In a message dated 3/6/99 9:29:55 AM Pacific Standard Time, rande@thecia.net
writes:
<< According to all reliable printed sources, Shelbys company was asked to
build one of the Tiger prototypes. It was the one shipped to England to
first sell the idea to Rootes. The $5/car fee notwithstanding, that
alone wouldn't make it a Shelby, and more than the Viper should be
called a Shelby. Are they part of Shelbys history? You bet. >>
First off, l will agree with your statement that the Tiger should not be
characterized as a Shelby, although I think the Viper/Tiger status comparison
is irrelevant.
Second, at the risk of slandering a demigod, I suggest that the only reason
the Tiger is not a Shelby has to do with chronology and nothing else. In fact,
I would argue that there was much greater "Shelby content" (i.e., directly
attributable to the creative minds and talents of the employees of Shelby
American) in the Tiger than in any car bearing his name to follow, with the
exception of his new one.
In 1964, the "Shelby" name had nowhere near the semi-mythical symbolic impact
which it ultimately commanded. There was little upside in either Rootes paying
for the name or for Mr. Shelby to press them to do so. Shelby was happy to
take his $5/car royalty for the developmental work, sell Rootes obsolete 260
race motors, make a half-hearted attempt at campaigning a road racing Tiger,
and call it a day.
Shelby had the GT350, Cobra, and GT40 to race and promote, which led over the
following 3 years to the completion of "branding" the Shelby name.
A few years later, a trend was started with the A.O. Smith GTs. With the
turning over of Shelby production and selling of his name to Ford, Shelby set
a precedent which he was to profit from over the ensuing years. It is no
coincidence that this all transpired nearly simultaneously with his greatest
FIA road racing success. This business decision led directly to the "Dodge
Years". As the active campaigning of Shelby's real cars became history (at
least in the FIA venue, they still were very active at club level), the only
bankable commodity Shelby had left was the mystique and his good name. Hence,
the "Shelby" Omni, "Shelby" Charger (ouch, that really hurts, blasphemy of two
icons in one tape stripe makeover) etc. While much was made at the time of
Shelby's involvement in the vehicles development ("I'm gonna give y'all
something that will kick import ass for less than $10K American), I find it
hard to believe that he had much to do with the engineering. These were
basically "parts bin" jobs (you could make the same argument concerning the
'65 GT350, but at least Shelby American was picking the parts from the bins).
BTW, I really think the little 4-door GLH was too cool, particularly for the
era.
If Tiger development commenced in the year 1968 or later, I guarantee you
would have seen Shelby's name on the finished product. As it stands, the Tiger
was just one more chapter in what would be seen as Shelby's truly creative
period, that time when a bunch of hot rodders were thinking outside the box
and getting "stuff" done. The subsequent years I would view as Shelby's
reaping the benefits period, when any automaker with enough interest (read
money) could capitalize on the mystique created in that 1961-67 time frame.
Mike
PS Shelby is one of my all time heroes.
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