The story of the Terlingua Mustang

[Akos (AJ)]

About a year ago Dave asked me about the birth of the modern Terlingua Mustang. I wrote it up in 2 parts and sent it to him. The last few days I have discovered the hunger from you Shelby fans for every little detail about your cars, the design process, production and curiosities. So I thought it would be cool to share with you, owners of the Fearless Bunny, the story of the birth of the one, original Terlingua concept car (now proudly sleeping in my garage in an undisclosed So-Cal location).

 

So here is part 1, completely unchanged from the email I've sent to Dave:

 

"Before I talk about the car, a little background info is in order. The management team at Shelby in March of '06 was Amy, Joe Jacuzzi running marketing and Ford relations from Michigan, Gary Patterson running sales, Gary Davis running manufacturing and the Cobra shop and myself designing and starting the actual production of cars. When I joined SA, we already had the CS6 and I was tasked to build the line for the GT-H. After finishing the production run for those, we were gearing up for the SGT production that was originally planned for September '06 but didn't start until January of the next year. That being a pre-title car (sold at Ford dealerships as a Ford model) left open the question to what to do as a post title packagae on the 4.6 V8 cars similar to what we were doing with the 40th and then with the Super Snakes on the GT500. So in the Fall Joe Jacuzzi started circulating the idea of reviving the Terlingua Racing Team brand and have that as the theme for the post-title package. He also had some scetches made of cars and then had Rich Sparkman, our IT guru and resident Photoshop expert digitize those.

 

Then, Joe left the company and went back to GM (BTW, his dad is the inventor and the name behind the Jacuzzi hot tub!), and we hired Jim Owens from Ford. That's when Amy asked me to get a base car for the upcoming Terlingua prototype, unofficially green lighting the project. In '07 Ford discontinued the yellow Mustangs and replaced them with grabber orange. So I had to get the closest: white, which I did from Team Ford a dealership in Vegas. But Amy would not commit to the project for months after that because Ford marketing was not happy about doing another V8 version. But they wanted a package for the V6 cars that at that time were not selling as well as they expected (that later changed). So, while we were going back and forth with the big blue oval on what to do, Amy had me send my beutiful white Mustang down to West Coast Customs to get a yellow paint job. So we would be ready to build it for one of the summer carshows. We chose the Ford factory zinc yellow for the prototype and $7000 later we ended up with this gorgeus yellow Mustang. That sat at the shop for the next few months waiting for Amy and Ford to make up their mind. In the meantime, Vince LaViolette, our master fabbricator, Rich and myself started creating the parts list for both a V8 and a V6 version so we would be ready. Then a month or so before SEMA the decision was made to make it a V6. I will tell you the second part of the story in my next email.

 

One irony is that for a couple of years after all this Amy was adamant about not making a V8 Terlingua. But then, long after I left the company to work with my dad in pharmaceuticals, she pulled out the Shelby SR, which is almost exactly the car that we designed back in '07, without the Terlingua paint job and stickers. The wheels are the only difference. So, actually somebody that would have the time and the money, could send my yellow V8 to Shelby, have them turn it into an SR and than have the hood painted black and get the stickers and the stripes on it. Voila' you would have the only legit V8 Terlingua!"

[Akos (AJ)]

Part 2:

 

"We had about 3-4 weeks before SEMA to build the prototype. We had the parts list and we had a very good idea on what the car should look like. However, some of the parts were still being made so we knew we would get them the last minute. Therefore, Vince concentrated on painting the car, which took him about a week. The stripes are painted, including the side stripes. Fortunately we did get the hood in (the first deep-draw hood ever made right!) from the prison's workshop so it could be painted at the same time as the stripes and the two fascias. If I remember correctly, the actual mechanical mods were done the day before we started painting the car. Supercharger, suspension, shifter and gauge pod were installed. We had to wait on the brakes and wheels until the day before SEMA, in fact at the Show the car had prototype brakes. The first ever set from BAER for the small six-pot calipers. Those have been changed since then to the production version.

 

The side exhaust was somewhat a pain to get. We were working with Borla day and night to get it right. The third version finally fit right and we put it on 2 days before SEMA. The night before the show we did the stickers and the badges for the by then complete car. The last minute we also got the Momo bucket seats in with the embroidered Terlingua logos. There were two sets of seats, one is in 0001C and the other was at Shelby for the longest time, I'm not sure where they ended up.

