I was very fortunate to have grown up in the '60's with Tigers and a
CSX3000-series Cobra in the garage (the Cobra was sold within a month of
my 16th birthday, go figure!) The Old Man raced in a few SCCA events but
mostly did club track days at Nelsons ledges and Mid-Ohio. I was the
crew...and I considered Carroll Shelby my patron saint. I got to meet
Carroll a couple of times, still have the Lemans posters he signed.
Since that time I have owned numerous Tigers and a forlorned GT-350H,
but I never felt the need to join SAAC. Many years have passed and that
adolescent reverence has subsided, but not the respect for the man and
what he did.
A few months ago, I was pleasantly strong-armed by a couple friends to
join SAAC because, as they put it, the entire future of Shelby cars was
on the line. There was talk of shutting down the club and suing officers
and members, echoing the actions BMW tried to impose on the MOA and RA
motorcycle owners clubs a few years ago. My gut told me that was not the
case here, but resistance is futile, as they say, so I finally sent in
my money last fall.
Now after reading some of the threads both here and on the other sites,
I am not sure I should have wasted my $47. I well understand the need
for corporations to manage and defend their IP, and that includes
trademarks and related material. There are both compelling commercial
and legal reasons for this, something I deal with from the Far East on a
daily basis. It appears to me that SAAC has pretty much squandered its
rights to the Shelby name and has now, if you will, poked a stick at the
800 pound gorilla. If a tenth of the stories about selling off Shelby's
stuff and of using club dues for private purpose is true, then it is a
real shame we as members got duped.
I am not sure who will win this fight, but I should have followed my gut
and taken the corner of my patron saint.
Bugz
-----Original Message-----
From: CoolVT@aol.com
Sent: Saturday, December 08, 2007 2:46 PM
To: gswaybright@yahoo.com; tigers@autox.team.net
Subject: Re: [Tigers] Shelby speaks out about SAAC
In a message dated 12/8/2007 2:24:11 PM Eastern Standard Time,
gswaybright@yahoo.com writes:
I'm now much less sympathetic to the situation SAAC is in.
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