{"id":495854,"date":"2016-09-01T02:07:46","date_gmt":"2016-09-01T02:07:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportscardigest.com\/\/?p=35139"},"modified":"2024-12-27T03:09:14","modified_gmt":"2024-12-27T03:09:14","slug":"shelby-goes-south-border","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.supercars.net\/blog\/shelby-goes-south-border\/","title":{"rendered":"A Shelby Goes South of the Border"},"content":{"rendered":"
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One of the highlights of my many years of racing has to do with the 1966 Trans-Am Mustang that Jerry Titus (1928-1970) drove to victory for Ford and Shelby. Ford was tied up at the end of the series with Dodge, and as a result Shelby built this special, one-off car, which was able to do almost the same times at Riverside that the more powerful Shelby Cobra 427 racecar could.\u00a0 I purchased the car after going to Shelby\u2019s shop, adjacent to Los Angeles International Airport, when I met with Carroll directly. I was put in touch with Carroll by Pete Brock, who worked for Carroll and designed the very famous Daytona Coupe that went on to win internationally. He set it up with Carroll.\u00a0 I told him that I knew that they were selling most of the later team cars\u2014 the \u201965 and \u201966 289s.\u00a0 For the 289s, Shelby wanted $4,000 and for the bigger Cobras, the 427 racecars, he wanted $5,000. Then he had three cars that were the Daytona Coupes they had run in Europe very successfully, but in those days, a year-old car was just that, a year-old car, and really didn\u2019t have much value. To think that I could have bought one of those Daytona coupes for $6,000!<\/p>\n

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Ted Gildred<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Carroll told his right-hand man, Lew Spencer, a well-known racer himself, \u201cLew, take Ted down, show him the cars and sell him a car.\u201d Lew was the one who took me down and told me what the prices were and what cars were available. Lou asked, \u201cWhat kind of racing are you going to be doing Ted?\u201d I said, \u201cWell, I want to take the car to Mexico.\u00a0 My father is very ill and I have to go down to Mexico to take over his business, and I want to continue racing.\u201d I had been racing quite a bit in the years just prior to having to go to Mexico, and I told him that most of the races there were either in the streets, in vacant sub-divisions, or at the Grand Prix circuit, which today is called Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez, after the two young Mexican race drivers, Pedro and Ricardo Rodriguez.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n