Shelby American & Ford: The Deal

[Cal Metal]

".........The main contract were signed at the beginning of August ('62, I assume--CM) and bascially the agreements said Ford just about owned Shelby American, Inc. and what Ford wasn't financing in one way Ford was financing in another (racing programs of SAI). In addition, Ford undertook an exhaustive study of the new car to determine what could be done to make it better. Danny Jones was in charge of this segment of the operation...."

"........The original financial forecast that SAI could become self-sustaining as early as December of '62 also proved optimistic; throughout the time SAI's maniufacturing operation was located on the West Coast (until the summer of '67, when the 1968-model Shelby Mustangs were assembled in Ionia, Mich) this part of the business was never in the black......."

"....Although they are nebulous and subject ot opinion, there are other ways of measuring profits besides in dollars and cents, and what the manufacturing side of the SAI dream lacked in this respect was more than made up by the racing activities of the Cobras. Here the profit was to be counted up in quantities of ink, that good black kind used in newspapers and magazines: Shelby's racing Cobras got exposure like no other American competition car in the decades before them, and every time the word Cobra was mentioned, there was bound to be the word Ford somewhere nearby. The idea to race the car, naturally, was Shelby's, and he was the man who made sure the basic power-to-weight ratio of the vehicle was a favorable one. But the person who more than anyone else was responsible for the Cobras running as well as they did--and for all other Shelby racing equipment being successful---was Phil Remington who came along with the store...."

[Cal Metal]

I talked to Phil Remington and asked him about the Danny Jones reference and his involvement. I had not heard the name before. Jone's father was a partner with Clay Smith the noted camshaft manufacturer. His father's nickname was "termite", according to Phil. He said Ford's involvement was actually pretty minimal and suggested that Jone's role was bringing in Ford to redo the electrics on the Cobra because the "original system was so awful". Also, the suspension needed some work and both Phil and an engineer from Ford were involved in that segment. After that, it was pretty much the guys at SAI that carried the ball.

We talked about the Mk II brakes and it is incredible the amount of fabricating that had to be done to insure their reliability. Phil said that part of the solution was going to a curved vane rotor and then he had to continually work on them because after they cooled they would shrink to a size smaller than their original configuration. Initially, they were using Lincoln rotors. The discussion got a lot more complicated than that and I would need diagrams to discuss it if I could remember half of it!!

The Webers were not used on the FE because Ford did not want to fool with anything that they were not familar with. The FE was a pretty proven motor in the NASCAR circuit and the Holley was what they used in that venue and they would not deviate from that.