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The Amazing Life of JOHN COOPERFITCH by Art Evans. 5 1/2˝ x 8 1/2˝ soft-bound; 191 pages, 96 black and white pho-tos. Published by Enthusiast Books,Hudson, WI. www.enthusiast books. com$29.95.

When John Fitch passed away at theripe old age of 95, more than one personsaid, “We’ll not see the likes of him again”and it was true. You could write a bookabout the exploits, adventures and experi-ences that made up John Fitch’s life. Andin fact, someone has. Art Evans is the per-fect individual to tell Fitch’s story becausehe has been close to the racing scene inthis country since the 1950s and came toknow almost every American driver in thatearly era.

It is hard to believe that one mancould have done all the things John Fitchdid. In 1941 he went to army flight schooland was one of the first fliers sent to Eu-rope. While piloting a P-51 Mustang heshot down a Messerschmitt ME 262 jetfighter. He returned from the war with adesire to race sports cars and successfullycompeted at tracks in the U.S., Europe andSouth America. He advised in the makingof the Kirk Douglas movie “The Racers”and designed the Lime Rock race circuit.He raced during the most dangerous yearsof the sport and seeing so many deathsprompted him to invent the displaceableguardrail and the inertial barriers used onmost highways today. There is much more,and it’s all in this excellent book.

CARROLL SHELBY – The Road To Vic-tory by Al Satterwhite. iTunes e-book; 43pages, 88 black and white photos. www.al-satterwhite.com $11.99.

We first met Al Satterwhite in 1980when he was a Car and Driver photogra-pher. The magazine was putting togetheran article with driving impressions on aDaytona Coupe, 427 Cobra and a 1966GT350. Actually the article was originallyintended to include only the Coupe and the427 Cobra but we were not embarrassed tooffer 6S118. They snapped it like a hungrydog being offered a hamburger. We met ed-itors Rich Ceppos and Don Sherman andphotog Satterwhite at Connecticut Drag-way and after Ceppos’ drove the car and

SHELBY AMERICANA

Sherman rowed through the gears a coupleof times on the strip, we were turned overto Satterwhite who spent an entire after-noon shooting a couple of hundred 35mmimages. About a half-dozen ended up in themagazine’s April 1981 issue. Satterwhitehad owned a ‘66 GT350 at one time so hewas a kindred spirit. He also attended sev-eral races at Sebring and Daytona in 1963,1964 and 1966 with press credentials so hewas able to get up close to shoot Cobrasand GT40s.

Al Satterwhite has had a full andfruitful career since then. His work hasbeen exhibited in galleries and museumsaround the world and his images havebeen used in Sports Illustrated, Life, Look,Time, Newsweek and Playboy. As a result,his work commands a premium price. Herecently decided to put some of the imageshe took at these races—of Cobras, GT40s,Shelby and some of the drivers and crewmembers—into an iTunes book which wehad a chance to see. We were impressed.

© Al Satterwhite

© Al Satterwhite

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We’re so used to seeing the same Day-tona Coupe photos over and over (mostlytaken by Shelby American photographerDave Friedman) in almost every book wepick up [full disclosure: we’ve relied onthose photos, too] that when we see “new”photos of these same races and cars we getexcited. Although this book is only 43pages (stuffed with 88 photographs) itsprice of $11.99 makes it very affordable.The downside, of course, is that once youbuy it you can only view it on your iPad.Unless you pony up $225 for a printed ver-sion. Either way, there are still new pic-tures turning up. And that’s a good thing!

© Al Satterwhite

MY 1967 SHELBY STORY by Hunt andPat Palmer-Ball. 12 3/4˝ x 10 7/8˝ hard-cover; 44 pages, 74 color photos. Publishedby Lopez-Bonilla Resources LLC,Louisville, KY. www.lbrdesign.com$115.59.

