SAAC do you belong?

[SCOBRAC]

I am wondering if many of the replica owners belong to the Shelby American Automobile Club. I have attended various events in my life long relationship with the Fords I've owned, and always admired the club members cars and the way in which the events are organized and held. That said I am not much of a joiner or follower. While I've always had a great time, to be totally honest my experiences have not been all positive at these events. It's not worth dwelling on but to be completely honest if I had to describe the people I have met in the club in five words or fewer one would be pompous. I am not trying to be critical of the club and or the marque, I really just want some perspective from anyone who cares to share his or her experiences in the club.

How are you as a replica owner received? It seems possible that at some point the replica membership might equal or surpass the original car membership so maybe my experiences as far back as 1982, but as recently as last year are isolated.

Thanks in advance

[Russ Dickey]

I've also been a SAAC member since 1982, and before that my dad was a member. I have been to national conventions, regional conventions, and the mini-convention in Vegas, and have met all different types of people with all different types of attitudes.

Because the original cars are so expensive nowadays, the demographic of the club has definitely changed over the years. But there are still a lot of good folks involved, and to be honest, I use SAAC more for education now than comaraderie.

And there has always been a very "anti-replica / anti-clone" undertone to the club, because obviously their mission is to preserve the history of the original cars. I have an issue of "The Shelby American" from the late 70's or early 80's where Kopec basically talks about how the replica industry is bad for hobby, specifically directing his ire at ERA and Contemporary. But since then I think they've chilled a little bit, as they've seen that over the years, the replica market really hasn't affected the values of originals (and in fact, may have actually helped them apprecitate).

[cobrajeff]

Michael -

I'm probably not the guy you're looking to hear from - I'm on the Board of Directors of SAAC, and have been a member since the day it started. I'm sorry to hear that you've had some unfulfilling experiences with SAAC. We try to make the events fun (and safe) for everyone.

I have been to every SAAC Convention (30 of them) that has ever been held. I usually have a very good time - and I'm driving a Cobra replica. There were a couple times I didn't have such a good time, like Lime Rock when I blew my tranny up coming down the front straight, or at Sears Point in '88, when I asked a Pantera guy if I could ride along (during a passenger session - I had a red Pantera like his) and he said "no". But, on the whole, I really enjoy seeing SAAC members at most events.

From MY perspective, things have really improved since the early days of the Cobra Club. Back then, even guys in SHELBYs were not allowed to participate with the original Cobras. I have learned not to expect a guy who owns an original Cobra to get all worked up over my car, but, when one does stop to compliment it, it REALLY makes me feel good.

I hope you'll give SAAC another try, and that your next experience is more positive.

regards,

Jeff Burgy

[SCOBRAC]

I want to hear from anyone and everyone. Thanks for the invatation Jeff. Actually one of the experiences I had was when a very prominent club member chastised me for sitting on a car last year in the Cobra Corral at the Wine Country Classics. Problem was it was my car, Contemporary 3152 Of course it was in retrospect probably the highest compliment my car will ever receive it was irritating. I should have been glad he had my back. It might have been some chowder head off the street. I really try not to take any of this too seriously and routinely sit on the rear fender of my car at events I'm sure it's irritating even for replica owners.

I think part of my aprehension Russ is that I too feel like the Shelby Club is and should probably stay just that, and as a former Mustang GTA and now Contemporary owner I've just never found it someplace I feel like I should belong. Of course that might be 1/2 my problem.

[jay bentley]

I've been a SAAC member for about 15 years. I have found the members to be great people and have had some great times at conventions.

I think that Shelby owners owe a great amount of thanks to the club. Without the club documenting each car and every past owner there would be no way to stop someone from creating air cars, duplicates etc. This also builds value in the cars. People know that they are buying the real deal and they can even call or email the club for car and history verification.

When people say that they are not getting anything out of their club dues other than a snakebite newsletter and a Shelby American magazine they are wrong. I know a few Shelby owners who have dropped their membership over the years and have failed to realize that SAAC is one of the ingredients that allows their car(s) to appreciate better than others.

My hats off to the whole SAAC team.

Jay

[*13*]

I think it is great that the SAAC is out there for the Cars & the owners. I have recieved mixed results when talking to some "real" car owners. Would I join? If I had the "Real Thing", definately. As it is...Not sure I would...Though the thought has crossed my mind.

[jay bentley]

I joined and went to a few conventions well before I owned a Shelby product. Attending the conventions really helped me figure out what year Shelby I wanted. I am still friendly with the guys who owned cars and spent the time with me to explain the differences and similarities between the years. They made me feel like one of them even though I didn't own a Shelby. Great people! Join!

Jay

[Fast Farmer]

I have been a member of SAAC since 1980. I had Shelby Mustangs through the years, and did not step up to a Cobra until 1998.

I can agree with much of what everyone has already said. Take any large grouping of people, and not everyone is to your liking personality wise. Keep in mind that people with high performance cars can tend to be Type A personalities. I have also seen the SAAC "in crowd" vs. all the rest through the years. Every group has their snobs too.

