Right now, I'm also helping the Northeast Texas Community College in my hometown of Pittsburg, Texas. They came to me and said they'd like to put my name on a school to teach auto mechanics so the kids can earn $25 an hour instead of $7 an hour. I'm going to take about 100 kids a year and help pay their tuition.
MM: Recently, Shelby Mustangs have sold for big money at the major auto auctions. What do you think about the current values of your older cars?
Shelby: The prices of those old cars have gone up and down for the last 30 years.
I was offered $23 million last year for my number one Cobra. I'm not going to sell that. People ask why I sold my Daytona Coupes for $4,000. I even had to finance the one I sold to Bob Bondurant. When I bought it back for $20,000 a few years later, I sent him a wire saying, "Yeah, you missed $16,000." Then he sent me one not long ago saying, "One of them just sold for $10 million. You think I was dumb 20 years ago, how dumb do you think I am now?" Eyes in your butt are always 20/20.
When I got the Automobile Executive of the Year award recently, they asked me about my favorite car. The first thing I told them was that I'm not an executive, I'm a hot rodder. But I didn't realize that I've built 165 different prototypes. Some of them have been successful but most of them haven't. I never worry about what happened in the past; I'm interested in what we're going to build next.
MM: You had success in the '60s and now you're finding success again. That has to be satisfying.
Shelby: I don't think of myself as a successful person the way some people do for the simple reason that it's always up and down. You may be on top right now but I know that something could happen tomorrow and I'd be at the bottom of the heap again.
It's like when I went to Chrysler. I asked Iacocca, "What do you have that we can work on?" He told me they had a 90hp 2.2 with a four-speed cable shift. I got so much crap building those little hot rods-the Chargers, GLHs, and all that. But, you know what? I had fun doing it. We wound up with 750 hp in our little GLH drag car. I've got a GLH with 425 hp that I still enjoy driving.
I'm probably going to build some powerful pocket-rockets with Ford now. Those things are going to come back because of the price of fuel. Right now, I've got some V-6s over in my skunkworks and you'd be surprised how much horsepower we're getting out of them.
The thing I miss more than anything else is not spending time with the guys in the R&D department. I've got a little desk over there and what I really want to do until I go horizontal is sit around with those guys and dream up something. If it doesn't work, it's not the end of the world because we'll come up with something else the day after that. With Amy Boylan, Jim Owens, Gary Davis, and Gary Patterson, we've got the same kind of spirit that we had 45 years ago.
MM: How are things going at your new club, Team Shelby?
Shelby: Team Shelby is growing like crazy. They told me the other day that they've got more than 2,000 members already. How long has it been, four or five months?
MM: They started accepting memberships three months ago, in January. Do you see Team Shelby becoming the protector of the information for the '60s cars?
Shelby: Yes. I want the registrars to keep on doing what they're doing.
MM: I was out at Shelby Automobiles last summer and the whole place was a hubbub of activity, from building cars to marketing meetings.
Shelby: Were you treated with dignity?
MM: Yes. Even though I was with Jerry Heasley they treated me nice.
Shelby: Even with Jerry? That's a miracle.
MM: Where do you see Shelby Automobiles in five years?
Shelby: We've just come out with the KR. I'm working closely with the top people at Ford. I want to stay small. I want to build cars that help sell more Fords at decent prices. The plan isn't together but I'm fighting to bring back affordable performance. You can't just keep going up and up in prices.