We have often said that every Shelbyor Cobra has a story and this is as good anexample as we can find. When SAAC mem-ber Hunt Palmer-Ball was 19 years-old hesaw a 1967 GT350 on the showroom floorat Burns Ford, the local dealer. It was loveat first sight. Within a couple of days hehad convinced his dad to accompany himto look at the car. This was followed by afull-court press to convince him to co-signfor the car. It all worked and the story is afascinating one. It includes meeting hiswife and taking her for a hair-raising firstride, modifying the car for drag racing andafter putting it into storage for a fewdecades, pulling it out and giving it a totalrestoration to as-delivered condition.

If you’ve seen the various coffee tablebooks available you probably found your-self wondering what one would look like ifyour car was the subject of one. Along withsome beautiful photography shot by JuanLopez-Bonilla, Hunt Palmer-Ball relatesthe history of his car. Seeing everythingcompiled into a hardcover book about yourown car is very satisfying. Informationabout self-publishing is detailed on theBlurb website—www.blurb.com/self-publishing-overview—and you can have asfew as 20 copies printed. Ever wanted to bean author? Here’s your opportunity.

REM Remembered by his Friends byPhil Henny. 18 1/2˝ x 11˝ hardcover; 250+pages. Published by Editions Cotty, Port-land, OR. www.philhenny.com. AvailableSpring, 2015.

There is no one at Shelby Americanwe respected more than Phil Remington.When he passed away at the end of Febru-ary 2013 at 92, everyone who knew him—even remotely—felt a huge sense of loss.He was a genuine icon and was irreplace-able, and we feared that his passing wouldgo without a book about his life and times.We know such a book was begun on threeseparate occasions, by three different writ-ers in the last five years of his life. Remdidn’t really like talking about himself andwould relate some of the more challengingprojects he was involved matter-of-factly,as if anyone could have done them but itwas just a coincidence it had been him. Henever bragged, although as they say, it’snot bragging if you can do it. And he coulddo almost anything.

So, for Phil Remington to sit downwith a writer and relate the story of his lifewas a painfully difficult task, to say theleast. He could be cantankerous, curt and

blunt and did not suffer fools. At all. It isn’thard to imagine him losing his patienceand telling the writer it wasn’t going towork and to get lost. Then another writercame along and pitched a book again. Remprobably had the feeling that his experi-ences needed to be told, and almost every-one he came into contact with reinforcedthis. So he forced himself to cooperate andstarted from scratch, relating his storyonce again. And once again it was an un-pleasant experience. He invited the writerto stay in the guest room in his home sothey could compress the task. And onceagain he ended it, despite an understand-ing of how important it was to tell hisstory. Maybe the two false starts had justbeen personality conflicts. By the time athird author made a pitch Rem had com-pletely lost interest in the project. He real-ized how difficult it would be and justdidn’t have the energy or the desire. So abiography of Phil Remington was neverwritten. And that was an immeasurableloss.

Phil Henny, a former Shelby Americanteam race mechanic and fabricator real-ized it, and was not willing to let that hap-pen. Since Rem was no longer around,Henny began collecting the remembrancesof as many people who knew him as hecould. He combined everything into thisbook. Rem was so well liked by everyonewho worked with him that Henny receivedmore responses than he had planned for.Virtually everyone wanted to be involvedin the project, and provide some of their re-membrances. As a result, the book is tak-ing longer than expected. So we can onlyestimate the number of pages.

Printing is set for sometime in thespring of 2015 and we will provide order-ing details in the next issue. Henny is stillsorting through photos. Phil Remingtonlived an extraordinary life. He vas in-volved, at some point, in almost every as-pect of the automotive world. People wereproud to say they knew him. He was aunique individual.

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Yeah, these guys are still at it butwe lost one. The other three keep turn-ing up unique stuff. And we‘re prettycareful about not using something thathas already been used (not that a coupleof these guys haven’t tried to slip some-thing past us). The bottom line is thatthere are now three combatants in thefracas: Jim Hutchinson (Cambridge,Massachusetts); Ted Warren (Shreve-port, Louisiana) and Bob Barranger(Toms River, New Jersey). Ken Young(alternately of Sturgeon Bay, Wisconsinand Naples, Florida) was carried out ofthe ring. We thought we heard him say-ing “No mas. No mas.”

