(https://www.saac.com/forum/gallery/8-120323114708.jpeg)
Ford archives?
I checked there and it looks like they have been "improving" things WTF
Found it thanks!
PLEASE SHARE!
Oh sure.
Here it is...I did a reverse image search. This was actually a Branda catalog cover once!
It was important confirmation to get the colors.
(https://www.saac.com/forum/gallery/8-130323180229.jpeg)
....and here is why its important.
I was poking around the Petersen Publishing online archive and found a series of pictures of 1969 Shelbys taken in October 1968. Well there weren't many cars around at that time. I was able to identify the location from the photos. They were taken at Orange County International Raceway. The event was the west coast unveiling of the 1969 Shelby.
The Gulfstream Aqua car in this picture has the same license plate (sorry its cut off) in this picture as the cars on the Peterson site. This indicated to me the picture was likely taken at the same time.
Even better I was able to identify all the cars present in the photos. Turns out they were preproduction cars! Most did not even have Shelby serial numbers!
If anyone is interested I will share more?
Great find
Quote from: Coralsnake on March 13, 2023, 06:08:44 PM
....and here is why its important.
I was poking around the Petersen Publishing online archive and found a series of pictures of 1969 Shelbys taken in October 1968. Well there weren't many cars around at that time. I was able to identify the location from the photos. They were taken at Orange County International Raceway. The event was the west coast unveiling of the 1969 Shelby.
The Gulfstream Aqua car in this picture has the same license plate (sorry its cut off) in this picture as the cars on the Peterson site. This indicated to me the picture was likely taken at the same time.
Even better I was able to identify all the cars present in the photos. Turns out they were preproduction cars! Most did not even have Shelby serial numbers!
69 Prototype project memories, Pete.
Our friend was very happy ;)
Quote from: Coralsnake on March 13, 2023, 07:26:12 PM
Our friend was very happy ;)
Did any of those survive?
Do not mind if you share the VIN#'s.....🫣
I will post more this afternoon
I think they are all around except one.
Pete,
I have seen pictures of 69 models with blackwall only tires at dealers...........was there a tire shortage then?
No, thats the correct tire for the small suspension cars.
http://www.thecoralsnake.com/69tires.html
The other tire used was the raised white letter in the bigger size for the bigger suspension cars
Thanks for posting, much appreciated
I will do a little today and more later....
I started by looking at the Peterson Publishing Archives online
https://archive.petersen.org/pages/home.php?login=true
There are a number of 1969 Shelby pictures there, so I started by sorting them into groups. I did this by looking at the file numbers and the physical characteristics of each car.
I found five different groups of pictures, each for a different car. I figured out two of those groups were actually the same car. So there are four different cars presented on the site.
These pictures were all taken in 1968. I found an old Shelby memorandum requesting cars be in California before October 24, 1968.
This is an interesting date because its before almost all regular 1969 Shelby production had started. Although I didnt start out looking for where these pictures were taken, Mr. Liska noted this sign in the background. It indicates the access road is adjacent to I-5 in California.
(https://www.saac.com/forum/gallery/8-140323182357.jpeg)
This picture gave us the location of the Orange County International Raceway near Irvine, California (now gone). It was identified by the race tower.
(https://www.saac.com/forum/gallery/8-140323182331.jpeg)
The cars on the Peterson website are a GT350 convertible, A GT500 Convertible and two GT500 Fastbacks.
All the photographs are in black and white. So, it was difficult to determine what colors the cars were. That just made the puzzle more fun.
Quote from: Coralsnake on March 14, 2023, 06:30:13 PM
These pictures were all taken in 1968. I found an old Shelby memorandum requesting cars be in California before October 24, 1968.
This is an interesting date because its before almost all regular 1969 Shelby production had started. Although I didnt start out looking for where these pictures were taken, Mr. Liska noted this sign in the background. It indicates the access road is adjacent to I-5 in California.
(https://www.saac.com/forum/gallery/8-140323182357.jpeg)
Sand Canyon was one of the off-ramps for OCIR, off of I-5. The Shelby in this pix is at the far end of the 1/4 mile. Past the drag strip return-road, and back toward the handling course.
BTW: Notice the conventional front license plate...NOT a mfg plate.
Quote from: Coralsnake on March 14, 2023, 06:33:46 PM
This picture gave us the location of the Orange County International Raceway near Irvine, California (now gone). It was identified by the race tower.
(https://www.saac.com/forum/gallery/8-140323182331.jpeg)
Press events used to be so much smaller and less fancy. There also used to be only about 100 bonafide car writers/editors in the entire country. That includes freelancers. Everybody knew everybody. The hacks, idiots and goofballs were well known...and mostly never invited.
