Cool story Doug, do you have a pic to share? Carl __________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Mail - Find what you need with new enhanced search. http://info.mail.yahoo.com/mail_250
My First Reaction to a Shelby (LONGISH) 2nd try to send... My love for cars emanated from living overseas...Jamaica to be exact. I longed for anything that smelled or reminded me of home. So, as a late grammar school lad, I was allowed to subscribe to just about every car magazine published to foster my reading. This was in the late 60's so I can recall seeing the Shelby ads for the 69 cars and Shelby looked pretty cool leaning against the front fenders. Those ads really caught my attention. But, I really wanted a Boss 302. Fast forward to 1971 and we had moved home to the SF bay area and I spent a lot of time with my oldest brother in Berkeley where he attended UC Berkeley. Berkeley is not quite the car town that LA is but it is close. I can recall my first trip to visit my brother I laid dyes on Boss 429, 1971 911S, and Ferrari..all before lunch! We actually moved to a small town called Orinda ...and Orinda has some great car collectors but they are not the showy type of folks. They keep to themselves. I know, what about Shelby's. To date I don't think I had seen one, but I had read every printed word. I was ready to spew facts and figures at the first sight of one. Now I am in college and I meet up with a potential study buddy after to school to exchange notes. Brian Dumas is his name. After studying, we exchange comments on cars and he says he has a Shelby! Yeah right! But, as we walk out to the parking lot....he walks up to a Gremlin! Oh, he does not drive the Shelby to school.He promises me a ride the next day....I am convinced he is dreaming. Next afternoon, there it is. 1967 GT350. Brian had purchased it from the original owner. I hear stories of his driving it to S Cal every summer to attend something known as SAAC conventions....I think he began going at SAAC 3. Better yet, after he had bought the car, it had thrown a bearing and he had the engine rebuilt by none other than Morgans Machine shop in Walnut Creek. Morgans was the preeminent sped shop in NorCal at that time with at least 10 hydro world records to their credit or ownership. They raced "Morgans flying machine" Oh, the ride. I owned a nice respectable 911 that produced about 200HP from a modified 6 with 2 triple draft webers. I worked more than several jobs during the summers so I could drive my choice of car...so the car ran like most 1970 era Porsches ...nice acceleration ( not great), great breaks and cornering. I am not used to slow cars but I am not all that wordly yet....I still am not! So, Brian has me jump in the acapulco blue ( repainted) 1967, and gives me the ride of a life time. I can just recall that I had not had a ride in a car that had such a flat power band. It ran all the way up until he shifted.. And to boot....the darn car really chirped the tires in 2nd gear. That never happened in a Porsche! Not one flat spot in the power curve. Very cool. So we became life long friends. he is my longest term friend and introduced me to some fun Shelby's through his friends and contacts. I did not buy one until much later with Pete Geislers help. We still talk every week, mostly about families but we never miss a nice car conversation. If anyone is going to be at Shelby Vegas. Look for me. I'll have our sapphire blue 66 there..number 66. And, the best part, is that Brian will be there to reminisce a little bit. Dan C indy_carl50@yahoo.com wrote: >Cool story Doug, do you have a pic to share? > >Carl > > > > >__________________________________ >Do you Yahoo!? >Yahoo! Mail - Find what you need with new enhanced search. >http://info.mail.yahoo.com/mail_250 > >