The first display you see when you enter the tent is the FORD display. Magnificent as it is each year, this year was all the more meaningful as you realize this is the only real American car company (I define real as one where capitalism, not statism is at work). Right past that is the paltry Chrysler exhibit of a few cars and trucks (by few I mean I can count them on one hand if I had six fingers on that hand). I went with my wife, Shelli, and our oldest son, Robert, and his wife, Heather. We tried to get the ladies past the “shopping mall,” (or was that me trying to get my son past the sports paraphernalia) and at last were entering the gala. Craig Jackson gave his welcome, Rick Titus got up and spoke about his enjoyment of life, then Carroll, dressed in black and talking about this perhaps being his last car he’d be involved with (to which he quickly added, “Of course, I’ve been thinking that for the last 45 years”).

After Carroll sat down to watch the revelation (the Shelby had been draped by a white car cover with “over the roof” stripes), Amy Boylan, Shelby American’s president spoke. She stated “The 2011 GT350 balances heritage with modern necessity.” My reply: “Understatement.”

Now, I’m a pretty low-key guy. My wife and son are the expressive ones. But these guys and gals at Shelby and Ford create some FANTASTIC stuff. I’ve restored a lot of 60’s Fords. I still find them exciting cars. But, folks, the good old days are today! I’ve owned my late model GT convertible for years and I still think about the enjoyment of driving it every day. Most cars are fun at first, then they just become transportation. Mustangs and Shelbys remain driving excitement. The teams at Ford and Shelby keep making it happen.

I didn’t get to drive the beast. I don’t think anyone did, but sitting in it, you can pretend:

Now, I vote that this be the next cover of the Shelby magazine (but, I’m biased).

All of these limited models are going to be manual transmission, white models with blue over the top stripes (remind you of anything), but with a back seat!

It’s cool when your son is explaining how exciting it was for him to have another Shelby roll into the dealership (he worked at Pioneer Ford for awhile). He said he looks forward to telling those stories to his son. Life is funny. I dreamed of being able to be in a Ford dealership when the Shelbys were new. Trouble is, I was only eight when the first one appeared. But its my son, Rob, who has that memory.

I spoke with Gary Patterson, who explained this all-aluminum motored car will have 6 pounds of boost. I watched as he talked with interested people about the car. You can see the enthusiasm is great. Of course, that’s because the Shelby team knows they’ve done a great job. Someone confided in me that we’re looking at around 540 HP. Take a look under the hood:

As Gary Patterson revs the Shelby up, listen:

Don’t set off the passenger airbag. Carroll said as long as he’s around, he plans on personally driving each one and then putting his signature on the passenger airbag cover. Wouldn’t want to destroy history!

Let’s party!

Go to www.gt350.shelbyamerican.com for more info.

 

 

 

I’m sure you can guess that on day 22, I had to readjust some thinking. It didn’t destroy my faith in God, but it did alter my perception about believing what people told me.

Recently, I received the following comment: “We believe that this is the first “Super Cobra Jet” produced and probably the first one in Canada. We were told that the three different assembly plants produced 100 000 each and that each plant started with either 100 000, 200 000, or 300 000. The gentleman, we purchased the car from, who is the original owner (one month ago) ordered every option on the car, window louvers, rear spoiler, front chin spoiler, drag pack, shaker hood scoop, 4-spd, etc, etc. We believe that the New Jersey Plant started at 200 000 and that this was car 26 coming off the line.”

If you have some basic knowledge about Mustangs, you know that this person is going to be very disappointed. My heart goes out to this person and the thousands of others like him. When I was a kid and the world was a more trustworthy place, I was told, “If it sounds too good to be true, it probably isn’t.” And that was reinforced the hard way 22 days after I found out not all you’re told is true, even if its in print or that it is about God. (FYI, for Mustangs in 1969, only Boss 302s came from the factory with rear window louvers, front spoilers, and rear spoilers)

If you’re relatively new to this hobby, or tend to be the trusting type, read my article with the title, “(my best effort at) friendly advice” that is toward the top of this page. Please read it. I have heard or read TOO many stories that involve person A having a car for sale, Person B wanting to buy a car, Person A saying ANYTHING to get person B to shell out too much money and Person B seeming to want to play along.