Master Eagle Eye Smackdown Report: One Down on the Mat

Hutchinson spotted this calendar on acatalog from Sormani Calendars inJacksonville, Florida. www.sormanical-endars.com if you have to have one.

Barranger was walking past a bake shopin a nearby shopping mall when thename “Shelby” jumped out at him froma cupcake display. Of course he had tohave one, just on principle.

Another Barrangerfind – and we’reguessing he’s gettingsome help from hispit crew, the junior Barrangers. Whatgives us this idea? Could it be due to theareas of interest in some of his recentsightings? We’ll know for sure if hestarts sending us references to skate-boards, Harry Potter or Justin Beiber.His most recent sighting was a FenderShelby GT Stratocaster guitar. A coupleof years ago Fender and Ford joinedforces to produce a pair of matchingblack guitars and Shelby GT coupes. Ifyou find yourself with one, you’ll need aguitar pick, won’t you? Of course youwill.

Barranger sent along this comic bookcover. He attempted to explain: “this is aseries about talented kids who possessmagical powers of dance, music and art.This first book includes...” zzzzzzzzzzzzzz.Ok, Bob, we get it. Shelby in the title. Be-yond that it’s all white noise to us. You’vegot kids feeding you this stuff, right?

Leave it to Hutchinson to try to elevatethis Eagle Eye stuff but he’s on therazor’s edge between hoity-toity and ob-scure. He spotted this print of aToulouse Lautrec painting, titled JaneAvril, a woman in a cobra dress. She wasa can can dancer. It was painted in 1899so it’s safe to say it was not inspired bya Cobra nose badge.

Knowing what we know about video racinggames, we wouldn’t go so far as to say thatshot cars are making a comeback. But likemost things buried in our past (at leastthose of us who can make the claim ofbeing Baby Boomers), slot car racing carsand tracks have a special pull on our emo-tions. Probably because they allowed us to“drive” before the law did. Hutchinson sawthis ad (slotmods.com) in Autoweek. TheR-Model looks like 5R539 which raced atLeMans in 1967, driven by Claude Dubois.

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This one definitely caught our attention.What are Shelby bio-balls? Essentiallythey are dissolvable blocks of pond bac-teria for use in large ponds, lakes andother bodies of water. They are droppedinto the water where they sink to thebottom to remove sludge or pond muckwhich converges on the floor. Ok, thiswas something we didn’t know, and wereit not for Barranger, we probably would-n’t have. But we still didn’t get theShelby tie-in. The Shelby Fish Farm,which sells them, is from Anna, Ohio. Sowe had to dig a little deeper and fortu-nately they have a website. Who doesn’t,today? It seems that Anna is in Shelbycounty, in the western part of the state.Lifelong Ohio resident Pardee didn’teven know that, which surprised us be-cause we have always considered himsomething of a connoisseur when itcomes to pond scum.

Every time we run a picture of a Cobra or a Shelby sitting in front of a warbird orother famous vintage plane it’s like ringing a bell in Pavlov’s kennel. We immediatelystart getting car/plane images. The latest is Ted Warren’s CSX4000 with one of thefew remaining, flying Ford Tri-Motors. It was affectionately called the “Tin Goose.”This one happened to land in Warren’s backyard, in Shreveport, Louisiana this pastsummer. They were giving rides so he took the opportunity to use the plane as a back-drop for a photo opportunity. Exactly 199 Tri-Motors were produced between 1925and 1933. As of 2012 there were 18 left with eight still airworthy. Their tail numbersstay with them for life, like a CSX number, so their history is easy to track. This oneis owned by the Experimental Aircraft Association in Oshkosh, Wisconsin.

It is sad to report that we have not re-ceived anything for this column fromKen Young since the last issue, so regret-fully, we were forced to eliminate himfrom the competition. The rules are verystrict. He had a long run, proved that hecould take a licking and keep on ticking,and gave as good as he got. But he willnot be the last eagle eye standing.

