I was thrilled of course but by the end of the ’64 season the Coupe was already well-proven. What I felt most about the’65 Championship was elation for driver Bob Bondurant. He went to the mat with the Coupes in Europe. Alan Mann, team owner and manager for the Cobra team in ’65 in Europe, was rough on Bob. He made it clear to Bob his English drivers were to win over him. Bob employed the adage of success is the sweetest revenge and went to work. Not only did he take the Championship win at Reims but he did it on July 4^th, America’s independence day from the British. Now that’s a movie!

For myself, the highlights with the Coupe were mostly in ‘64:

• The Coupe’s first test day at Riverside that February where it broke the roadster’s lap record by 3.5 seconds.  Up until then few people in the shop at Shelby’s believed in the Coupe.  At that first test, Ken Miles called Shelby from the track and said: “this thing’s a rocket ship.” By the time we had the car loaded and back at Shelby’s, the center of the floor had been cleared out for it and it was decided it would race at Daytona the next month. I still met some resistance from Phil Remington on my design for a rear air foil but it was clear the Coupe was staying. Prior to this point the guys in the shop referred to the Coupe as “Brock’s Folly”. That wasn’t heard again after the Riverside test.
  
• The Coupe’s stellar performance at Daytona (its first race) on February 16th. The Coupe was so efficient we found we could throttle back the performance to be just slightly faster than the Ferraris and be 25% more fuel efficient than our Cobra roadsters! All that was required to win was to lead the Ferraris until it was time for them to pit.  At that point we could put a couple of laps on them before pitting for fuel.  Over the hours we were some seven laps in the lead until we had a pit fire. We were so far ahead of Enzo’s Ferraris at the time of the fire the crew were sure they could repair it and still win the race. For whatever reason Carroll decided to pack everything up and the Coupe’s first win would come a few weeks later at its next race, the 12 Hours of Sebring.  With the Coupe now proven to be a winner against Ferrari we were well on our way to achieve Carroll’s goal of beating Enzo.
• The Coupe’s win at Le Mans in June with Bondurant and Dan Gurney.  I think this says it all.

Heading into the end of the ‘64 season we had Ferrari beat with two more Coupes being completed. Had him beat, that is, until Enzo got the sanctioning for the late-season Monza race cancelled so we couldn’t get the points needed to take the Championship away from him that year.  We learned never to underestimate what Enzo would do to win. 1964 was the year the Coupe made Shelby American an international success even though the record books don’t quite show it. Not that anything in racing is a “given” but the Coupe winning the FIA GT Championship for Ford and Shelby in ‘65 was as certain as possible. The Daytonas’ superior speed all season long even forced Enzo to announce he was quitting GT racing after Monza. The Cobra team’s success against Ferrari in ’64 convinced Henry Ford II to hire Shelby to develop and race the prototype Ford GT40s in ’65. Enzo would focus all of his energy on the prototype class against the GT40s.  So in ’65 the question wasn’t really if the Daytona Cobra Coupes would win the championship but which driver would win the championship in them, English or American? July 4^th, American driver Bob Bondurant racing in Reims, France brought home the FIA GT Championship to Shelby, Ford and America.

Happy 4th of July to the Daytona Cobra Coupes and Bob Bondurant!!

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I’ve been lucky to have been invited to some great under-the-radar museums. Here are some of my favorites:

•  The Chaparral Gallery in the Petroleum Museum in Midland, TX. Jim Hall’s collection of Chaparral’s is fascinating. Here you can see and compare how rare innovation and brilliance changed our sport forever. The oil field displays are pretty impressive too. This is where implausible inventions were created because no one had ever done what these wildcatin’ Texas “ahl biznes” roughnecks achieved. Innovation is part of Hall’s DNA. As much as anything I enjoyed the serenity of this place. In the quiet of the West Texas plains along I-20 is the greatest collection of Jim Hall’s Chaparral race cars. It’s a modest and quality display of these aerodynamic wonders. Well worth a stop.