If you are planning to buy a vehicle, know your stuff. If you don’t have time, pay an expert. The few hundred you invest will be cheaper than the thousands you’ll overpay because of some “sounds good” story.

Ignore this advice and it’ll cost ya!

I first had dealings with Bob over twenty-five years ago. I had bought a 1970 Cougar Eliminator out of a junkyard. While putting it back together, I was very happy that it had the original Hurst shifter, but was very disappointed that the shifter boot was torn. I asked my parts guy at Ford, Gary Inch, about getting the part. “Discontinued,” was the reply (something I got used to hearing a lot of – and this was in the late 70’s.

As a subscriber to Hemmings Motor News, I went through the Ford and Mercury sections each month, looking for this part, along with a big list of others I needed for my cars.  One month, someone from Wisconsin advertised that he was selling the very shift boot I needed. To me, it was like Christmas! I talked to some voice on the other end, not realizing this was BOB PERKINS. Of course, at that time, I don’t think very many other people were thinking that way either.

Bob was quietly taking his passion and turning it into something magnificent.

While most people were content to go down to their local parts store for a distributor vacuum advance or a set of battery cables, two guys, at opposite ends of the country (well, sorta) were scrounging around trying to find original parts. I went to wrecking yards; Bob went to Ford dealers. I collected old original parts that would soon become the patterns for an as yet unrealized business. Bob would talk dealers into letting him into the back rooms to see their junk, which would become his treasure.

When I asked Bob how he happened to come up with this Hurst shifter boot, still in the Ford box, he told me what he did. I tried visiting dealerships myself, but I was already too late. Most of the stuff had now been pitched – or someone like Bob had come by to buy it already. When opportunity knocks, the window of time is often pretty small!

As I have grown to know Bob over the years, I have been filled with admiration for his passion, dedication, and desire to be helpful. It is no accident that he was the first Head Judge of the Mustang Club of America or that his 70 Boss 302 is the only car to ever get a perfect score at an MCA show. His expertise is known worldwide.

Recently, I visited his place again. This time, I had a video camera, and I did a little cub reporting of his place. I hope you’ll enjoy it.

. . . and if you ever want a car restored to the highest standards possible, visit his website at www.perkinsrestoration.com

OK, so my wife needed to go somewhere while I was at work. We still have two children that, while capable of taking care of themselves, are not allowed to be by their own according to the law. So I drive home to pick them up. As we back out of the garage, they ask if we can put the top “up.” They mean down, but to them, they want the top “put away.” Hence to put the top up is like putting your stuff up. But I digress . . .

So, enjoying the top down like I do, I oblige them. We drive down the road while the Shaker 1000 belts out some of their faves: Puff the Magic Dragon and Bohemian Rhapsody. How’s that for an intereresting combo? The insight you need concerning their request about the top is that the temperature is north of 100 degrees outside. They don’t whine about it. They just want to have fun!

Shelli and I just got back from the Mid-America Ford and Team Shelby meet in Tulsa. We had our younger two kids with us along with one of my nephews, Matt (who is getting ready to go to the Air Force boot camp, God bless him). We drove a total of 3,000 miles to enjoy ourselves. And from being there, I gather a lot of you enjoyed yourselves – as we all should. Jim Wicks and the crew have always put on a spectacular show. I’m sure that is part of the reason Team Shelby has hooked up with them.

Like the 45th Anniversary show, there’s just too much to tell. But a couple highlights will hopefully paint some of the picture. I met Rick. Now Rick is a rare one. This man actually walked into a Ford dealership 40 years ago and pointed at a 1970 Shelby and said, “I’ll take it.” More remarkable – he still has the car. How cool is that? I’m guessing there are quite a few others who wish they could say that.