Right up front, we’ll promise that we willnot make reference to Hutchinson losinghis marbles. An article in the NY Times re-ported that marbles are big collectorsitems. Notable is the 1927-1929 Cobra [pic-tured, above right] with a value of $1,500.Pound for pound, it’s worth more than aDaytona Coupe!

Now that we have your attention... you’re won-dering what this romance novel could possiblyhave to do with Cobras? When we got it fromHutchinson that was exactly our thought. He re-ported being on vacation in Maine and wearing aCobra t-shirt when he was approached by awoman who wanted to tell him about the book shewas reading. In one scene the heroine haddreamed of having sex on the hood of a Cobrawith a football player. We suspect that this femalereader was just hitting on Hutchinson. Cobra t-shirts can have that affect. Also, without going toofar into it, the thought occurs to us that it was notan aluminum car. Knowing the scene of the trystwas on the hood of a fiberglass replica seems tohave an unintended detumescent effect.

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A while back (in the Summer 2013 issue,to be exact) we touched on the bronzesculptures created by J. Paul Nesse. Wecrossed paths with him in Monterey andhe said he was still interested in Cobras.His latest work was a commission forSAAC member Marty Beaulieu of MenloPark, California. Like to have one of yourown? They’re about a foot-and-a-half longand weigh close to 25 lbs. Paul will paint itlike your own car or any 289 competitionCobra you’d like. Contact Paul directly atwww.nessesculpture.com

The Shelby 6-piece queen bedroom setcaught Colin Comer’s eye in a recentCostco catalog. He was wondering what hewas going to do with all the royalties thatwere rolling in from his new Shelby book.Now he knows.

Frequent eagle eye Doug Cresanta ofHaskell, New Jersey was sitting in aChick-Fil-A restaurant, minding his ownbusiness, when he turned and spotted alight fixture on the wall that said “Cobra.”

Howard Pardee passed this Internet image on to us. Evidently the Eleanor had flameswhich were a little too realistic. We don’t know anything else about the car but a closeexamination of the license plates in the background indicate the photo was taken some-where in Europe. The car looks fixable.

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CSX7000 and CSX8000 owners manuals havebeen created by a company in Schaumberg,Illinois. Everything is done with authoriza-tion from Shelby American, Inc. There areactually four different manuals because the50th Anniversary cars are considered separate mod-els. The manuals are personalized for each car and, if the ownerdesires, a photo of their car can be put on the cover. Each manual packageincludes the manual itself, an “owner/Chassis History Addendum” (whichincludes an owner-annotated compilation of the driveline parts installed ontheir car) and copies of original sales brochures. Also included is a ServiceBulletin Package with information on upgrades and answers to mainte-nence questions. The package is delivered electronically in a PDF formaton a custom-designed memory flash card resembling the car’s ShelbyAmerican chassis plate. Everything can be printed by the owner. The mem-ory card also has additional space to add photos or scans of build receiptsfor drivetrain parts. The complete package is $150. Large format 24˝ x 32˝printed wiring diagrams are $40. Contact Blas Costagli,

spfwiringdiagrams@comcast.net The memory card is at the left.

Cory Hitchcock of Granite Falls, Washington was searching Craigslist and came uponAffordable Classic Cars in Gladstone, Oregon. He recalled visiting the place while vis-iting a friend who lived near by, but the place didn’t have a GT350 on the sign on thefront of the building. Hitchcock took this image off of the Internet. Judging by the carsin the photo parked out in front, if this place was selling Shelbys they wouldn’t be hidingthem inside. Not enough evidence? When is the last time you heard a Shelby describedas “affordable” ? No more questions, Your Honor.

If the name Camilo Pardo sounds familiar,it should be. He was the lead designer forthe 2005-2006. Ok, you knew that. But didyou also know he was an artist? A show ofhis paintings was held back in August atthe William Turner Gallery in Santa Mon-ica, California.