 

The night before the actual SEMA show was open to the public we had the unveiling of the car at an adjacent hotel. Carroll was there and Bill Neale was there too. There were two cars unveiled that night, the resto-mod T-car rom TX and the 0001C. Carroll that night wasn't feeling too well, so he was there for a short time during the presntation then he left fairly early. But I could get Bill Neale to sign the car there in person. Carroll's signature came a couple of years later.

 

The little known fact is that there was another Terlingua SEMA show car that we built. It was a grabber orange car and it was the "base" car. That was placed in American Racing Wheels' booth. It had no S/C andstill had the classic Sheby side stripe. In fact Bill Neale didn't like and didn't approve (he was the licensor, remember) the wide fading stripe that was on 0001C. He wanted the regular straight Shelby stripe a la GT350. He changed his mind at a later time once he saw how much the new stripes were liked by the general public. The orange car got its S/C about a year later when Jim Owens took it up to Ford in MI to give test rides to the Ford executives. The plan was to build the Terlingua cars at Ford to boost the sales of the slow selling V6 cars. That plan never materialized fortunately :-). I'm not sure here that car is currently, I will ask Jim next time I talk to him. Or you might know.

 

After SEMA 0001C came back to Shelby and sat in the museum for more than a year. It was taken out to do photoshoots, the R&T article, couple of car shows, the 85th birthday bash it was on the track and also made it down to Texas a couple of times, as you well know.

 

The best pictures were taken by Jerry Heisley the day before SEMA together with the classic Terlingua car. Those pictures were on the cover of Mustang Monthly magazine. We took the car straight from the shoot to the unveiling site.

 

When I moved from Vegas back to LA, I drove the car to Santa Maria, CA where she still resides. I take her out for a spin every time I have the chance. Last January I took it down to San Diego to the La Jolla Motor Classic where Shelby was the feature brand. My car got 2nd place behind a 2000 Mustang Cobra R that had 35 miles on the clock and still had the Monroney label on the window. Unfair IMHO :-).

 

If I remember correctly I did send you the links of where the car was featured. If I didn't, let me know and I will. The beauty of this project was that we designed and built the car with Joe Jacuzzi, Vince LaViolette, Rich Sparkman, Andy Shmidt and myself. And now it's sitting in our garages. Even the diecast was based on 0001C, Amy changed the meatball to "08" the last minute."

[mywickedshelby]

awesome read....thanks for sharing bestia.....

[JeffJ]

So, actually somebody that would have the time and the money, could send my yellow V8 to Shelby, have them turn it into an SR and than have the hood painted black and get the stickers and the stripes on it. Voila' you would have the only legit V8 Terlingua!"

 

 

One part I missed, is what happened to the yellow car that was to be the prototype? So it was a white V8 car that was painted yellow, and you actually have it?

[turnsignaldelete]

AJ,

Great Post. Even though I was a very regular "visitor"

to Shelby Vegas during that time (as you know). It is Great that you

Historically Documented the Birth and development of the project.

I was in Love with the Concept and design from

the start, to Honor the 1967 Trams-Am Victory of Shelby, Jerry Titus

and the Legend of the Terlingua Racing Team.

 

With the Great Artistry of Bill Neale and with Carroll Shelby and his Legendary Team,

and the Great Jerry Titus driving excellence, the Terlingua Legend was Born and in the

History Books.

 

The Legend Began

 

I chose my Terlingua #17 in Honor and respect of the Great Jerry Titus.

and to match the #17 1967 Shelby Trans-Am Race Car, that we and Gary Patterson

raced at 'Mid-America Hallet Race Track in 2008.

 

Thanks again AJ for All that you and The 'Team' at Shelby have done for All of Us.

Carroll Shelby and his Teams have created and Modified great cars

for ALL of us to enjoy and collect.

TSD

[Akos (AJ)]

One part I missed, is what happened to the yellow car that was to be the prototype? So it was a white V8 car that was painted yellow, and you actually have it?

 

 

Yepp, still have it. When I have some time and cash I would like to build it up to be close to the car it was meant to be....

