> Roland's snake: how it makes my heart feel so good to know that
> at least one Cobra isn't perfectly restored, living the rest of its
Off the top of my head I can think of four local 289 Cobras that are in
no way restored and belong to people of ordinary means. One is used as
a daily commuter.
The national Shelby American Automobile Club prints a quarterly (or
there abouts) magazine called the Shelby American. In the last issue
there was a letter to the editor from a Shelby owner asking why the club
no longer printed "how to" articles like the ones that had been regular
features of the club publication when he had first join it in the late
70s (I believe it was). The editor's response was that Shelbys had
appreciated in value so much in the past few years that they had been
mostly bought up by well-heeled owners who could afford the high cost of
having them professionally maintained and therefore there was no point
in printing such articles.
In another letter to the editor a fairly new member related how he had
recently purchased a Shelby in need of restoration and wanted to know if
the club could recommend any good books on how to restore it. The
response was something of a lecture on why this person shouldn't waste
his money on books but instead attend car meets (and in particular SAAC
national conventions) where he could find out how a Shelby should look.
And went on to say how well spent the money attending these meets would
be compared to buying books, et cetera.
Let me just add that I'm relating these letters from memory and may have
some inaccuracies in the details, but I don't think I'm off the mark
regarding the editor's responses to them. I have no idea what the
reactions of the letter writers were but mine would have been to send my
membership card back to the club after it had been chopped in several
thousand pieces.
Roland
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