SAAC Forum

I would like to buy these, I will PM you now. Thanks. 

Very early 1965 production GT350s did not have a S1MS on their oil pans.

Hello John, Seems like you know a lot of information about BOSS 302's,     have you been at it for a while?   

Howard Pardee, only 65 I remember with that quarter window treatment . it was in a magazine article about the same time or Bruce Willis or Clint Eastwood, take your pick. 

Sorry, thought the angle was off a little on the black and white shot, the color photo above was the one taken by my neighbor, Ron Peters. I once looked through the Registry to determine which R models were under construction during the Watts riot. 

I don't think this will help much, but the third photo from the top was taken by my neighbor, Ron Peters, who drove his Corvette trailering a ski boat behind it from Seattle. What is good is that the date of the photo is known, within 6 days. Ron wanted to take a tour of Shelby American at LAX because he had seen the Corvettes being dominated by Cobras. He wanted to visit the factory for himself. As he was entering into L.A.. soon he was driving through a section where there were fires all around him and he soon realized the people there were of darker complexion. The Corvette roadster towing a ski boat kind of slightly stuck out. What Ron did not know was that he was driving through the middle of the Watts Riot. The riots were from August 11-17, 1965. I had dinner with Ron last month, with a 1965 calendar, we could probably narrow the photo down to within 2 days. When Ron arrived at Shelby American, the gates were locked, the plant was closed. I am not sure if this was a result from the riots or if it was on the weekend.  Luckily Ron, put the lens of his camera through the chain linked fence and took the photo you see.  Not sure why this photo is in black and white, the one I gave to Rick Kopec was in color.               

+1 John

Well you also got them in chronological order from left to right......66,67,68. That took some time.

I never really doubted John Slack's mechanical ability, it was more the idea if a racing induction system could be made to work on the street or if the CROSS BOSS was one of those factory efforts that just did not work well.  It makes sense when you are responsible for a 4,300 hp, 12 cylinder racing airplane engine, the same process can be applied to sorting out the issues we had on the CROSS BOSS. It was a learning experience to watch John investigate several aspects pertaining to the prior installation of the CROSS BOSS. The final area were modifications to some of the internal parts of the In-Line carb. All these changes and new pieces were made from scratch right at John's shop.  Multiple drives provided feed back in degrees of improvements and other areas that needed to be addressed. When I was once thinking about putting Webers on a '65 GT350, Jack Hoare (Shelby American's tuner for the Daytona Coupes) told me to read the plugs. Sure enough, after each drive we would look for changes in the plugs. It all has come together in the end, the CROSS BOSS is running better than it ever has. John feels it is 95% percent there, I was pretty happy at 75%, John wants to go after the other 5%, that's John.  My first 100 plus mile drive is tomorrow morning, at that point, we will have another 8 to 10 heat cycles and it will be time to re toque and safety wire the intake bolts for the second time. A learning curve on how it is done correctly.  People like John and Randy Gillis are blessings to our club and now I can touch the surface on understanding where the shortcomings were on the CROSS BOSS but also how it can be improved upon from when Ford stopped the project. Mark             

Sent you a pm on the horn switch , pending photos. Thanks .

I was interested in purchasing one or two restored / reproduction 15 x 6 Cragar wheels as used on the 1965 or early 1966 GT350's Thanks, Mark

Hey 2112, Its been a while since we last spoke. Wedgewood, well similar, North Ballard, Olympic Manor, once was a golf course in the late 1950's, overlooked Puget Sound. My father bought a sand trap in 1961 for $10,000 , all of his friends thought he was nuts. He designed the house himself,  it was well built. It is actually worth more than $10,000 today. By the way , my twins are finishing up their second year at the U of W Dental school. Hope you are well. Mark
   

Sorry Jon, it was Cris , my mistake. 

Thanks Brian, Dan, Dave, Charles, JD and Craig.   I have read a lot of car stories over the years, sometimes I don't quite understand the barn find stories if the car was sitting on soil over many years, it tends to lead to a lot of corrosion under the car. In contrast, this was more of warm garage find, it was only moved once in 33 years, to the second enclosed garage in front of its resting place. This was done so radiant floor heat could be installed and then the car was moved back. While it is not a Hemi Superbird, Yenko Camaro or a Cobra, but it represents what I worked for during the summer of 1980.   A good friend of mine, Jon Berhold, once asked me, Does a car ever talk to you? I could not understand what he was talking about. As rough as she is, her heart is strong, I smile every time I walk into the garage and yes, she talks to me all the time. She is a driver and that is my focal point for the hobby now. It is not getting any easier to enjoy these cars. As I mentioned in the article, the cars are one thing, but where they carry you to and the memories of that trip you will have for the rest of your days.  The people you meet along the way is even more important. On the drive to Montana, every rest stop, motel, gas fill up was full of people whose friends once had a BOSS or was just glad to see her on the road and could not believe the story.  Eric English did a great job on trying to narrow down the story, thankfully the magazine gave us two extra pages, so much more to tell, so many photos I have from 1980-1981, so I am working on the War and Peace version too. The people you meet along the way is just a continuation of the story, that will continue until  I am no longer functional. A recent addition to the SAAC forum is John Slack who has a fascination with high performance BOSS 302 induction systems. John's mechanical upbringing as a mechanic on the world's speed record WWII Bearcat has now carried his meticulous attention to detail to working on the CROSS BOSS. For me, what was initially a sight of beauty and uniqueness when I was 18, is now about function. I have no doubt, John will dial her in. Thanks again for the nice comments, hope you enjoyed the story. Mark   

Thanks Jessie for all your years of work at Shelby Parts and Restoration and your continued support to keep it going. We all know how much Jim appreciated your efforts over the years. Sometimes it is hard to convey thoughts into words, this is one of those times.  Living apart from people you have a common interest with sometimes is limited to phone conversations.  I can still hear his voice. For me, there was always a lot of jokes, like the first time I flew out to visit his home track, the beautiful Road America. Jim told me to bring some mountaineering gear in case I wanted to go climbing. I kind of knew better, as the plane descended out of the clouds, my hunch was confirmed, Wisconsin was flat as a pancake. I was fortunate enough to walk around Road America with Jim and sample one of the several famous bratwursts I enjoyed that weekend. Then there was football. Jim once told me he had been to every home Green Bay Packers game since 1969. The last time I was at his shop, he brought out some of his Packers memorabilia, the good stuff from the 1950's -1960's. We would sometimes exchange e mails during the Packer's away games, knowing that he was at all the home games. Needless to say, there have been a lot of nail biting Seahawk/Packer games over the years, how fitting if the Seahawks make it far enough, it will go through Green Bay. Every time I see a Packers game on TV, I think of Cowles.  Jim will still be watching the Packers, it will just be from a higher elevation.
Jim is not gone. He lives in each of us, in one way or another. It may be through our personal memories or the item we acquired from him. His legacy will continue through the cars he restored and the parts that passed through his fingertips eventually making it onto a car. In the end, his parts allow us to enjoy these cars to their fullest.
To his family, condolences in this difficult time. To Jim, thanks for all you did for us over the many years.   Mark Hovander