Mike,
After re-reading you and Rande's posts, I had already realized that I had
characterized our relative positions regarding Shelby rather badly. In
fact, we three are much closer in agreement than my words would tend to
indicate. Perhaps I should have said that I feel "even less indebted to Mr.
Shelby than either Mike or Rande seem to be." Another thought that strikes
me considering this interesting historical thread is that we are not
adequately distinguishing between Shelby the "man" and Shelby the
"organization" (i.e., Shelby American). I doubt that ol' Shel really had
any personal involvement in either the prototype car or the #45 car, and I
mean by way of engineering and idea input or even any particular degree of
enthusiasm. But he had a fantastically creative and energetic group working
for him and, given this environment, some of it had to rub off.
As to the importance of the Shelby prototype, my reading of the history
leads me to believe that once Lord Rootes had had his romp in it, its
purpose was completely served and it really had no impact on the subsequent
development of the Tiger at Rootes and Jensen. Obviously, the Britts are
going to tend to minimize the American contribution, and some of this slant
may be coloring their version of the story. Perhaps we should inspect and
compare the Shelby prototype versus the early production Tigers from a
dispassionate engineering point of view to try and determine point by point
what, if anything, carried over. I guess one could ask the question as to
what would have happened if they only had the Ken Miles prototype to go by,
what would have happened then? (Assuming Lord Rootes still liked it of
course.) No rack and pinion steering? Engine stuck way out front? Automatic
transmission? Boy, I sure hope not. Guess we'll never know for sure,
though, will we.
Bob
At 10:46 PM 3/6/99 -0500, MWood24020@aol.com wrote:
>In a message dated 3/6/99 12:44:22 PM Pacific Standard Time,
>rpalmer@ames.ucsd.edu writes:
>
><< I, however, feel personally much less indebted to
> Mr. Shelby than either Mike or Rande seem to. I do like to hang out with
> Shelbyites; e.g., Cobra Club and Shelby Club events at Willow Springs, etc.
> A lot of great people, fun to be around and drive with/against. But as far
> as Mr. Shelby per se, I don't feel the Tiger marque owes him much. >>
>
>Bob-
>I don't feel indebted to Shelby for being the first group (I think Ken Miles
>was already employed by Shelby American when he did the first conversion,
>maybe not) to effect the V8 transplant. The fact is, Garrad could have hired
>any number of West coast fabricators to do the same job (Troutman and Barnes,
>perhaps?). The fact remains that Shelby's shop did the first conversions,
>figured out the engine set back parameters, fitted a rack and pinion (with the
>genius of hot rodding, Doane Spencer behind that choice) and built/fabricated
>the prototype. To me, that is a more significant engineering feat than the
>work which went into subsequent "Shelby" autos and requires us, as Tiger fans,
>to acknowledge their contribution.
>Mike
Robert L. Palmer
Dept. of AMES, Univ. of Calif., San Diego
rpalmer@ames.ucsd.edu
rpalmer@cts.com
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