Watching the tribute to Carroll Shelby (and the celebration of his 50th anniversary win at LeMans in a . . . can you name it? . . . Aston Martin. Yes, before he hooked up with Ford, he was involved with the Brits. Makes the whole AC thing make a little more sense, doesn’t it? Quite a ride through time with the video show. Mr. Shelby got up and spoke to the group, too. Nice to see ol’ Shel and Ford being buddies.

Seen one of these on a Mustang?

Gotta Keep That Hood From Flying Off

Its a lynch-pin. Can you believe it was patented by Nathaniel Lynch in 1727! It keeps things from flying apart. Leave the cotter key off when you reinstall the front discs or drums on your steed and guess where your wheels might go when you make a turn.

After Ford and Shelby ended things in 1970, a few people with vision saw what most did not. They saw the value of an era and the cars then produced. They formed a club and poured their souls into it. One of those people I am priveleged to count as a friend. Austin Craig, who has been involved in so many ways with our Mustangs, has nudged, encouraged, cajoled, and shoved just the right people at just the right time to keep these cars and their following relevant. Austin was presented with a special award at the Mid-America banquet and Mr. Shelby was right in maintaining that without Austin, we wouldn’t be getting to relive the 21st century interpretation of what happened two score ago. A lynch pin is a lifesaver. And Austin has been that and more. Thanks, Austin, for keeping the fun going.

If you had fun at the show or any show, skip the next few sentences. My comments are for those that get wound up about the weather being too hot or too cold or too humid or too rainy. Or bothered because you got slighted ’cause some judge picked your car apart. Or there was a mixup that you feel was a personal attack. Or McDonalds got your order wrong. ADVICE: Let it go. Have fun! That’s why we’re doing this, right?

A few pics to show a little of what was going on (incidentally, the last photo wasn’t from the show. That’s a picture I took of my wife when I was standing on a corner in Winslow, Arizona. She was such a fine sight to see):

(View the Photo Gallery)

Ed Sullivan (if you’re my age you’ll remember, otherwise, flip the Iphone sideways and start Ask.coming) used to say, “Tonight we have a really big shew.” Well, the 45th was.

One of the most impressive sights was actually observed when we were leaving the first night. Stretched along the side of the exit road from Barber Motorsports were hundreds of Mustangs lined up for a little cruise down the streets. Now this train went on for a mile. There was every model including old and new, Shelby and Roush and Saleen, pace cars, police cars, show and driver. I only wish we had our car there to participate.

We, of course, vended our parts and I ran reports for customers. But the best part was getting to see old friends. Sometimes, years go by. In fact, Bob Gaines commented the last time we saw each other was five years ago at the 40th. We both agreed there won’t be a whole lot more of those “five years” time segments. Bob Perkins came over and shared another treasure trove of material he’d found from Fran Hernandez. He loaned me several books so chock full of history about the height of the muscle-car era, I didn’t have time to absorb it all.

I was walking down one of the aisles where parts were being sold. A hand waves for me to come over. Its Ed Meyer, who also has a bunch of fresh discoveries. He’s got a document that confirms what I showed him in a movie I bought recently. When the assembly line workers were painting engines, the exhaust manifolds were already installed. They received their share of Ford Blue. Its just that by the time we started paying attention to engine restoration, that paint’s been burned off.

Bo Durban, who runs the http://www.mustangdecoder.com website was showing the big enhancements he has planned for the website. Soon, not only will you get your tag info decoded, dozens of facts will be at your fingertips like what the bore and stroke of your engine is, along with its horsepower, casting numbers of all the major components, and pictures. If your car was painted Candyapple Red with a Decor interior, you’ll even see pictures of a Canyapple Red car with Decor interior. How cool is that?