 

AJ

[Akos (AJ)]

AJ,

Great Post. Even though I was a very regular "visitor"

to Shelby Vegas during that time (as you know). It is Great that you

Historically Documented the Birth and development of the project.

I was in Love with the Concept and design from

the start, to Honor the 1967 Trams-Am Victory of Shelby, Jerry Titus

and the Legend of the Terlingua Racing Team.

 

With the Great Artistry of Bill Neale and with Carroll Shelby and his Legendary Team,

and the Great Jerry Titus driving excellence, the Terlingua Legend was Born and in the

History Books.

 

The Legend Began

 

I choose my Terlingua #17 in Honor and respect of the Great Jerry Titus.

and to match the #17 1967 Shelby Trans-Am Race Car, that we and Gary Patterson

raced at 'Mid-America Hallet Race Track in 2008.

 

Thanks again AJ for All that you and The 'Team' at Shelby have done for All of Us.

Carroll Shelby and his Teams have created and Modified great cars

for ALL of us to enjoy and collect.

TSD

 

 

 

I'm happy that the car has such a faithful fanclub. I wish that Shelby would have made more of them, but I guess the fact that only 40-some cars were built will help with collectibility value...

 

Your #17 is such a sweet car... but you should have bought my #1C :P

 

AJ

[sportscars]

AJ,

 

Thanks for the info! It would be very nice to sit down with you at some point and talk about all this. Maybe we could meet at David's, say the first weekend of October???? B)

 

Sean

[robertlane]

I can shed some light on the orange Terlingua, which was issued as CSM #1P

 

In early 2008 #1P, it was sent to Dearborn, Michigan for evaluation by Ford. It was driven by several Ford executives, including (from what I was told) Edsel B. Ford. By this time, 1P was a super charged V6, although, the car externally was basically an orange Mustang with a black hood with very few Terlingua markings. The lower rocker side stripe featured a rabbit only.

 

After some testing by Ford, the car then ended up in my driveway in Michigan for longer periods of time. I didn't complain and often used it to drive everywhere.

 

Shelby then decided to have it appear at Road America in Wisconsin, so Sharon and myself dediced to drive it from Dearborn to WI. While the ride from Michigan to Wisconsin was nice, my spine was mangled because of the Terlingua's rough suspension. Rather than drive 1P back to Michigan, we drove to Manitowoc and had it shipped on the S.S. Badger across Lake Michigan to Ludington, Michigan.

 

1P was the last vehicle loaded on the S.S. Badger to ship across Lake Michigan from Wisconsin.

 

1P inside the S.S. Badger. At this point, it was still devoid of most Terlinuga markings.

 

1P after it was unloaded on the Michigan side.

 

Some time after, 1P was sent to MRT in Livonia, Michigan to recieve the classic Terlingua decals.

[Akos (AJ)]

Robert,

If I remember correctly, the orange car was stripped of all things Terlingua, because Jim Owens wanted to sell Ford on the idea of a pre-title supercharged V6 by Shelby. We left a few Terlingua stickers on the car to gauge the possibility of calling this pre-title car Terlingua also. Unfortunately Ford never bit on the project so it just died...

 

AJ

[robertlane]

Robert,

If I remember correctly, the orange car was stripped of all things Terlingua, because Jim Owens wanted to sell Ford on the idea of a pre-title supercharged V6 by Shelby. We left a few Terlingua stickers on the car to gauge the possibility of calling this pre-title car Terlingua also. Unfortunately Ford never bit on the project so it just died...

 

AJ

 

 

You would know best about the Terlingua history Please keep sharing some more.

 

Now how about the GT500 Terlingua?

[robertlane]

I found a few more photos of 1P after it came back from MRT with the Terlingua logos applied.

 

Troy Halgren took these photos somewhere near Gibraulter, Michigan.

 

Notice the side rocker stripe "SUPER Charged"

 

Bunny power, baby!

 

 

Noel was also one of the two Team Shelby girls at the second Team Shelby Dearborn event.

[SHELBYCS6]

Robert,

If I remember correctly, the orange car was stripped of all things Terlingua, because Jim Owens wanted to sell Ford on the idea of a pre-title supercharged V6 by Shelby. We left a few Terlingua stickers on the car to gauge the possibility of calling this pre-title car Terlingua also. Unfortunately Ford never bit on the project so it just died...

