Our second installment of our weekly review of C. Van Tune’s video archives. This week, Van tells a bit of Ford GT40 history and then puts a tungsten Ford GT through it’s paces.

After the break of course
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Gary Faules’ posts on the history of the Vanderbilt Cup have introduced us to all sorts of new readers and contributers, each of whom have had something valuable to add to the conversation. Our newest addition is Vanderbilt Cup historian Howard Kroplick, a Long Island native who has been gathering stories and images for years. With over 20,000 photos in his stash, Howard was more than prepared to write his new book on the history of the Vanderbilt Cup Races which will be released later this month.

Howard has just launched a companion site to go along with the book which has literally tons of photos. A quick poke about the site shows that Howard also drives a 66 GT350H, the rental cousin of Gary Faules’s Lucky.

Welcome to The Garage Howard.

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Here in The Garage, we’ve all been waiting for the debut of the La Carrera 2007 movie, following Gary Faules and Team California’s Best through the classic Mexican road race. Production has been taking longer than anticipated, but finally we can have a sneak peek at a trailer for it. When the full deal arrives, you can be sure we’ll let you know!

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In my life time I have been honored to know many incredible men some of whom I idolize and one of them that stands out is none other than Carroll Shelby himself. Tomorrow marks Carroll’s 85th birthday and there is going to be a gala event held at the Las Vegas factory on January 11-13, 2008 that is sure to make even the biggest car enthusiast envious.

It would be easy at this time to do what most other automotive journalist in the world typically do by starting in with all the redundant kudos and accolades about Carroll’s many amazing accomplishments. The truth is, Carroll’s many successes are so well documented that it seems almost impossible to discuss anything new. What can possibly be written about a man who has his resume as if dominating sports car racing in the mid 50s, twice being named Sports Car Illustrated’s “Driver of the Year.” and then winning the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 1959 wasn’t enough? In retrospect he was just getting started. With all due respect and I do mean that in every sense of the word, what I would rather write about is a special memory I shared with Carroll almost 17 years ago.
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Did you know Carroll was responsible for the very first World’s Championship Chili Cookoff and it was held in at his ranch in Terlingua, Texas? Legally he owns the rights to all Chili cookoffs and it originated simply for fun but when you look at many of the people who competed in it for many years you light be surprised. There was Woodruff DeSilva who was the former manager of Los Angeles International Airport, Scott Carpenter the astronaut served as head judge, Dave Witts the mayor of Terlingua, C.V. Wood, Jr., the man who built Disneyland for Walt Disney and brought the London Bridge to Lake Havasu, Actress Ruta Lee, Bill Ray, owner of the BBC and Jon Clark, BBC VP, and celebrities such as Robert Mitchum, William Conrad, Peter Marshall, Dale Robertson, John Derek, Vicky Lawrence, Joey Bishop, Michael Dante, Jane Withers, John Casavettes, Harvey Korman, Peter Brown, Ross Martin, Robert Mitchum, Ernest Borgnine, Joanne Dru, Peter Marshall, Artie Johnson, Dennis James, Jack Kelly, Tom Poston, Rory Calhoun, Mike Connors, Slim Pickens, Earl Holliman, George Gobel, Billy Barty, and Chuck Conners just to name a few. These are but a few and the list grows every year and all as a result of a man who just wanted to have some fun and in the process made it possible to help others using his and others celebrity status as a tool.
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Much has been said about Carroll Shelby following his decision not to renew the licensing agreement for Shelby American Automobile Club, and much of it has not been terribly nice. Here in The Garage, we were fortunate to receive a bit of insight into the situation from our man on the west coast, Gary Faules earlier this week. Shelby’s people have been kind enough to keep The Garage in the loop with the following release:

CARROLL SHELBY LICENSING RESPONDS TO COMMENTS BY
KEN EBER AND RICK KOPEC

Gardena, Calif. – December 7, 2007
Carroll Shelby, CEO of Carroll Shelby Licensing Inc., (CSL) has issued a statement in response to allegations made by the owners of the organization formerly known as the Shelby American Automobile Club.

“I wanted to explain my concerns to the members of the Shelby American Automobile Club directly, but couldn’t because SAAC has refused to give me a list of its members, even though the licensee agreement with SAAC requires them to allow me access to their books and records. So I am being forced to share the facts through a news release.

Rick Kopec and Ken Eber, two of the individuals who run the for-profit business called SAAC, have said that they don’t know why we didn’t renew their annual license. That’s not true. We’ve sent e-mails, made phone calls and mailed letters explaining our concerns for quite some time. Except for the message noted at shelbylicensing.com, they went unanswered. For the past several years, I’ve repeatedly told them that I was unhappy with their disregard of the reporting requirements of their license agreement and the way they managed the club. And, for the past eight years, their business hasn’t kept the terms of its extremely favorable agreement with my licensing company, Carroll Shelby Licensing.
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Recently the Internet has become an explosion of controversy with regards to Carroll Shelby’s announcement that he will not be renewing SAAC’s licensing agreement to use his name in conjunction with the operation of the club and furthermore Shelby has demanded the handing over of all documents regarding the registry of all Shelby vehicles by SAAC. (Click here for letter from Shelby’s lawyers.) I am appalled by all the bad mouthing of Carroll Shelby especially by so many that have no personal relationship with him whatsoever. I have been reading hundreds of post many of which are slamming Carroll and talking smack about a subject they know very little about. Many of them are making comments about how Shelby will do anything for a buck and how he is no longer interested in the old Shelby’s and so on. Give me a break and get real! The truth is the majority of them sound like a bunch of high school kids getting ready to fight in the school parking lot. I will say I am impressed with a few members of SAAC who agree that Shelby obviously knows what’s best and has a bigger vested interest in preserving the integrity of all things Shelby.
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While we’ve been busy watching Lucky the GT350 cavorting in Mexico, Ford has been busy prepping the new FR500S for display at the SEMA show in Las Vegas. This is really some pretty impressive news, as the Mustang racer is Ford’s first factory ready race car. Destined for a new Mustang only spec series, the FR500S is powered by a sealed 4.6 liter, 3 valve V8 built by Roush. The program gives racers the opportunity to race a real live Trans Am style showroom stocker at the value price of $75,000.

Ford press release and series logo after the break
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Sunday’s stages at La Carrera promised to be the most difficult and have historically been the event’s most dangerous sections. Fortunately our guys are beginning to hit their groove and it is showing on the leader board. As of right now, Team CBR is sitting in 13th overall and 4th in class.

While visiting the new race track section, Gary kicked ass, including some La Carrera vets in some serious iron. The super dangerous Sunday stages seem to be where Gary found his calling. A super fast, super dangerous mountain road were just the combination for Lucky to shine. Well, maybe not quite so shiny after a bit of a hairy incident involving heavy oversteer and a concrete pole. No matter though, apparently the resulting rash looks pretty cool. It’s certainly better than the poor Vette that went over a drop off and burned.

You’ll have to visit Lucky’s blog for more killer images. I can’t wait to see the in car!

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Yesterday saw even more carnage than the previous day, with everything from a melted Corvette to spectator injuries. It sounds like some teams are having more than a rough go of things. For our guys aboard Lucky, things have been somewhat better. Well, except for the locked wheel! Following the scariest race conditions Gary has ever driven, a brake caliper bolt worked itself loose and caused a front brake caliper to lock up. With the help of a crowd locals, Lucky was lifted off the road. Unbelievably, they found the bolt on the road and reinstalled the caliper.

Nobody said vintage rallying was going to be easy!

After the break, check out a short in car video of Gary, Jon and Lucky.
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