Gary Hanson of the T-5 Registry, Wolfgang Kohrn of the fabulous www.ponysite.de (es ist sehr gut!), Denny Mondrach from Ford Licensing, Jim Wicks talking to me about the Mid-America Shelby Meet in a couple of months. Dozens of other people Wow! And then the thousand plus Mustangs.

If there was a complaint, its that Barber Motorsports is so hilly, it was hard to see the whole show at the same time, to take in the immensity of it all. Still, there was a tram to at least save the dogs from getting too tired. Shelli and I walked around and met some fabulous people. Jason Miller has an original paint 1971 Boss 351 that he let me sit in. Untouched down to original paint daubs on all the suspension pieces. Bob and Ed should have paid him a visit! There was a fantastic Meadowlark Yellow ‘68 CJ there. It graces the cover of the current NPD catalog.

 Speaking of CJs, we met another man with a ‘68 who asked me if a carburetor he was considering buying would be date-correct for his car. I gave him some info, he gave us a couple of T-shirts and a hat. You see, he’s a Harley dealer in Shenandoah VA. Now that is important to my wife. She’s planning on dyeing her hair all gray, then brading it and hoppin’ on a Sportster to do the Dennis Hopper thing!

Next to our vending space were the guys from Gateway Classic Mustang. What a great group. You’ve probably caught them on Hot Rod TV or know that Sammy Hagar has called the Mustang they recently did for him the “New Red Rocker.” They let me drive their newest creation. They’re working with Chad McQueen, Steve McQueen’s son, on a Dynacorn-based Bullitt car. That was a ride. Flatter than my ‘05. And going around an S-curve for the first time at 65 MPH in second gear, the fantastic suspension had those tires planted. Be watching for it at www.gatewayclassicmustang.com. If you want to see the car, be at the Mid-America Shelby Meet June 24-28. Jim Wicks just about has Shelli and me talked into going.

 

There’s just too much to say. I understand why Steinbeck wrote Grapes of Wrath with the “stream of consciousness” method. There’s so much packed into life. So I better end since I’ve got some work to get caught up on. If I don’t, some of you will be calling, asking where your order is!

See you at the 50th. Now that will be a REALLY BIG SHEW!

(view the photo gallery)

My ‘05 GT has had 8 warranty claims on it since new. And Ford Motor Company knows everything about those claims right down to the part numbers that were installed and the mileage on my Mustang at the points I drove it to the dealership. Do you wonder if we’ll have access to all that data online some day?

This is the 21st century and we expect Jetson-style performance and accessibility. Unfortunately, this has had an undesirable effect on our expectations about the last century. Our cars were built 30+ years ago. And the information storage and retrieval capabilities were worlds apart from what they are today. But some people don’t realize that. They have grown so accustomed to today, they forget that yesterday wasn’t today.

Did you know in the mid-60’s, a byte of computer memory cost $1.00. So, if you had a 20 Gigabyte harddrive, it would have cost $20,000,000,000.00! But, there weren’t even 20GB worth of data stored on the entire planet. Where I used to work as an engineer, we had lab books for the Apollo space program (the one that put us on the moon for those of you think, “We went to the moon?”) in which slide rule calculations were used. Slide rule? – Google it!

A case in point: Recently, I was asked by someone if I could let them know how many miles were on a certain engine for which they had the serial number. Now, reading that last statement, you fall into one of two categories. Either you are a person who would think, “I wonder how much Kevin charges for that information,” or you think, “You really get emails like that?”

Its pretty much a policy of mine to be as helpful as I can be. We offer the services we do to dispense all the information we can. I’m not covertly holding back on you for some nefarious reason. However, as we move further from those simpler times, I’m facing a greater dilemma. The Instant Access Age has created expectations that are becoming unmeetable. Many customers are becoming disappointed in what we don’t have available instead of being glad for what is available. I wish I could be more helpful, but we can’t recover what was never recorded.