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The big money definitely came out for theRM Auction in Dallas, Texas on November14-15. As we reported in the last issue[page 21-22], Texas Ford dealer Sam Packhad amassed a collection of 265 cars andmore than 130 of them went across theblock. Most were Fords (as you would ex-pect) and all cars were sold. The two origi-nal Cobras in the group were strongsellers: $880,000 for CSX2048 and$1,292,500 for CSX3279 [pictured]. A lowmileage Ford GT went for $418,000 and a‘69 GT500 convertible brought $280,500.Lest you get the impression that the bidders were a mob of roaring drunks, lighting cigars with hundred dollar bills and swillinghooch directly from the neck of a bottle, a ‘66 GT350 Hertz car, 6S564, painted red and turned out in vintage racing trim, brought asobering $110,000.

Bob Shaw of Fountain Valley, California saw this 35˝ x 28˝ painting on an Internet auc-tion site. It is described as a giclee on a stretched canvas (gilcee is a high resolution,large format ink-jet or computer-generated print) by artist Michael Godard. “We OliveA Shelby” seems to cross the line from serious illustration to cartoon. Is it just our opin-ion or does using a Cobra roadster as the subject of a painting like this diminish thecar, itself? It’s a slippery slope and we may want to remember this as the tipping point.It’s no reflection on Shaw; he just happened to be the poor schlub who tripped over it.

RAMAC Industries provides products(mostly OEM replacement parts) to inde-pendent repair shops specializing inBMWs, Minis, Volvos and SAABs—whichis probably why relatively few people read-ing this magazine would otherwise see it.The company sends out a newsletter everymonth and then publishes the best articlesin an annual. The latest issue had a replicaCobra on the cover. It was hard to miss,and Doug Cresanta sure didn’t.

Tom Dankel of Hollister, Californiasnapped to full attention when this RHDCobra replica made an appearance on theEnglish version of “Top Gear.” How do weknow it was a replica? No self-respectingreal Cobra would have dual roll bars. Itwas in a commercial for Tudor watchesand was reportedly being driven throughthe hills above Monaco.

Ever seen a set of 180° headers for a 302?Gary Goeringer found a set for his ‘69GT350 racer [Winter 2013 issue]. ChuckCantwell admitted to testing a set on aTrans-Am team car.

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There were 100 cars pictured in this cata-log. Guess which one was chosen for thecover?

Not that we spend a lot of time in toystores anymore, but we were somewhatsurprised to get an email photo from CoryHitchcock of Granite Falls, Washingtonshowing a line of How Wheels type carsbadges and boxed by Shelby American. Ob-viously they had a full line of cars—notjust a Cobra. He used restraint and didn’tblow his entire paycheck on all of them.

Another dip into the apparently bottom-less Burgy archives. While investigatingthe “wide mouth valence” reported on ear-lier in this issue, Burgy also discovered pic-tures of early Mustangs and Shelbys withvalences carrying driving lights. Factoryprototype? We doubt it as far as Shelbysgo. Too expensive and labor-intensive.Could have been a Ford styling exercise?You never really know.

Whoa! Hold it, kids. It’s only a two-seater! Dennis Karras of Olympia, Washington sawthis Cobra-bodied go-kart on Craigslist about a year ago and snapped it up so he couldgive it to his grandkids as a Christmas present. It is powered by a Briggs & Strattonengine. He said it runs like a champ and was wondering if it was a one-off or a produc-tion piece. We haven’t a clue. Does anyone out there in SAACland know?

The SHELBY AMERICAN

John Chun did virtually all of the exterior design of the 1967-1969 Shelbys. He passed away in July 2013 at 85. He was born inKorea and came to the U.S. when he was about 27 years old. After studying aviation technology, he became intrigued with automobilesand enrolled in the Art Center College of Design. After graduation he was interviewed by Shelby American chief engineer FredGoodell and was hired on the spot. SAAC member Keith Schadoff made contact with Chun and soon had him attending Shelby re-unions. Chun was driving a Packard and this birthday card, given to him in 1967, was signed by the people he worked with. We ex-changed emails with him as were working on an article when he passed away. Look for it in the next issue.

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