Having said all that, my positive experiences far outweigh the negatives. I have attended five conventions, two Vegas events, and the Shelby Caribbean Cruise. I still remember the first convention I attended and the excitement of seeing more than 6-8 Shelbys together at a car show and honest to God Cobras! Topping that was the sensory overload of seeing, hearing, and feeling in your gut when a group of snarling Cobras and Shelbys roared by during open track sessions. I have met and conversed with Carroll Shelby several times, and had him autograph several items for me. It is almost surreal talking about non-car related topics like Rhodesian Ridgeback dogs, cattle, and farming with him. During one of the Vegas events I was a lucky winner of a ride with Dick Smith in his Cobra at speed on the track. Unfortunately, Dick dropped a cylinder before my turn came up However, my consolation prize was a ride with CS in CSX3056. I was also fortunate to have CS sit in our Cobra and autograph the dash during one of the conventions. During the same convention, my oldest daughter even managed to steal a wallet belonging to CS! She was only two, and Carroll did leave it laying on a side table during Happy Hour!

None of these things would have been experienced by me without SAAC. I am greatful that the club exists for these and many other reasons.

Fast Farmer

[ELGEE]

I belonged to NORCAL for a couple of years- disappointed-- went to 6-7 meetings, mainly a lot of "F" bodied mustangs, a couple of GT350 clones, and one or two really sad cobra replicas. BORING ! So- in the long run, I let my membership expire and now REALLY enjoy the BACC and CLUB COBRA--Good people,good friends, no "holier than thou" attitudes.- My personal expierence only !!
Larry G.

[RACER X #99]

The SAAC conventions are one of the few Ford only show/ track events where first timers can get a chance to drive their Cobras/Shelbys/Mustangs on the track without any prior experience. Non competitive and very safe and gives everybody just a little taste of what it was like "back in the day" If that wets your appetite for more track time than it's on to the driving schools and open tracking.
How many other car clubs offer that opportunity? As far as I'm concerned if you can only attend one big show a year than the SAAC convention should be it.

I'll be looking for some Club Cobra guys at VIR
Roger D

[1ntCobra]

I joined SAAC right at the point when they changed the magazine to the larger format. I have yet to own a Cobra, Cobra replica or Shelby Mustang. More than likely I would like to get a Cobra replica some day. I occasionally go to conventions. Back in the earlier days, there were mostly original Cobras and Shelby Mustangs at the conventions. More recently it seems like there are more cobra replicas and modern mustangs at the conventions than original cars. I'm not sure why a replica owner would feel left out if they are in the majority...
Personally I do like seeing original cars in the shows and out on the track.

[Mulv]

I belong to the National SAAC club and I find them to be pretty good guys when you meet them. I only go to their conventions every other year when they are nearby as it is too far to go all the way to the east for me.
When I lived in Northern California, I belonged to the NorCal shelby club but I would not recommend it to anyone. Not only are they pompous and really boring, the are really into the clique thing as well. I was a member for about 8 years I think and I only met three people who would speak to me at the track or their meetings in all that time. Two of them are BACC members, which explains their friendliness. I had one person scream and swear at me at Mini Nats at Sears 5 years ago and then the club official he involved did the same thing. This for parking in an unmarked space for maybe 3 minutes while I went to register for the open track event. This person had a Mustang track car of some vintage and I was in my "Tupperware" Cobra. He screamed profanities and only my accepting nature and disbelief saved him from a serious thrashing. My wife was not impressed by the proceedings (her first at the track) and I decided that I would never again attend a NorCal event.
Do what you like, the National group is ok, the locals are a bunch of spoiled jerks.
I should add that my plastic car is supposed to be accepted by the Shelby group for the registration book if the rumours are true... even Shelby's new fake cars are made by SuperFormance after all... so it matters not whether your car is old or new as far as I can tell.

Steve

[Jim Maxwell]

I have been a member of SAAC for at least 20 years. The work that the Registrars do to document the history of each and every Shelby is an awesome task and is an incredibly valuable thing for all current AND FUTURE owners. Imagine having to try to track down the individual ownership history, factory records, documents, etc. on your own. Impossible for many of the cars since quite a few prior owners are now doing laps in the clouds. My personal thanks to Ned Scudder for all his efforts over the last 3 1/2 decades!
I have found the early SAAC literature to be an invaluable source of information on Shelbys for all years. I find the more recent Shelby American magazines to be nice publications, but of little help to a fanatic like myself.
The conventions are wonderful. you decide what parts excite you the most and concentrate on those. You want track time? You want literature, collectibles, parts, advice, history, or just to look over more Shelbys than you can possibly digest in the time available? I could spend the entire convention admiring all the cars, including many of the replicas. But I usually get sidetracked talking to all the fascinating stories of the owners. If you live near the site of a national SAAC meet, you owe it to yourself to attend. I'm fortunate that this year's event is 50 miles from my home. I just haven't figured out how to get 4 cars there at once. But I will.
I hope any Club Cobra member will look me up at the convention. If there are open track "parade laps", I will be giving rides, so come by. Last time, the same guy got three rides because everyone else either didn't know it was going on, or didn't ask. If you don't ask, I won't be able to have you enjoy the ride with me. Consider this an open invitation.