 

AJ

 

 

Great read...wish I could find someone to provide similar information on the CS6 platform..I've been requesting something for several years but I never get any response.

 

It seems to me like there was a lot of design and engineering went into the CS6 program which is very clear in other current offerings but it's almost impossible to get the full history on the project.

 

Thanks again

[Akos (AJ)]

Great read...wish I could find someone to provide similar information on the CS6 platform..I've been requesting something for several years but I never get any response.

 

It seems to me like there was a lot of design and engineering went into the CS6 program which is very clear in other current offerings but it's almost impossible to get the full history on the project.

 

Thanks again

 

 

The CS6 was developed before I joined Shelby. The best source of info would be either Vince or Gary Patterson.

[Akos (AJ)]

You would know best about the Terlingua history Please keep sharing some more.

 

Now how about the GT500 Terlingua?

 

 

Way to start rumors Robert! "What were you thinking?" would say Amy...

[VorpalBunny]

About a year ago Dave asked me about the birth of the modern Terlingua Mustang. I wrote it up in 2 parts and sent it to him. The last few days I have discovered the hunger from you Shelby fans for every little detail about your cars, the design process, production and curiosities. So I thought it would be cool to share with you, owners of the Fearless Bunny, the story of the birth of the one, original Terlingua concept car (now proudly sleeping in my garage in an undisclosed So-Cal location).

 

So here is part 1, completely unchanged from the email I've sent to Dave:

 

"Before I talk about the car, a little background info is in order. The management team at Shelby in March of '06 was Amy, Joe Jacuzzi running marketing and Ford relations from Michigan, Gary Patterson running sales, Gary Davis running manufacturing and the Cobra shop and myself designing and starting the actual production of cars. When I joined SA, we already had the CS6 and I was tasked to build the line for the GT-H. After finishing the production run for those, we were gearing up for the SGT production that was originally planned for September '06 but didn't start until January of the next year. That being a pre-title car (sold at Ford dealerships as a Ford model) left open the question to what to do as a post title packagae on the 4.6 V8 cars similar to what we were doing with the 40th and then with the Super Snakes on the GT500. So in the Fall Joe Jacuzzi started circulating the idea of reviving the Terlingua Racing Team brand and have that as the theme for the post-title package. He also had some scetches made of cars and then had Rich Sparkman, our IT guru and resident Photoshop expert digitize those.

 

Then, Joe left the company and went back to GM (BTW, his dad is the inventor and the name behind the Jacuzzi hot tub!), and we hired Jim Owens from Ford. That's when Amy asked me to get a base car for the upcoming Terlingua prototype, unofficially green lighting the project. In '07 Ford discontinued the yellow Mustangs and replaced them with grabber orange. So I had to get the closest: white, which I did from Team Ford a dealership in Vegas. But Amy would not commit to the project for months after that because Ford marketing was not happy about doing another V8 version. But they wanted a package for the V6 cars that at that time were not selling as well as they expected (that later changed). So, while we were going back and forth with the big blue oval on what to do, Amy had me send my beutiful white Mustang down to West Coast Customs to get a yellow paint job. So we would be ready to build it for one of the summer carshows. We chose the Ford factory zinc yellow for the prototype and $7000 later we ended up with this gorgeus yellow Mustang. That sat at the shop for the next few months waiting for Amy and Ford to make up their mind. In the meantime, Vince LaViolette, our master fabbricator, Rich and myself started creating the parts list for both a V8 and a V6 version so we would be ready. Then a month or so before SEMA the decision was made to make it a V6. I will tell you the second part of the story in my next email.

 

One irony is that for a couple of years after all this Amy was adamant about not making a V8 Terlingua. But then, long after I left the company to work with my dad in pharmaceuticals, she pulled out the Shelby SR, which is almost exactly the car that we designed back in '07, without the Terlingua paint job and stickers. The wheels are the only difference. So, actually somebody that would have the time and the money, could send my yellow V8 to Shelby, have them turn it into an SR and than have the hood painted black and get the stickers and the stripes on it. Voila' you would have the only legit V8 Terlingua!"

 

 

AJ,

 

Thank you so much for taking the time to write this all up! First when i asked, and now as we discussed, so it is printed and available to all as it should be. This is a great idea to post it of yours and effort and willingness on your part AJ, I truly appreciate you as I know many do for taking the time.