•  Speedy Bill’s (Speedway Motors) Museum of American Speed in Lincoln, NE – This is truly one of the most amazing museums (automotive or otherwise) I’ve ever been to and it was a crazy set of circumstances that led me there.  While visiting Gayle’s family in Nebraska her dad asked if I had ever stopped by Speedy Bill’s in Lincoln. Her dad was in the communications business and had built some radio towers in the empty lot next to Bill’s Speedway Motors Museum. Her dad had met Speedy and gone through his collection before it was open to the public. He said there were “some pretty unique things” there he thought I’d like.

Even though it would be along our route heading back to our home in the Seattle area we didn’t have time to stop. However, traveling down I-80, two exits past Speedy’s in Lincoln we lost a wheel nut and the right rear wheel off my Daytona Coupe. We searched for the far-flung nut but in the tall grass alongside the freeway, we couldn’t find it. We stayed in Lincoln for a couple of days while another one was made. While waiting we rented a car and headed to Speedy’s. We met Bill (now deceased) and he gave us a tour of this incredible one-of-a-kind collection.  As a racer in his youth, Bill was always interested in speed which translated into the myriad collection of accessories that increase the performance of a car. It’s how his massive automotive accessories business began.

In his collection, rather than just have a Model T on display he also had every accessory available for it. My grandad, EJ Hall, a personal friend of Henry Ford’s, made the two-speed Ruxtell axles for the T, amazing that this option was the ONLY non-Ford made part ever sold by Ford! Speedy had one on display.  There aren’t a lot of cars in this collection so once you see everything that Bill pulled together you realize that gathering a bunch of rare cars and displaying them is child’s play compared to what Bill amassed. One particular focus is engines. I saw more unique, historically important engines than I ever imagined. Go to the museum website and select Display, then Engines from the drop down menu. The engines alone are worth the trip, but there’s more. An entire floor was dedicated to pedal cars and model tether-cars. People would travel on trains far and wide to race these “spin-dizzies” during the war as fuel rationing didn’t allow for real automobile races. It’s rather difficult to describe how amazing this collection is, except to say it’s at the top of my list of museums you should see that you might never hear about otherwise. Preferably, don’t wait until your car breaks down on the Interstate out front!

•  With a location like Hickory Corners, Michigan I wasn’t surprised I hadn’t ever heard of the Gilmore Museum, until I arrived. It’s a sprawling complex of 20 exhibit buildings on perfectly manicured grounds. Located between Detroit and Chicago it has a particular focus on America’s automotive history including the horseless carriage as well as steam, gas and electric powered vehicles (before those became trendy). In covering America’s transportation history you also have to include trains. The Gilmore does that well with an actual train switch tower onsite which was relocated to the Gilmore campus after serving the Kalamazoo and South Haven railway line for more than 100 years. Visit their website and look at the Gilmore site map to see all the great displays in store for you.

There are dozens of smaller museums of quality we should all make an effort to support including:

The fabulous Lane Motor Museum in Tennessee which houses several of Nissan’s heritage cars including our BRE #46 Championship Datsun 510. The eclectic nature of this museum is a treat, It is currently celebrating the bicentennial of the bicycle and the 100^th anniversary of Citroen.

The National Corvette Museum in Bowling Green, KY is celebrating its 25^th anniversary this Fall (a great time for a visit). Not to be missed is the famed sinkhole in the middle of the museum that almost destroyed the place. Its now covered with a Plexiglas window in the floor so you can see right down into one of the world’s most famous natural depressions.

Now a question for you… what jewel of a museum have you seen that others should know about?

First, let me say that Baja racing is my favorite form of automotive competition. Baja racing culture is about life, speed, the beauty of the land and enjoying everything to its fullest extent. The fact that the rules are fairly free, with minimum oversight allows lots of innovation for the competitors. As for ourselves… with no fences, an open road and no self-inflated officials blowing whistles, screaming or telling you where you can’t stand means you’re in Baja for one of the most exciting and grueling adventures on the planet;  Baja is one of the last great open road races in the world.

My recommendations for experiencing Baja are: