Not Ranked
After making the simple supposition that Shelby's reputation, image, and hero status within the Cobra community has skidded so far down the slippery slope of moral tolerance that enthusiasm for cars bearing his name or service mark have also suffered an equal amount of disrepute, I was told my examples were overdrawn or irrelevant. I observed that other automobile revolutionaries in the past who begged, borrowed, or stole their way to their ill-gotten goals never saw widespread villification of their cars based on how immoral or unethical their behavior. Ferrari was a cold-blooded super-ego who prized winning over the lives of his own drivers. Delorean began his quest with honorable intentions but eventually became a bunko artist to keep his visions viable. Bricklin was more interested in turning a buck than performing due diligence within his financial infrastructure and went down the tubes--with a ton of OPM. Mercedes and the the Nazi braintrust broke bread.
In none of the above examples did enthusiasts of those automobiles remove the emblems from them as a display of their unmitigated outrage at the misdeeds, atrocities, or self-serving shell games of the people who produced them. As I read the previous posts, my point has been made much better than I might have been able to.
Please keep in mind, I am casting no aspersions at anyone on either side of the argument. My motives weren't to pass judgment on the guilty or the innocent. There's a dynamic in the Shelby/Enthusiast relationship that appears to be unlike anything I've seen before. Right or wrong, good or bad, justified or unjust, something is definitely there.
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