Once a year, the Shelby American Collection Historic Race Car Museum holds a fundraiser, and the parking lot of the nondescript building in Gunnbarrel is filled with shiny, brightly-colored collector vehicles. Today, the 18th Anniversary Fund Raising Party was also celebrating the 50th anniversary of the Mustang.
Carroll Shelby is credited with single-handedly ushering in the muscle car era. He was a world-class race car driver until a heart problem forced him to give up that profession in 1959. So he opened a high-performance driving school and also became an automotive designer, working to bring racing technology to the everyday person.... and voila, the sports car.
His most famous car was the Cobra, which combined a lightweight British chassis with a powerful American V-8 engine. Then came the Shelby Mustangs (a higher performance version of the Ford Mustang). In 1967, however, Ford transferred production of the cars to a small company in Detroit where they proceeded to get bigger and heavier, adding luxury and grand touring features and even a convertible version. Shelby parted ways with Ford and went on to develop performance cars with Lee Iacocca and Dodge (the Viper) and Oldsmobile (the Series 1).
Carroll Shelby (1923 - 2012)
The Shelby American Collection is the premier and most extensive collection of Shelby Cobras, Shelby Mustangs and Ford GT 40 cars, historical records and memorabilia. The history of the museum begins in the neighboring town of Longmont with brothers Bill and Dave Murray. As the owners of Murray Racing, they collected and refurbished old Shelby race cars. Eventually they had more than they knew what to do with. So together with another collector, Steve Volk, and at the suggestion of Carroll Shelby, the museum was opened in 1996.
We were stylish enough to arrive in a 40th Anniversary Special Edition Mustang. Songs from the 1960's drifted through the air, thanks to a band called The Modnicks. One could purchase a $75 ticket (which went to support the museum) that included unlimited beer, edibles and museum entry. Or one could, like us, also simply wander about the parking lot for free.
The engines were certainly much cleaner than my kitchen floor!
A Lamborghini arrives and is directed to a parking area in the back. People were allowed to bring any kind of high-performance car to show it off.
Built for speed
The iconic logos of the Cobra...
... and the Mustang
The parking lot was stuffed full of these amazing tributes to the past.
Pristine interiors as well!
A signed car...
... including race car driver Tom Yeager, Shelby engineer and test-driver Chuck Cantwell, museum founder Bill Murray and racer Allen Grant.
Note the license plate!
Carroll Shelby himself signed this one!
These aren't just any ol' Cobras...
... they be Super Snakes!
I spent a bit of time talking about restoration with one of the car owners (of the off-white vehicle in the above photo). He said most people had their specialties. He, for example, didn't do any bodywork but did his own engines and interiors. Also, there were different schools of thought regarding restorations. Naturally on a limited or first edition vehicle, one would only use authentic parts. But for more generic cars, where thousands upon thousands were made, there is more freedom. Some try to stick with parts only found during that era while others will throw all sorts of modern technology at it.
A classic from 1965
These are the very first two Shelby Mustangs ever made... the one on the left is the street version while the one on the right is the racing version. They fired up the racing car with a very loud rumble and the intoxicating smell of high performance fuel.
The Ford Shogun... a tiny Festiva with a heck of a big engine! Not many of these were made.
That's a lot of lights!
The party was still going strong when we left, encouraged partly by the encroaching weather. This is an event I definitely have to visit again!
