At the time, perhaps the largest Shelby club began around June 1972, it was the Shelby Owners Association or referred to as the SOA, this continued til November 1975 when a couple key, very enthusiastic people broke away and formed SAAC, first publication was December 1975, known as The Marque, later became The Shelby American, perhaps to be renamed in the near future due to the unfortunate suit brought on by Carroll Shelby. The earliest club was a formed in California, a Cobra Club, Lynn Park I think was instrumental in its formation. Later, another Cobra Club which was formed in 1971 by Bruce Jodar and was added to SAAC in 1975 when Bruce could not handle the running of the club by himself. This provided a good basis for SAAC, regional sub groups of SAAC sprung up throughout the U.S and rapidly increased membership. In many respects this was the best of times, the Officers of SAAC, its Board of Directors and Advisory Board of Directors were the greatest collection of enthusiasts, most well versed in the history of Shelby American as it was known at the time. The list of others read like the who's who of Shelby American employees from Shelby to Remington, Brock to the race car drivers. Unfortunately, a few of these people left the group, some never to be heard from in Shelby club circles again. The magazines produced at that time, were in black and white, but they were done 6 times per year. These were known as The Marque and were each masterpieces in their own way, the editing was done by Rick Kopec, at this job, the best there has ever been for Shelby American history.
Everybody can have an opinion, but these to me were the best of times, people drove their cars, there were no trailers at conventions, parties at the conventions lasted into the wee- hours of the night, drag racing was going on around the convention hotel city streets. I guess the average age of the members were a lot less than now. Times change, a lot of the people buying these cars now are doing it for a status symbol or as a bragging right amongst friends. The people who deserve these cars now can no longer afford them. Go to a convention, most the people who attend and who also have an original car, ends up not bringing it. Any bench racing at the club's hotel bar at mid night or outside in the parking lot?, nope, most everyone is asleep.
Not sure you can gain anything from looking at the past, sure SAAC has had some issues over the years, all clubs do. There are many "old time SAAC" members I know who will never come back to SAAC again. Then there are a few old timers who were once the drag racers out side the convention headquarters, playing practical jokes on Howard Pardee, stayed up all night bench racing, drove their cars to and from the convention three states away, wrote articles for The Marque issues and will never send in a check to SAAC again, but they also have the wisdom to see what Shelby is doing now is just flat WRONG. At some point, Shelby's dirty laundry will all be exposed, perhaps this law suit will bring it out in the open, some of it is already out there. For everything SAAC has done for maintaining the history of these special automobiles, it is a shame what Shelby is doing now. Let there be two clubs,SAAC for the original cars produced from 1962-1970 and let Shelby have a club for all "stuff" produced after 1970, the 4000, 5000,6000, 7000 series cars , the Kirkhams, all the replicas, all the Eleanors, all the SR350's, all the new GT500's, the new Hertz cars, the KR's and the 12 other models which I am glad I can't remember. You can't relive the special times of the 1960's, Shelby put together an amazing group of employees from the southern California area, many today are true legends. These people today seem very happy with what they did in those few special years at Shelby American, what a shame Shelby is damaging his legacy right before our eyes.
