Could Shelby he headed for the Slammer?
An article in the July 1993 issue of Car and Driver magazine reveals some
surprising new details about Carroll Shelby's recent run in with the law after
resuming Cobra production.
Shelby has claimed that the Cobra's were being constructed on leftover chassis'
from the original run of 427's which commenced in 1965. Paul Dean of the Los
Angeles Times revealed that Shelby told him that the 43 chassis had in fact
been produced by Cobra restorer Mike McCluskey over the past three years and
Shelby had requested that they be left outside exposed to the elements to make
them appear to be "authentic" What really laded the ol' Snake Charmer in deep
doo doo was when he acquired duplicate titles from the DMV for the chassis,
claiming the originals had been lost.
The plot thickens! It seems that Shelby had approached the owner of AC Cars,
Ltd. (who produced the original Cobra chassis), Brian Angliss in 1987 about
the producing the new frames, further requesting that they be shipped into the
U.S. labeled as "washing machine parts." When Angliss refused Shelby made some
rather unkind remarks about AC Cars to which Angliss responded with a libel
suit ( from which Angliss was the victor).
Thus for 9 buyers have anteed up the $500,000 dollars for what Shelby has
maintained were 1965 Cobra's. Needless to say, the purchasers are not amused.
Shelby maintains he has done nothing wrong since the 30 frames contain "pieces'
of the original frames. The California DMV thinks otherwise though, it has
launched an investigation into how Shebly was able to acquire new titles for
never registered vehicles.
The whole thing brings to mind the tale of the Farmers Axe. He had the same
axe for 50 years, he had only replaced the head three times and the handle 12
times, but, he had been using the same axe for 50 years.
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