So, to the dilemma. More and more people are emailing and calling with a desire to get information that was never available. Someone wanted us to confirm a story that their 69 Mach I had the stripe kit installed on the assembly line by the original designer. Of course, we can’t confirm that – no one could (personally, I doubt such a story could be confirmed on a 2010 Mustang!). But this onslaught of questions ties up more and more resources of our company.

I can start refusing to answer such questions and offend people or I can raise prices to compensate for the time consumed dealing with such issues and incur the wrath of people who, in this economy, are having a harder time paying for things as it is. See, I will have to choose one or the other (or a mix of both). What I can’t do is nothing. For I will surely face the same problem as the auto industry – only Washington won’t give me a bailout!

Boy, don’t you wish sometimes it was the 1960s again!

I remember, when Star Trek: The Next Generation was launched, feeling a jealousy. Who were these intruders, trying to step into the place of our dear friends? But, with time, I came to hold these new characters in high regard. In Star Trek: First Contact, we see a special moment in time where “everything begins to change.” The meeting of an alien race. Now, ordinarily when we meet someone different than us, we put up all sorts of unseen or unknown barriers. And for good reason. We have been hurt before and we naturally want to protect ourselves. We don’t get the convenience of seeing the end from the beginning. However, having already lived in our Star Trek universe, we know what a fine friend a Vulcan can be (see Spock above). So as the alien ship lands and its occupant emerges onto our planet, head covered, we wonder what is in store. As the music builds to a crescendo, the man in the cloak reveals himself – he has pointed ears! And we know a special relationship is to develop.

 Driving along at the point in the End Credits as the Cymbalic Crescendo is felt (if you have a Shaker, you know what I mean), the sun peeks over the eastern skyline. I contemplate the goodness of God and thank Him for another magnificent sunrise. Too, as I’m contemplating, I think of all He has invested in us, the vitality, hope, and freedom we are given. And I mean truly given – I don’t know anyone else who would give so much and allow freedom to such an extent that it can be taken for granted by us and yet not taken away by Him.

That musical moment as the cymbals clash together in a reprise of the First Contact makes me wonder. Musicians, when you play a majestic moment in an orchestra, do you still horripilate (look it up)? Or does the routine of playing the same score over and over cause it to lose the majesty of the moment? Do we miss the wonder of the day because its, well, just another day?

I have so much to be thankful for. Its impossible to stay on the mountain top. We have to live our ordinary lives. Still, do you take the journey to that higher place sometimes?

Its morning in America. As I’m driving my GT convertible to work, I’m thinking about where we are going. Now, I know how to get to work, but, of course, I mean, “Where is America going?” And this isn’t a discourse on the election, though that figures into this somewhat.

Ronald Reagan used “Its Morning in America” as his campaign slogan for the 1980 election. We had been beaten up pretty badly during the ’70s, but he saw a bright new day. I like people like that.

Recently, I had a customer call us to say someone had used their credit card fraudulently to order a deluxe report and door data plate from us. We, of course, told this person we would credit their account, but soon we wondered about what was really going on. As the story unfolded, the customer explained that their card had been used in about twenty fraudulent transactions and the card had been cancelled.

Now, I’m like most of America – I can’t stand someone cheating someone else out of anything. Jesus said, “Do unto others as you want done to you.” To many, that is a sentiment of a bygone day, but I still teach my four children to live by that, no matter what the cost. Two of our chidren are adults now. I watch them make choices that, at times, aren’t the best for them, if we are looking at this from a self-centered standpoint. But they are the best choices for America. They are helping to build an America that can be trusted. Many agree with that principle in theory, but putting it into practice, well . . .

Trust is essential to the running of a society. I trust that you will stop at an intersection if you have a red light. Each day, I ship out radiator hoses, battery cables, and fan belts to other businesses. Sometimes the package contains thousands of dollars worth of parts. I trust that the other company will send me money for the goods after they receive them. In turn, they trust that I will maintain high standards of workmanship and quality of product. I could cut corners and have the items manufactured in China at great savings to me, but I want to “do unto others . . .