Today, who knows how many so-called "automotive influencers" there are. Since there's absolutely no requirement to be able to call yourself one, the number of faux-experts probably stretch well into the thousands. Take all those people back in time to when this pix was shot, and 99% of them would have been instantly labeled a hack, idiot or goofball.
Trivia: That's Motor Trend staffer Bill Sanders standing in front of the tower, facing the camera. He's wearing a dark windbreaker and what looks like a neckerchief/scarf. Swinging late '60s, baby! I knew him in later years. He was a good dude.
Quote from: Coralsnake on March 13, 2023, 06:09:52 PM
If anyone is interested I will share more?
Good stuff! 8)
Thank you for the additional information
More tomorrow and how the license plates become key to solving the mystery of the serial numbers
Okay to summarize so far, we were able to get the dates from Petersen Publishing along with the item numbers of the shots. The photographer was Eric Dahlquist.
Along with a memo in the SAAC archives we figured out this was the west coast introduction of the 1969 Shelby. The pictures revealed the location as Orange County International Raceway.
After sorting all the pictures it was found three of the four cars had California license plates ;
One of the GT500 fastbacks is "VSA-346"
The GT500 convertible is "XTK-387"
The GT350 convertible is "XRJ-441"
The other GT500 did not have a California plate, but rather a generic "1969" plate. In another photo shoot, it is shown with a California manufacturer's plate "6J-014".
This was important because that car had been previously suspected of being a pre-production (no Shelby number) car.
This is part of a picture on the Peterson website. It is the Gt500 with the "6J-014" license plate.
I direct your attention to the grain of the dash in the green circle
(https://www.saac.com/forum/gallery/8-150323171231.png)
Here is the dash from 9F02Q102338, one of the pre-production cars. Courtesy of the Coralsnake archives.
(https://www.saac.com/forum/gallery/8-150323171544.jpeg)
The first car has been identified. All of the characteristics of the car also matched. The options, trans, etc. and we know this car was painted red.
"VSA-346" was identified as another red pre-production car by comparing all the unique features and options. The antenna is on the other side from the earlier GT500.
This car has Stewart Warner gauges in the console. This picture is 9S02S100026 from the Ford archives.
(https://www.saac.com/forum/gallery/8-150323172520.png)
(https://www.saac.com/forum/gallery/8-140323182357.jpeg)
This GT500 convertible is "XTX-387" in the Peterson pictures. It was identified as 9F03Q102337. That pre-production car was one of the only GT500 convertibles.
It was originally painted Gulfstream Aqua.
So finding the colorized Carroll Shelby picture became important, because in some versions of this photo also show the license plate "XTX-387". The colored version confirmed this GT500 convertible was Gulfstream Aqua and the other two red cars shown in the picture. This picture was likely taken at OCIR the same day as the west coast introduction.
One car to go, what number is the GT350 convertible? ....more tomorrow
Pete, maybe it's just a typo, but the licence plate reads as 'XTK-387'.
Could be I will check
Quote from: Coralsnake on March 15, 2023, 05:07:40 PM
Okay to summarize so far, we were able to get the dates from Petersen Publishing along with the item numbers of the shots. The photographer was Eric Dahlquist.
Along with a memo in the SAAC archives we figured out this was the west coast introduction of the 1969 Shelby. The pictures revealed the location as Orange County International Raceway.
After sorting all the pictures it was found three of the four cars had California license plates ;
One of the GT500 fastbacks is "VSA-346"
The GT500 convertible is "XTX-387"
The GT350 convertible is "XRJ-441"
The other GT500 did not have a California plate, but rather a generic "1969" plate. In another photo shoot, it is shown with a California manufacturer's plate "6J-014".
This was important because that car had been previously suspected of being a pre-production (no Shelby number) car.
Eric Dahlquist was senior editor of Motor Trend in '69-ish. He later became editor, then was fired a couple of years after that for awarding the horrible Citroen SM as Car of the Year.
He later got into automotive PR and opened the Vista Group agency in Sherman Oaks, CA. He was primarily responsible for getting Pontiacs, GMC trucks and Mercedes into movies and TV. He had tons of inside stories about the car and TV/movie businesses. Died a few years ago. Good guy.
Crossboss Scott: Didn't you mention that you knew him?
This was one of the hardest magazines to find during my pre-internet hunt. One of the coolest covers too. Drag Parts Illustrated May '69.
Thank you all for the notes and the opportunity to get the record straight.
The magazine cover confirms the GT500 was Gulfstream Aqua and had the same license plate. I believe it may be the only preproduction car that didnt survive.
It looks like the plate on the red car is partially visible ?
Unfortunately, the research ran out of preproduction cars. The GT350 convertible had to be a production car and a very early built car. I started with 0001 and it matched all the same options. The last car in the archive was the first 1969 Shelby with a serial
number. It was a maroon and white convertible.
I was also able to do a similar woodgrain comparison on this car and the features matched.
Thanks to everyone that helped!