My opinion is that the best way to get recognition for Tigers in general
and to evangelize their connection to Shelby history, is to get the cars
out to events and to get them into the existing publications, and to
take care to inform people that the original prototypes were built at
Shelby's shop and by Shelby employees. Ken Miles' prototype kind of
stretches that story a little but it's closer to the truth than many
things that people think about the Tiger.
You can legitimately take your Tiger to European car events, British car
events, Ford events, Mopar events, and any hot rod/classic car/muscle
car event, and people will be happy to talk to you.
About fifteen (no, twenty... time flies) years ago I was on the
executive of the Calgary Sports Car Club, as autocross director and
later as race director. Even the amount of organization required at that
level, to put on events, write up things for the monthly newsletter,
drum up membership, and generally take care of the club's books and
other official business, was a decent effort by half a dozen or eight
people. I very much appreciate the work done by the existing Sunbeam and
Tiger clubs to serve their members that are spread across the globe, and
this mailing list, TigersUnited.com, Mark Olson's website, Norm Miller's
registry, and the other online Sunbeam webpages serve as resources that
bring Tiger owners together like no other club I've ever belonged to.
I guess what I'm saying is that I'm not sure how a formal umbrella
organization would help to expose the Tiger and its history to
outsiders. There is already a fair bit of collaboration between the
regional clubs so far as organization of events is concerned, and the
mailing list and other online resources represent viewpoints and
contributions from Tiger owners worldwide.
Best regards,
Theo
RMEbstein@aol.com wrote:
>Why isn't there one/a national club such as the Shelby American Automobile
>Club (SAAC)? Should we start one? It should would go a long way towards
>getting
> more recognition for Shelby Tigers.
>
>Rodney
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