SAAC Forum

QuoteHere are the specs published in the first issue of the Marque, the old Shelby American automobile club magazine. It purports to be the factory specifications for alignment on a 427 street car. Obviously lots of people consider this to be proprietary information and I'm not aware of any place that the competition car specs have ever been published. It would just be a starting point in any event but I'd be kind of interested to see what the settings were

I would presume that an S/C would have had default alignment specifications when one was originally sold, so I don't know why they would be proprietary. Would they have been the same as street specs? Also, I would presume that a buyer could request a custom set up or know the defaults, so if he changed them he would know where his starting points were.

What was his finishing position?

I would suggest ARP head bolts and know they're going to do the job.

Mr. S

Thanks for the linguistic come back. 

Quote"Clotoide" is the only word where nothing is to translate, but when you translate the test it is
going how fast, and on which length, the car can make a 90 degree change of direction

Interesting information reflecting language subtleties. I can better appreciate when you are perplexed by english idioms.

Yet another example that Google isn't the be all end all of knowledge, although you've done wonders uncovering the information you have.

Mr. Sazbo

Great find on a story most if not all US enthusiasts would never have seen.

As for the Italian vocabulary, Google translate is your friend usually:

Headline                                                      Translation

Prova Della Ford Mustang GT 350                   Test of the Ford Mustang GT 350

Clotoide                                                        Clothoid (??)

Cerchi                                                           Circles

Frenata                                                          Braking

Sorpasso                                                        Overtaking

Slalom                                                            Slalom

Prova a Vallelunga                                            Try Vallelunga (not sure Italian idiom is right)

Prova in Salita                                                  Uphill test (interesting performance test)

Another Caravan aspect occurred to me and that's weather, due to the November/December time frame.

Obviously, based on photos, it was mild considering what eastern weather could have been. So it is amazing that weather was never an issue. I looked up weather reports for the following cities:

Nov. 23/ Kanas City: high temp: 62        wind average 13 mph       no precipitation

Dec. 2/ Detroit:        high temp: 45         wind average  15 mph     no precipitation

Dec 15/ New York:    high temp  45          wind average  13            no preciptation

So the Caravan managed to dodge snow, rain, or deep freeze temperatures. Kanas City had a heat wave while Detroit  and NY was relatively cool with a wind chill. Not a big deal for easterners, but turn out might have been reduced. 

Great where details continue. But do we know any whos?

As in who conceived the Cobra Caravan? Was it CS? Was it someone at Ford? Was it the Corbra Story publisher?

Who planned the route and display stops? Did dealers phone in saying they wanted a show date?

Finally, whose's pr budget(s) footed the travel costs?

Great SA historical thread.

Two observations:

Looking at the map, that's a lot of miles driven particularly considering that large interstate highway segments had yet to be completed.

Also the tractor appears to be a 64/65 H-series ( in 65, HT if the diesel was turbocharged). While there was a sleeper compartment, it's not like the units today. Presumably, they stopped each night to eat and rest.

Question: Any clue who the drivers were?

Great post topic.

My parents had station wagons from 1949 until 1970 when they bought a Galaxie 500 four door.
They were Ranch Wagons then Country Sedans. Interiors were tan, blue or red. All had V8s, but only 292 or 302s and automatic. Ford was the wagon master.

IMHO stationwagon body style is still cool. The last "real" American stationwagon, even though it wasn't marketed as such, was Ford's Flex.

QuoteAnd thanks for building a Cougar - can't wait to see it when you are done!

No part info, but if I may be permitted to interject a comment:

Ditto about building a Courgar. IMHO one of the most beautifuly styled cars to come out of Detroit and even stands up in comparison to super car styling (think Ferrari) in Europe during that era.

As for build, I would opt for 289/302 to maintain the car's race DNA.
EFI is ok but would go with a throttle body applicantion and not port style. Once again, DNA
Important thing is to build it and then drive it. And I mean a lot.

QuoteAfter watching the movie my thoughts were that the Director, writers, producer and last but certainly not least the Actors playing the key rolls were not able to portray the moment in time, in which they were to capture. It was a great story line but left us wanting more that never came.

Amen. In one article about the cars used in the film, the director was described as knowing nothing about cars.

QuoteThat's too nice of a car for a bunch of TV show morons to whip together in...what is it?...One week?

A$$ Monkey would have mounted an off-road tire and wheel on the trunk lid, and a Baja 500 push-bar on the front.  And maybe an 8-inch lift kit just for the hell of it.

Then, the goateed bossman would have scenes of himself "negotiating" the rich-and-stupid buyer to overpay by $100,000.

Love them reality shows. 

Roger that. This Mustang is dare to be different writ large. Good for him. The builder followed his dream.

QuoteFerarri

addendum: that should be Ferrari

QuoteI'd love to see the Riverside 4 hour. You couldn't write a better plot. Last race of the season. Championship up for grabs. Shelby builds a new car and has his B Production Champion Jerry Titus drive. He takes only two practice laps and pronounces the car "good to go". Titus qualifies it on the pole. They do a LeMans start on the back straight. Titus floods the car on the start and leaves dead last. After a short time he's passed the entire field and is in first place when disaster strikes - well at least one of Riverside's half buried tires marking the esses strikes and knocks off the oil filter. Titus makes the rest of the lap with zero oil pressure and pulls into the pits figuring the engine is toast. He makes his report to the boss lamenting how his day and the season are over for Ford. He's sitting on the pit wall lighting a cigarette after his chat with Shelby. The crew chief taps him on the shoulder and says "it's fixed hop in". Restarting from far back in the field Titus again drives to the front and clenches the first TransAm championship for Ford.  His win also launches his career as Mr. Transam.

Sometimes this stuff just writes itself.

This would have made a far more entertaining film than Ford Vs Ferarri.

According to the Cobra Story title pages:

"Produced by Lyle Kenyon Engel"

and:
The Cobra Story
by Carroll Shelby
As told to John Bentley

The copyright is reserved by Carroll Shelby and Lyle Kenyon Engle



Publishing note:

John Bentley was involved in "We At Porsche" published in 1976 by Doubleday & Company, Inc.
Title page reads:

We At Porsche
The Autobiography of Dr. Ing. h.c. Ferry Porsche
with John Bentley

It appears that Mr. Bentley moved around in automotive circles.