subguns Posted August 13, 2006 Report Share Posted August 13, 2006 What a ride! I am currently sitting in an airport leaving town after taking delivery of my long awaited Grabber Orange Shelby yesterday. I would love to stay at home and play with it but I do have to pay for it….Everyone wants a story and some pictures so here it goes. First of all I can't think of a better group of people on this board to deal with and meet. Some of you have shared in this experience with me ordering, waiting, getting VINs, build dates, tracking rail cars, sharing sources, being disappointed and finally being ecstatic. To all of those people THANK YOU! The pickup process started with having an excellent small town dealer who is a PA winner and I now know why. He allowed me to pickup my car at the rail yard in Memphis, TN and what an experience it was. We (my wife and I) jumped the gun somewhat getting to the rail yard the same morning the train was to arrive not totally understanding the complex process necessary to drop the car. The rail yard was 1 day behind because of BNSF railroad not spotting the previous days delivery in the unloading area until today. When we arrived we were lucky to meet the contracted Ford Rep for UPS logistics who is based at this facility to be sure the process flows the best possible. He was great and was well aware of the Shelby delivery issues receiving frequent memos about damage, inspections, the rush to deliver etc. We found out about 4pm Friday the drop was not going to take place as we hoped. We had this time off as a day of vacation and traveled to Memphis which is a little over 2 hours from me in Central Arkansas. All of this interaction with rail yard, transportation, and unload contractors over 2 days did allow us to make friends and supply some goodwill in the form of food. After no luck this day we traveled to Tunica, MS south of Memphis and stayed at a Casino to help make the trip somewhat fun after a disappointing day. We were not winners but did spend some fun time together as my wife is as excited about this car as I am due to her love for her Mustang GT in Legend Lime. On Saturday morning the rail car got spotted in the unload area about 6 am. The UPS Rep came in special on a Saturday to be sure we were taken care of and the car was going to be dropped. He was the one who actually entered the rail car and laid his eyes on it, checked the VIN and told us it was on the only Grabber Orange car along with 3 other Shelbys, ALL in Red / White. The unload process is really interesting and we lucked out getting to wait on the yard and watch. Of course safety regulations hampered our full access but we were close enough to supply all of you with some neat pictures of how your cars are loaded, strapped down and unloaded on triple deck railcars. One of the unload employees was nice enough to operate our camera to get a picture of it inside the rail car. What a treat for all of us. This was like the birth of a child as it finally rolled out of the car and down the ramp as the pictures show. A line of 6 rail cars were unloaded all at once by the use of bridges that allow the cars to be driven forward only through all cars and finally out and down the ramp. Our Shelby had 30 cars above it and 23 cars in front of it on the second level to be unloaded first. There is also a picture of the rear of a triple decker with the doors open you can see how tight the cars are loaded in. Trucks and SUVs are shipped on a double rail car due to height. We then loaded the Shelby on my flat bed car hauler and made the 100 mile trip to the dealer who made arrangements for his service manager to come in and do the PDI. I made the trip worth his while as he lived 1 hour away and he lost the most of a day waiting on us. The car made quite a stir on the Interstate and at the dealership. As others have said these cars attract attention like you will not believe. We had cars pass us then realize what they passed and almost lock it up to slow for a look. We got many thumbs up and I feel sure the Grabber Orange and stripes had something to do with it as it screams look at me….. We documented the car with pictures, pulled the plastic and watched as the PDI was completed. The owner of the dealership himself washed it and got it looking much better but did not do a full detail with tire slick etc as I did not want it. It turned into a family affair as his wife and kids got their pictures taken with the car and even talked about sending a copy of a picture of us accepting the keys from the owner to put in the small town newspaper and an ad in the local high school yearbook. This was a big deal for them and us. They are wonderful people and will get the best survey I have ever completed. The only thing that sucked was most of the day was gone and not much time was left for driving after driving home almost 2 hours. Here are my impressions after about 50 miles of driving. The car had 12.5 miles on it when it rolled off the railcar. The fit and finish is excellent, paint was excellent and the stripes looked good as well. I did find 1 splice but it was under a ridge on the front bumper I would have never seen if it was not on the lift. The color is really interesting sometimes looking yellow and other times very orange. We love it and I would not change if we had to do it again. It is a great choice if you like a loud color. The car has incredible SMOOTH power. The transmission is slick, ratios are great and clutch is so light it is a surprise it has the lock up ability for 500 horses. Handling is awesome. I took some exit ramps aggressively and never noted any tire squeal. The car hangs like glue and makes you feel like a real good driver when the equipment is really doing the work. In comparison to my wife’s 2006 GT this car is big time improved, period! I can’t believe the ease of driving it. As others have said the clutch is tricky to learn but I got the hang of it pretty quick. The Shaker 1000 is also well worth the money in my opinion. We listened to the same CD (ZZ Top) side by side with her GT and again no comparison. Huge difference in the radios in my opinion. The local cruisers in their ricers were blown away by it. We heard again and again “that’s the real deal” apparently referring to it not being a clone and hardly any around. To the best of our knowledge our car is around #4 or 5 to be delivered in Arkansas. In closing, the Shelby has exceeded my expectations. For those of you who have one I am sure you understand, for those who are waiting, you have a big smile coming sometime soon I hope. I can’t wait to get off of this business trip and get back to it! Click the link and enjoy the pictures. Please sign the guestbook with your comments if you want. I hope you have a better understanding of the rail car process. It was the highlight of our delivery! :happy feet: Grabber Shelby Pictures! