---- "Teepen wrote:
> No one has mentioned that the SAAC is inclusive of the Sunbeam Tiger in all
of
> their events. It may not be a Shelby generated vehicle, but it is a sort
of
> step child, and thus accepted at the family reunions.
>
Here is an interesting side note to what Jere has posted...
SAAC may still recognize Tigers as Shelby creations, but Shelby Automobiles
sure doesn't. One of the largest, if not the largest, Shelby events held each
year is the Mid-America Shelby Meet in Tulsa, OK. They used to be affiliated
with SAAC but, after some kind of a falling out between them, they are no
longer a part of SAAC. Instead, as of last year they were picked up by Shelby
Automobiles and they are now Shelby Automobiles' national event, which puts
them in direct competition with SAAC. Unfortunately, the Tiger has become a
casualty in the switchover; they've relegated us to the "Special Interest"
class at the car show instead of keeping us in our own class as they have done
for the last 34 YEARS!!!!
I served on the Board of the Oklahoma Region of the SAAC from 1982 to 1994.
During that time, I owned a '67 Shelby GT 350, a '65 Shelby GT 350 and three
Tigers. I've been part of the "Shelby in-crowd" for many years, but when they
did away with the Tiger class for this years show (which is coming up on the
weekend of June 25-28), they lost me for good. I, for one, couldn't give a
Tinker's damn for the Shelby connection to our cars. As Michael King pointed
out, Shelby-American was only given the job of producing the prototype that
Rootes used to model their production car out of. Other than that, they had
nothing to do with it. It has been very nice of SAAC to include the Tigers at
their events over the years as "charter member" cars, along with the Cobra,
the Shelby and Ford GT. As far as I'm concerned, it's very narrow-minded of
Shelby Automobiles to cut the Tigers out now. Let's face it, folks...if
Shelby can't make a buck off of something, he's not gonna mess with it. The
Cobra got him where he is now and he can't really get away from that; the
original Shelbys bear his name and that makes it hard to turn away from them.
The Tigers, however, are definitely the "step children" to him. I guarantee
you, though, that he would turn his back on all the old cars if he could.
He's in the business of selling the new Shelbys now...there's no more money in
the old stuff for him!
We all know that the Tiger is a good enough car to stand on it's own; it
really doesn't need the connection to Shelby to make it a winner. However, if
you all haven't figured it out yet, it still just pisses me off to the core to
have them (Shelby Automobiles) turn their backs on part of their heritage.
So, Jere is partly right...the Tiger may be the step-child to SAAC, but it's
the red-headed step-child to Shelby Automobiles.
My .02 worth,
Andy Walker
Edmond, OK
B382001600LRXFE
B9006857LRX
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