Now, we trusted that the customer who called about the fraudulent transaction was telling the truth. However, after we were winding down the conversation, the person asked us if we wanted them to return the report and data plate to us. Huh? Why would they have the items? Let me get this straight – an identity thief used this person’s card, went to our online ordering system, ordered a deluxe report and door data plate, then had them sent to the cardholder’s address, not the thief’s own address. Dumb criminal?

We called the charge card company. Do you know what we found? The cardholder had not reported any fraudulent activity whatsoever. They had not cancelled their card. I’m guessing that the customer either decided they didn’t want the items after all because money is tight or they sold the car and didn’t have need for the items any more. I guess the part they missed in ethics class (oh, yeah – we don’t really study that any more. Too old fashioned!) is that someone has to pay for everything. There is no “free.” It might be free to you, but there is no “free.” My company loses thousands of dollars every year because of this. And when I say my company, I don’t mean some indifferent building. I mean I have to go home to my wife and say, “We’re a little short again because I got hit by a $700 bounced check.” She quietly sheds a few tears, some even because she feels badly for the person who would do this.

Change has come to America with the last election. People had lost faith in the leadership of this country. I don’t know yet whether the President-elect will really inspire change (for the good), but I do know the American citizens didn’t feel they could trust who was running the country. So we hit the reset button. Time will tell if it made a difference. Let’s hope so.

Change in and of itself is not necessarily good. I’m reminded of a story I was told when I was about seven. It seems a German sergeant told his World War II American prisoners he had good news for them and he had bad news for them. First, the good news: there would be a change of underwear. The POWs went wild with gratefulness. Now he told them the bad news as he pointed his finger, “You change with you, and you change with you . . .”

We’re in the throws of a bad recession. It could get much worse. Already finger pointing is taking place. I’m observing that I can’t trust what is being said. “Wall Street greed did this,” I’m told. I believe that is true. But some of the loudest critics are people who make $60,000 a year yet bought $500,000 homes. I don’t hear them confessing that they got greedy themselves. They blame it on the Realtor who oversold them (I could believe that) or the loan officer who told them, “Don’t worry about the ARM. By the time it adjusts upward, your home will be worth so much more, you can refinance.” (and I could believe that, too). But why won’t people just admit they wanted what they shouldn’t have had?

I drive an ‘05 Screaming Yellow Mustang GT convertible. My wife convinced me to buy it. Now, mind you, I can’t quite afford to buy new. I bought it used from a couple who had taken wonderful care of it over in Kansas City, MO. I trusted their description of it on www.autotrader.com. I flew 1,200 miles to pick it up. It was exactly as they had described it. My level of trust in others went up.

When I decided my wife was right and I needed to retire my SHO Taurus, I determined what I could afford. I would have liked to buy a GT500 convertible, but it was out of my price range. I didn’t even go to the dealership to sit in one. That’s a ticket to disappointment or disaster (or both)! I’m often reminded of what the great theologian Clint Eastwood once said, “A man has got to know his limitations.” I knew mine and I wasn’t going to try to “buy up.” Because of that, now I’m not pressured to lie to the bank that the check is in the mail. I’m not having to worry about whether the next phone call is from a bill collector. Am I trying to be self-righteous here? Nope, just don’t want to have to be looking over my shoulder.

If one person will choose to be trustworthy to his bank, his neighbor, the store he shops at, because he read what I have written, I shall be satisfied. America will change for the better one person at a time, not because someone passes a law that says so. This is a human experiment unlike any ever tried on this planet. At times, I can become a little jaded by the customer who decided to cheat me. I’m sure I’ve injured someone’s trust at some time as well. Still, I believe it is Morning in America and I shall trust once again as we begin another day with our customers. I hope you have a Good Morning in America, too. And how about giving people a reason to trust you?