 

The invitation remains wide open for Terlingua in October my friend!

 

All are encouraged to sign on for Terlingua 2012, October 4-7, 2012. A few spots remain if you are interested let me or any board member know - you can see us here: www.terlinguapreservationsociety.com

 

 

 

David

[dh777]

Thanks for the great posts AJ

 

I have a question. Who decided which stickers to put on the side of the car? Most of them make sense but there is one in particular that many people have wondered and asked me about. Lincoln Welders? Is there any particular reason that is on there?

 

[richard m.switzer]

You would know best about the Terlingua history Please keep sharing some more.

 

Now how about the GT500 Terlingua?

 

OK,,any news about this one ,,,

[HARALD KELLEY]

Wow, another great read. History material for sure.

 

AJ, your willingness to share your knowledge & first hand experience is awesome.

 

Thanks.

[MY500SS]

awesome read....thanks for sharing bestia.....

 

 

+1............................fantastic stuff.

[Frank S]

'Preciate your contributions, AJ, to the thread and to the building of the Shelby Terlingua Mustangs. I envy those owners, and congratulate you and the Shelby Crew on realizing such a perfect complement to the Terlingua Racing Team's theme of iconoclastic but enthusiastic automobiling. Thank you.

[Akos (AJ)]

Thanks for the great posts AJ

 

I have a question. Who decided which stickers to put on the side of the car? Most of them make sense but there is one in particular that many people have wondered and asked me about. Lincoln Welders? Is there any particular reason that is on there?

 

 

The stickers were mainly decided by Amy and the team. Lincoln Welders at the time was one of our corporate partners. They were very gracious in supporting the mod-shop.

I believe the stickers on my car were slightly different than the actual kit later sold by Shelby. Can anyone confirm that?

[Akos (AJ)]

'Preciate your contributions, AJ, to the thread and to the building of the Shelby Terlingua Mustangs. I envy those owners, and congratulate you and the Shelby Crew on realizing such a perfect complement to the Terlingua Racing Team's theme of iconoclastic but enthusiastic automobiling. Thank you.

 

 

Thank you! It was a lot of fun! And it was truly a team effort, I can only take a small part of the merit. Vince and Andy spent countless hours building the 2 cars. Carl and his guys did all the engine work. Rich did all the concept drawings and then later all the promo material.

 

I guess I was just the token S.D. on the project...

 

AJ

[Akos (AJ)]

AJ,

 

Thanks for the info! It would be very nice to sit down with you at some point and talk about all this. Maybe we could meet at David's, say the first weekend of October???? B)

 

Sean

 

 

If my current employer's schedule permits, I'm so there it's not even funny

[Akos (AJ)]

OK,,any news about this one ,,,

 

 

Very very nice!

[MY500SS]

The Terlingua Mustang is one of those cars that will make a lot of people say "Should have gotten one of those when I had the chance". I'm already saying it.

 

 

Congrats to those very lucky few.

[07SGT0547]

The Terlingua Mustang is one of those cars that will make a lot of people say "Should have gotten one of those when I had the chance". I'm already saying it.

 

 

Congrats to those very lucky few.

 

 

+1

 

We actually had a 2006 Black V-6 Manual Coupe w/Pony Package that I thought long and hard about making the conversion... Even called Quantum (since they were closer) right after they became an authorized Mod Shop...

 

Unfortunately, it was Esther's daily driver and it wasn't doing so well here in the winter with all the ice & snow... Even with "winter only" tires, it just wasn't the vehicle she could use on a daily basis to get back and forth to work...

 

Oh well...

[Akos (AJ)]

The Terlingua Mustang is one of those cars that will make a lot of people say "Should have gotten one of those when I had the chance". I'm already saying it.

 

 

Congrats to those very lucky few.

 

 

You might get a chance to get one soon...

 

AJ

[Cali_KR]

Thats a great read, thank you for the post...love reading the history, and the genesis of how these cars evolve.

[Akos (AJ)]

Thats a great read, thank you for the post...love reading the history, and the genesis of how these cars evolve.

 

 

I know that every single Shelby car is unique. But, it seems to me that the Terlingua Mustangs have the most variation. Each has a special story too... Love it!

Feel free to correct me if my perception is wrong....

 

AJ