It's really easy to speculate about who did what. We really need to
ask the people who were there.
Did Rootes supply the engines or did they ask for race ready 260's?
Since Ford was getting very interested in Shelby for their racing program,
did FORD HQ restrict the use of who got 289 race engines? Lets also
remember that at the LeMans reunion a race prepared engine again failed to
finish. I don't think it's that easy to build an engine to race and last
for 24 hours if it were everyone could do it.
Ron Fraser
-----Original Message-----
From: owner-tigers@autox.team.net [mailto:owner-tigers@autox.team.net] On
Behalf Of Bob Palmer
Sent: Friday, August 20, 2004 1:18 AM
To: TIGEROOTES@aol.com; tigers@autox.team.net
Subject: RE: 260 vs 289
Jim,
I don't know about the Le Mans rules other than displacement class (e.g.,
under 5 liters), but the legend is that Rootes asked Shelby to supply the
engines and asked his advice on which displacement to use. Anyone can
speculate, but I suspect he had a few 260's still lying around that he
didn't know what to do with and could smell a sucker five thousand miles
away. The Targa Florio Tiger (B9470012) did have a Shelby prepped 289 from
the outset.
Bob
---
Outgoing mail is certified Virus Free.
Checked by AVG anti-virus system (http://www.grisoft.com).
Version: 6.0.740 / Virus Database: 494 - Release Date: 8/16/2004
|