Not Ranked
Never met the man, just have seen TV and magazine interviews...
Astute businessman? Not sure, let's see...
- Ford could'nt hardly giveaway the Cobra's by the end of their production run.
- Helped set up the Hertz rent-a Shelby (mustang) which was a financial disaster for Hertz; stolen engines, blown automatic (automatic????) tranny's
- From the "History of the Automobile - Shelby" show, I learned he didn't even want to get involved with the Mustang, which he called, "A secretaries car". So it wasn't his business sense that brought him into the program - but Lee Iaococa who saw the potential of the car.
- Allowed "his" design, i.e. the Cobra to become public domain, so he could not trademark it at a later date, costing him big $$$
- Sold the Cobra trademark to Ford for a dollar
- Let's not forget about the Series I, which started off with a price tag around $85,000 and ended up around $120,000 with a different engine. (Apparently as the price went up, if you cancelled your order and remember an order is a contract between the buyer and the seller - you lost your deposit).
- Oh the the Continuation Cobras were a resounding success, just ask anyone in California who ponyed up $500,000 for one of these cars only to find they couldn't be registered for road use.
- Anybody seen the collector value of all the Dodge/Shelby stuff lately.
Come on, the guy was a great driver, built some terrific cars, setup a worthy charity, and is a great promoter... but I think that the claims I hear regarding his business skills are just a little off the mark, although part of being a good manager is surrounding yourself with great people - which he has done and seems to be continuing to do.
I don't dislike the man, but - he wanted to hit all of us replica owners for $10,000. OK, this was supposably from an article/interview in Automobile magazine which I have never seen, so to be fair - this may just be a myth.
Sorry,
- Dan
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