[DAVID GAGNARD]

I'm a SAAC member and have seen both sides of the story, firsthand......There are some in every group, no matter what club it is, there are going to be "holier than thou"......

From my expirences,the most "pompous" ones were the Shelby employees.........

Then you have guys like Kopec who took time to speak to me as a newbie about his #98 Essex Wire car and told his story of the time he ran the Gumball Rally........

Then you have guys like Howard Pardee who has spoken to me many times and we still exhange e-mails from time to time.....I helped him out with some info on a couple of cars he was tracking down in my neck of the woods......

Then you have guys like Jim Maxwell, a true car enthusiast from the word go and all around nice guy, gives people rides in his original Cobras (note plural) at the drop of a hat and lets other drive them from time to time (something I do not think I would do if I owned the cars he does).........BTW; Jim, I'll be at SAAC in VIR and would definetly like one of those rides in any of your cars, and in turn you would be more than welcome to take my track car (65 Mustang coupe) out on the track for a spin.......BTW2, It's your turn to buy the beer....
I think the "parade laps" are during the noon hour break........

I decided long ago not to let people bother me in any walk of life..........I go to the SAAC conventions to enjoy the cars and see old friends and meet new friends and that's exactly what I do and have a ball at it, no matter what anyone else does or says, I just will not let the "pompous" few spoil my fun.......

David

[SCOBRAC]

Thanks for the input. Thanks for being so candid Mulv. I see on the website the new cars are going into the registry, including the glass bodied cars. I think I'll join and see how it goes.

[Tinker51]

Well I guess I will make it three strikes for the norcal saac folks.
I was a member for a few years, attended a few meetings. For the most part it was a fox body Mustang open track club and the folks I spoke to didn't really seem interested in talking to me because I wasn't interested in open track.

[badrich]

I started thinking about owning a Cobra in early 2002. Found Cobra Country on the web and saw lots of interesting (and some not so interesting) Cobras. Joined Norcal SAAC and SAAC to learn more. Met some very helpful people, although most of the members were Mustang owners. Looked at four Cobra replicas and narrowed the group to a Contemporary (located in Nevada) I saw on Cobra Country. The owner attended MiniNats, where I checked it out, and purchased it. I found out about Club Cobra later from one of the Norcal members (it's Scott's fault). While I am still a Norcal member, I am less and less active. As someone said earlier, the big emphasis is on open track events. I might be interested in that some day, but not now. As a positive, at the last Norcal meeting, the speaker was a neat old dude who holds many records at Bonneville, including one in a blown flathead (a "real" Ford). But my Cobra was the only one at the meeting. Disappointing.

I attend an occasional breakfast in Dublin, and 'most all of them in Mt. View (get to sleep in). Club Cobra is where it's at. And I'm the President. Err, *a* president. See ya' Saturday at Bajis'! Rich

[SCOBRAC]

I love Mustangs but to be completely honest my racing days are over. Track days have no interest to me. I don't even have a roll bar in my Contemporary. Too many nights sleeping on the ground or in a motor home (on the floor) or front seat of my Rx-7 at SCCA events after thrashing for hours to repair some problem, real or imagined for a perfectionist owner / driver who had no chance against the 280 Z's in the first place... Oh the good old days.

I think my post was prompted by my guilt for parking at turn 11 with the Shelby Club for the Wine Country Classics or Mini Nats. I'm still thinking about joining... I did pay for my spot at turn 11 this year though.;-)

See you all there.

[tblackgt350]

Dave Gagnard- missed you at Tulsa this year; I hope we see you at VIR. Carl Phillips and I (with hopefully a couple of other guys) will should be near the track. Be sure to come by. I'll have my white 66 350 and you can't miss Carl's calypso coral 69 350 vintage racer, #17. Is Buck coming? I heard he had his cars up for sale.

To Mr Maxwell, I look forward to talking with you for a few minutes this year. If you are wondering who I am, I would be the guy that tried to get you over to Fall Creek Falls for our Shelby weekend a couple of years ago. Where are you staying? I'm at the Best Western.

Thanks,
Tim Black

[DAVID GAGNARD]

Tim;

Would have liked to have gone, but too many things going on for me to leave and work has not slowed down since the 2 hurricanes last year..........

Definetly going to VIR......Buck will be there with # 51, I'm bringing my race car,(65 coupe, red, # 47) leaving the 65 Fastback at home, only have one truck and one trailer.......# 51 is for sale also, and may have been spoken for by now, but will not be sold until Jan. of 2007....Buck and I will be pitted together and maybe a 95 Mustang Cobra R replica (white), we'll have a couple of big canopies to sit under, will be somewhere near the hot pits.......

I'll look for you and come make us a round, will have the BBQ going with plenty of cajun sausage and other goodies for lunch.........

We are staying at a Holiday Inn Express in South Boston, Va., supposed to be about 20 minutes from the track,we should be there thursday mid afternoon and will stay thru sunday and head for home monday morning........
David