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lightitup068 Posted August 13, 2006 Report Share Posted August 13, 2006 great story and excellent pictures. Gongrats and hurry back so u can enjoy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ronda Posted August 13, 2006 Report Share Posted August 13, 2006 Congrats! Great looking car! Good to see a Grabber Orange Shelby on the road. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shel-b001 Posted August 14, 2006 Report Share Posted August 14, 2006 Great pictures Congrat`s . Your Wife will break it in well your away. Enjoy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LSR Posted August 14, 2006 Report Share Posted August 14, 2006 Congrats. Enjoy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fastbackman Posted August 14, 2006 Report Share Posted August 14, 2006 Ken. Those are the most awesome pictures posted yet. That had to be a great experience at the rail yard. It's been fun tracking the cars and by this time next week I'll be sharing in the same joy you are now. Thanks for all your help with mine and enjoy the car. It is beautiful!!!!!!!!! :happy feet: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
subguns Posted August 14, 2006 Author Report Share Posted August 14, 2006 Great pictures Congrat`s . Your Wife will break it in well your away. Enjoy. My wife does not drive a manual at this point but NOW wants to learn. She told the dealer to get ready to find her a Shelby GT. She is hooked worse than me. I am afraid that after the ride we took last night, 390 horses won't do it.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mrfarmdog Posted August 14, 2006 Report Share Posted August 14, 2006 Ken I am glad to see you got your car! Sorry about the hassle but Tunica is not a bad place to wait. I will be in LR on the 17th. Let me know if you want to hook up. I would love to see it in person! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MDGT Posted August 14, 2006 Report Share Posted August 14, 2006 Great story man. Congrats on the Shelby and be safe. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BoneDoc Posted August 20, 2006 Report Share Posted August 20, 2006 07GT500 i wanted you to know that your pics pushed me to finally make the decision to change my order from Red/white striped to Grabber Orange/white. the car is beautiful. i may have the stripes painted black at a later date.... have you considered this? my build week is aug 28th. this color combo has a classic muscle car look. i have always thought that the old '69 mach I's that were grabber orange/black were the cleanest looking ponies in the stable! gets alot of attention. thanks for the pics and enjoy! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GrabberOrangeisfor*******! Posted August 20, 2006 Report Share Posted August 20, 2006 :wacko: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
subguns Posted August 20, 2006 Author Report Share Posted August 20, 2006 07GT500 i wanted you to know that your pics pushed me to finally make the decision to change my order from Red/white striped to Grabber Orange/white. the car is beautiful. i may have the stripes painted black at a later date.... have you considered this? my build week is aug 28th. this color combo has a classic muscle car look. i have always thought that the old '69 mach I's that were grabber orange/black were the cleanest looking ponies in the stable! gets alot of attention. thanks for the pics and enjoy! I would not change colors and I have money on 2 more late cars to swap if I wanted to. I have had no less than 5 people hanging their ass out of car windows taking pictures with cell phones. Tonight a girl walked up to us and wanted to take pictures of it. I had a guy jump the median on the freeway and catch us when it was on the trailer on the way home. The prostitute dealer who screwed me over actually said mine looked better than the Red / White one that was on their showroom floor for $20K over. I thought Black stripes would be nice but tonight I saw a Grabber V6 with black side stripes on a dealers lot tonight and it did not do anything for me. The car is bad quick and it looks quick. Bottom line is you will not be disappointed! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
b17drvr Posted August 20, 2006 Report Share Posted August 20, 2006 Every time I see that grabber orange I kind of wish I got that color instead of the red. It really looks great! Congrats! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
150man Posted August 20, 2006 Report Share Posted August 20, 2006 Hope you didn't forget to disconnect the battery, turn the key on and off, slam the passenger door three times, run aroung the car twice while shouting POWER, POWER, POWER, then fall down on your knees and kiss the right rear wheel in order to wake the car up!:D Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
harley99fb Posted August 20, 2006 Report Share Posted August 20, 2006 Hope you didn't forget to disconnect the battery, turn the key on and off, slam the passenger door three times, run aroung the car twice while shouting POWER, POWER, POWER, then fall down on your knees and kiss the right rear wheel in order to wake the car up!:D Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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