shelby crew members...

[d_animator]

Hi there, I am a new member to this forum. I thought I would share some information to you guys about my relatives...

My two uncles were both crew membes on the Shelby team back in the 60's. My first uncle is Charlie Agapiou. He was SAI Crew Chief for the Shelby Team. He actually was working for Ken Miles before as a mechanic when he had a shop in Hollywood. My uncle went with him to Shelby. They were very good friends. You can read more about him in the first few pages of "Remembering the Shelby Years" and other Shelby related books. He also still has all of his original Shelby attire. Currently, he owns a Rolls Royce service/dealer in Beverly Hills, CA.

My other uncle Kerry Agapiou was also a crew member, but not written up too much in the books and wasn't with Shelby as long as Charlie. Kerry now transports cars for Ferrari to the challenge races. He is also in possession of a Ford J car "prototype." This car was developed, but never raced/tested. He is in the process of rebuilding it to exact specs and has all of the original equipment for it. I will attach a photo. I do appologize for the small pic. I have digital SLR camera that takes prof. pics, but the post would not allow anything bigger than this. (Hopefully the pic shows up...if not, I will try again).

My dad was not with Shelby, but was exposed to it due to his brothers. His best man was Bill Eaton funny enough. He also had the opportunity to buy an original cobra for $1700 due to a collision. By the time my uncle Charlie told my dad about it, they had sold it already. How convenient.

Anyhow, I thought this would be a great place to post some historic info so it can be appreciated. I tried posting a small block tech question too, but haven't had any replies yet. Hopefully someone will be of some help.

Respectfull,
Damon

[d_animator]

Another photo

[csx700?]

looks like everyone is asleep on welcoming you aboard. so welcome aboard!! anyways thaks for the interesting photos of the "j" car, i was not aware that they had used "boss 429" engines in these cars. please keep poting info and photos that you might have i am sure that some of the other members will enjoy them. please post the small block question again........

[daltondavid]

What is the "J" car??

[d_animator]

"....The J-car was a radical machine in most respects. The only familiar item at first was the thumping great "side oiler" 427, the 500 HP iron block V8 from the Mark II. An automatic transmission was part of the original plan. So was its wedged shaped body, one of the earliest attempts at aeordynamic down force. What the car is most remembered for, however, was its lightweight chassis, racing's first significant application of aluminum honeycomb...."

".........That there were subsequent J-Cars was itself something of an anomaly, for many had low confidence in the concept. Ford Initially planned its l967 endurance program around the now faithful MK II. But at the first race of the new year, in February at Daytona, the MK IIs went out with identical transmission failure; in any case, Ferrari's new P4 had shown unexpected speed. In an atmosphere of near-desperation the J-Car was put through intensive development. The most prominent change was aeordynamic. Completely new nose and tail sections increased striaghtaway speeds by up to 10 mph, so for the first time the J-Car showed more top end than a MK II (about 215 mph vs 211 mph). The car was less stable than before, but the drivers said they could race it. To differentiate it from the despised J-Car, someone had hand painted a new designation, "MK IV" on the new nose. On April 1 at Sebring, driven by Andretti and McLaren, in a stirring battle it defeated the 2F Chaparrak to winits first race."

MORE IN DEPTH....

It was the technique of using honeycomb-sandwiched aluminum which motivated the J car. This technique used half inch honeycomb aluminum panels which had to be bonded together. The first J car would use this honeycomb aluminum to form a central tub chassis similar to the GT40's. The final specification for the car adhered to the Appendix J regulations for race car construction.

Since Ford Advanced Vehicles had been sold off, the J Car was produced by Fords subsidiary Kar Kraft. Ed Hull headed construction of the experimental J-Car program with assistance from the Brunswick Aircraft Corporation.

The first J-car, called J-1, was completed in March of 1966. It's chassis, which weighed 86 lbs, supported the fiberglass body and 427 engine. J-1 made its first public appearance at the LeMans trails that year. It weighted 2660 lbs which was nearly on target with the 300 lb weight reduction Ford was looking for. At such a weight it was not surprising that the J-Car took the fastest time at the trials. Unfortunately, the J-Car was sidelined for the rest of the 1966 season to help the GT40 Mark II's effort.

After the 1966 1-2-3 Le Mans win, Ford decided to invest more money in the J-Car program. A second car, made up to Can Am specification, was made to help sort out the aluminum honeycomb chassis. Unfortunately, this car was completely destroyed during testing in an accident which claimed the life of Ken Miles. Driver error was never considered.

After a weak performance at Daytona, where transmission problems plagued six Mark IIs, Ford reluctantly continued the J-Car program in preparation for Ferrari's 330 P4. They worked on chassis J-3 and J-4 in preparation for Sebring. During this time, Roy Lunn, Chuck Mountain and Phil Remmington worked on the J-cars extensively. They created a new body for the chassis which incorporated a longer front nose, a Can Am style tail section and a new roof line to accept a rear window. During this transformation the J-Cars officially became known as the GT40 Mark IV.



