[Steve Cassani]

kayakjack,

This history you speak to - deposits for Car D being applied to the cost to produce Car A with Cars B and C waiting on the cash flows of future deposits - ended when Shelby made Amy Boylan the Chief Operating Officer of Shelby Automobiles, Inc. I believe this occurred in early 2004. Up to then, the company was, roughly, a pyramid scheme.

There have not been any public reports as to how Amy solved the problem. My guess is her previous successes in private business afforded Amy contacts who were willing, with her support, to loan Shelby enough cash to assure future solvency. With the investors paid, Shelby Automobiles slowly established a firm financial basis that in turn allowed Shelby to accept deposits in good faith. Any other outcome would have brought Shelby Automobiles into bankruptcy, a condition Amy avoided, but just barely. How Shelby won Amy's willingness to take on his problem may, if told, turn out to be the stuff of legend and every bit the equal of his sales pitch to Lee Iacocca.

Amy has since moved on. To the best of my knowledge, Shelby's contract with Ford to produce modified Mustangs has again made a sustainable business plan possible. If the legacy you speak to is still fact I doubt Ford would have had anything to do with Shelby Automobiles, the name notwithstanding. Then, too, the period of misapplied deposits saw many angry posts on this site, excoriating Shelby as once-hopeful owners described the fraud done them in painful detail. We haven't seen anything like that for several years.

Ol' Shel was a mongrel. He'd bite and lick your hand at the same time and leave you wanting to reach out the next time you saw him. When he wasn't hiring mongrels in his own image-Don Rager comes to mind-he was able to attract the serious, professional support he himself was incapable of providing. Amy Boylan was one of those. Thankfully he also had the uncommon good sense to stay out of the way of people whose work he knew he needed but did not himself understand.