Dunn, Virginia Beach, VA. Owned approximately from 1970-1988. I don't know a whole lot about Gary or this car, other than from Bruce Turlington, who hears from Gary every so often. He was another of the Beach Ford Mustang Club autocross guys. Gary had one of the Cobra 2-4V setups on 1788 with Carter AFBs. He told Bruce about 1358 being on Kimnach Ford's used car lot. Bruce went to look at it, at which point it had a single 715 Holley on a Cobra intake. When he finally got around to going back to buy i, it had that 2-4V Carter setup on it. Gary had greased someones palm at the Ford dealer to let him swap carb/intake setups. Bruce still fusses about that to this day (that was the first thing Bruce fixed after he bought it!). Gary moved away from Tidewater sometime in the late 70s (out west). He sold the car to buy an ERA GT40, which he took with him when he moved to Austrailia.

 

Perhaps the biggest giveaway that the first car is real is that it doesn't have the Le Mans stripes. A "cloner" would probably have added the most distinctive and easily applied appearance feature. At least nowadays every old Mustang with stripes is called a "GT350 Tribute" and I guess the thinking was not all that much different back then.

 

i love those old stories and pic' , thank you for sharing

 

I recognize all of those old photos of Dave's.... LOL. I was probably 14-15 when I took them all. My parents and I were Beach Ford Mustang Club members back then. I loved those cars. The wheels on Lee's car 5S071, are the Magstars that live on our '68 GT350. They were on the '68 when Lee bought it and he put them on the 65 for a little while. I had autocrossed most of those cars at one time or another over the years. 5S071 was always my favorite, it just did something right that the other cars didn't. I think I was 16 when Bill let me drive home from an autocross one day with SFM6S2050. That might have been the first time I drove a '65-66 Shelby. I was used to the non-power brakes on our '65 Mustang and I could not get over how hard I had to push the brake pedal with the competition type brake pads that Bill had on the car to get it to stop.

 

Here is a current photo of SFM6S1774 as of Sept. 2011.