Peter E. Mueller
Letter From the Editor: Finders, Keepers
June 1, 2005
This june issue of The Robb Report Collection is our third annual issue dedicated
to Great Machines; exceptional machinery of one sort or another is almost always
on our minds, whether we are behind a desk or behind a wheel.
During this
past year, I have been focusing on one great machine from 1965, following a
yearlong search that ended when last year’s June issue went to press in April
2004. I was fortunate to acquire a Shelby Mustang GT350, the American car that
dominated SCCA racing and spawned a legendary series of American performance
cars. Finding SFM5S270 was the result of luck, bulldoglike tenacity, and a
fortuitous call, months earlier, to Curt Vogt of Cobra Automotive Inc. in
Wallingford, Conn. Vogt—who has earned an international reputation for building
winning Shelby racecars, and is an accomplished racer in his own right—had been
chasing the original-condition Shelby since 1999. Its recalcitrant owner finally
decided to relinquish the car, a proverbial barn-find that had rested stoically
on jack stands since 1973. With vintage-1965 air still in its Goodyear Blue Dot
spare, the old car possessed more than just patina. Wasp nests and a carapace of
dirt covered a body with mottled paint but devoid of rust or accident damage.
Every number matched and almost everything—except filters, hoses and the
battery—was original. It was a time capsule on wheels, good to go for a
ground-up restoration.
The early Shelby GT350 is essentially a hopped-up Mustang; because of its simple unibody construction, I imagined restoring it would be a cakewalk when compared to the restoration of a fancy European car of the same period. Well, not entirely.
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