Hope this helps out!!!! I will post that small block question again...if you want to read it, it is in the small block talk section...

Thanks for the welcome!!

[RICK LAKE]

Damon WELCOME to the club. The picture and info are great. I don't know if your uncles are still around but I am sure that they have some great storys and info about the shelby days. Anything you could get and tape for the future would be great. Jim Holden would also be very interested in this info. Drop him a line. I have the same question on the J car about a boss 429 in a J car. You learn something new everyday THANKS Rick Lake

[chuckbrandt]

Hey Damon,
Welcome and I'll look for your smallblock question after posting this. I'm facinated with your J car story and would definitely like to see more pictures of it. If you want to e-mail me some higher resolution pictures I'd be glad to host them for you. Then you can reference them in your messages here.

So which # J chassis does your uncle have? Very cool, it looks like it might be set up to be a roadster? And an injected Boss '9, just incredible!!! I had heard of the J car before but yours are the first pictures I've seen of one.

There is a great picture of your uncle Charlie standing next to Ken Miles in a Maserati Birdcage in the Ken Miles book by Art Evans. I hope you've seen it. Your uncle looks like a pretty young kid in the picture, what a dream job for an 18-20 year old.

Thanks, Chuck Brandt

[LwCwb]

Damon, welcome to the madness! Your family has some good history. Thats an interesting pice of automobile history! Its great to have another knoledgeable member on CC.

[PDHse]

Welcome aboard, im looking forward to seeing some more photos too. I just looked in my Can Am book by Pete Lyons that a Ford J chassis was used as a basis for the Ford G7A can am car. This was built by the Agapiou Brothers and raced by Jack Brabham in 1979. Could that chassis in your picture be J9? Paul

[d_animator]

Hey Paul,

That is a good question...I will talk to my Uncle Kerry and get some more info as to what number chassis, year it was fabricated...etc. Thanks for your interest.
**I noticed too you are from the UK. My uncles I mentioned and my dad were all from Bedford and London, England originally...Just something I thought to mention.... Regards, Damon

[d_animator]

Click the little camera next to my name for more J car photos and miscellaneous pics...I will post more as I visit my Uncle more with the car...

[CSX 4027]

I was with Charlie about 10 days ago in LA at Peterson for the Ken Miles Tribute at Peterson. I came with Peter Miles, Kens son.
As for the history of the J car and the accident that claimed the life of Ken, I was told by another former Shelby employee that an experimental magnesium upright broke in the suspension causing the incident.
....Pleased to meet you

[d_animator]

Steve,

That's great you got to meet with Charlie. He was a great friend to Ken. Those gatherings/tributes are great for gettiing everyone back together.
I was talking to my dad earlier and he said he used to play around with Peter Miles at the old Hollywood shop that Ken had when my Uncle Charlie worked there. He said he must have been around 6 or 7 years old then. Not too sure if he would remember that, but it's interesting though. My dads name is Tony...Agapiou naturally.

Usually Charlie or Kerry will mention the events that they are going to so we can come along, but sometimes they are so busy it slips their minds. I will hassle them!!

Regards,
-Damon

[decooney]

Damon,
Wow - great to see someone and something new and fresh posted on ClubCobra with some real history, stories, and photos to boot. Thanks for sharing.

[historicmustang]

Damon, very good information and welcome. You are going to like hanging out with these guys.

Ask your relatives if any of them made the trip to Augusta for the March 1, 1964 USRRC events. The Shelby Cobra and King Cobra won both "events" that day with Ken Miles and Dave MacDonald at the wheel.

The Ken Miles winning Cobra CSX2260 is still scheduled in for the September 11th memorial dedication at the former circuit. Please make sure they get the word.

Again, welcome.

Henry

[cobraownr]

Thanx for the photos of your uncles' J-Car, Damon! It's a great piece of Ford history. I posted a short note about your recent messages on ClubCobra on a GT40 web site, www.GT40s.com. An owner of one of the other original J-cars (#J6) is a very active contributor to that site and I am sure will be interested in your info.

[Jim Holden]

Dammon:

Glad to hear that J9 is being restored.

Several years ago two friends and I purchased J10 originally raced as G7A. Unfortunately the CanAm body work was not included as the prior owner had partially rebuilt it as a MKIV coupe. Efforts, so far, to locate the old body work have not been fruitful.

J10, as you know, had more (albeit largely unsuccessful) race history than any of the other J car chassis. From what I understand, J9 was used by Ford for wind tunnel tests etc. to develop a Can Am car, but was never actually raced.


Jim Holden

[chuckbrandt]

Does anyone have a picture of a J-Car? I'm pretty sure I've never seen one and wondered what the body was like.

I did find this picture but all I know is it is a ford, is this one?



Chuck

[Specialk]

Chuck,

Here is the boss with J5 :

[computerworks]

J-1 (..maybe?)