Posting Comments

[Tiger_Steve]

 

Members, it was rather difficult getting my new account functioning properly.

 

I was struggling with the Member Map to mark my location, and it wouldn't work at all. Now the Map is gone!

I was posting some commentary, questions, and answers, but I can't seem to get them to "stick"

I signed up for the Shelby Tiger forum, but many posts are not there.

 

Bottom Line, even though I am on four Ford Car sites, for my new Edge and Sync, this forum has me really scratching. I think am working it out, but don't know where prior (or this post) will go.

 

 

I recommend some beginner's set-up and usage guide.

 

Tiger_Steve

[cobrakidz]

welcome.....

[photoracer18]

Been a long time. I have owned 3 Tigers over the years, none currently and all 1965 models. Early member of BASTOA, knew Dave Reiser, later member of Tigers East/Alpines East. Autocrossed 2 of the Tigers I owned. First one was bone stock bought new in 1965, had my dad sell it while I was in the service in SE Asia. 2nd was mostly stock with a Shelby intake and 4 barrel Holley I bought in 1971 before I was sent to be stationed in Hawaii. Sold that to a fellow sailor while there (by that time I also had a 1966 GT-350® and a 1970 Boss 429). 3rd I bought in 1982 and it was mostly a drag car when I bought it. 302 CID, 351W heads, FMS cam, 4.11 gears w/posi, and a race modified C4 auto trans (and painted baby blue). Talked about the AT with the guys at Tigers East and they told me to leave as is so I did. Car had time slips from Cecil Country Dragway showing times in the high 12 s range so likely made around 350 crank HP (as a result hard to keep cool). Sold it when I went back to roadracing in 1987. Sold it to the guy who owns the company in Ashland, VA that puts out the commemorative firearms for about 2x what I paid for it. He wanted to restore it and managed to find the previous engine that was in it, a 289, in a shop in PA (obviously at least the 2nd engine) even before he had his guys come to pick it up. Not sure how he got the serial number of the previous block, but he did. I think he was adding it to his own collection. Not sure if is still there or not as I never contacted him to see the restoration. Used to be called the American Historical Foundation but now they also sell under the America Remembers name.

 

 

[photoracer18]

As for the GT-350 I bought it while stationed in Hawaii. It was an SCCA prepared B-Prod 1966 GT-350 considered the #2 Shelby at the time as a track car, only the one raced by Charlie Kemp was rated higher. Car was a hybrid of one of the original 1965 GT-350R models (I never found out what the donor car's VIN was). Belonged to a PA driver named Jim Hall (no relation to the Texan of the same name who built and raced the Chaparral cars in the Can-Am and Camaros in the Trans-Am) of H & H Racing. He essentially totaled his R model at Bridgehampton (year unknown) so bought a 1966 and moved all the race parts and engine to the '66. Also installed a full cage (not mandatory in those days) like the 1965 as he figured it kept him alive. Raced it and then sold it to a guy named Mike L. He towed it across country racing and soloing it till he got to the West Coast where he put it on a ship to Hawaii where he was going. Supposedly it lost FTD at only one autocross event it entered to a 427 Cobra in Chicago. At the Riverside Time Trials that year it was officially clocked at 157 MPH thru the time traps (4.11 rear end also). Its 289 engine made 400 dyno HP, about 50 more than the engines supplied by Shelby American at the time. Mike L. sold it to me in late 1970 when he decided to switch to motocross (for what today would seem an absurd amount $2500, but then while I was in CA before coming over I was offered Bob Rogers B-Prod 289 Cobra for $7000 including all the spares and the trailer). I sold that car before leaving Hawaii for the mainland.

While stationed there in 1971 I was going by a Pontiac dealer when I spotted a 1970 Boss 429 sitting on the used car lot. $3500 and it was mine. I actually used that car to tow the GT-350 to solo events on the island before I started soloing the Boss also. Probably the only Boss 429 ever that had a trailer hitch on the back. I could ship one car off the island for free when I left so I sold the Shelby and kept the Boss 429. That car had a 4.30 Detroit No-Spin diff in the back and I proceeded to drive that across country to my next duty station in MD (at NSA). Kept that until 1974 when I sold it to road-race motorcycles in the AMA and (W)ERA.

That was the last of my collectable cars. Raced Mazdas in the SCCA from 1987 to 1998 and raced a 1995 Mustang Cobra in the SCCA from 1996-2003. I have been a driving instructor for Car Guys and SAAC in the Mid-Atlantic area and have driven several Cobras, and European exotics for their owners. These days I don't race or even go to the track but I own a heavily modified Mazdaspeed 3 (350 HP) and a soon to be modified Audi S4 (somewhere in the 490 HP range).

You can take the driver out of racing but you can't take the racing out of the driver. Thinking about adding something like a Shelby Terlingua to my bucket list. Been to the ranch once in the old days (first year I think in the days I was hanging out with the Unsers).