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Originally Posted by Excaliber
Hal, that was SO weird hearing about how your original plans were to make it a 'street' car. Understanding that 'back in the day' it was just another used race car. Put in a milder motor, return the steering to stock, etc. WOW! History dodged a bullet there.
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Actually, while the stock worm-and-sector steering wasn't the greatest, I could easily have lived with that. The biggest obstacle was the cam. Virtually nothing below 3,000 RPM, and all hell breaking loose at around 3,200. You had to constantly watch the tach in any corner to make sure you always stayed above or below that. Difficult to do in city traffic.
Out in the country, the headers were what made life miserable. The Ballengers came to within two inches of the firewall. They were so close that the Shelby crew removed the boot around the steering column. Probably got tired of the smell of burning leather. That wasn't a problem in drag racing, where the whole show ended in seconds. But on the open road, that red-hot header a couple of inches from your left big toe . . . well, you get the idea.
Where history really dodged the bullet though was when I decided to repaint the car back around 1980. I had lost track of Randy Berry, the previous owner, but found him when I saw one of his ads for the Marauder Company. When I called, I casually mentioned that I planned to paint the Dragonsnake the same candy-apple red as my new 1978 Honda CBX motorcycle. I loved that paint. He said, "I don't think you want to do that. I never touched the car. That's the original Shelby paint."
The paint stayed. Blemishes and all.