1968 Shelby Mustang GT350, GT500 and GT500KR. Greg Kolasa
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Название: 1968 Shelby Mustang GT350, GT500 and GT500KR
Автор: Greg Kolasa
Издательство: Ingram
Жанр: Автомобили и ПДД
isbn: 9781613253816
isbn:
The production quantity minimum initially caused some consternation. Shelby American’s experience with sales of the competition Cobras indicated that the requirement of 100 racers was nearly twice as many cars as there were potential customers. Thankfully, there was also relief in the regulations: all production cars were allowed a series of general deviations from the production version of the vehicle for the sake of performance, as well as for safety. In addition to these general modifications, the SCCA allowed a specific set of modifications, more limited in scope and number that had to be submitted and accepted beforehand by the SCCA in a process known as “homologation.” Specific modifications for racing went further still and were made over and above the general spec.
You didn’t have to lay out big bucks for a turnkey GT350 competition version to go racing. The similarity of the street version to its full-race brethren meant that, with minimal modifications (and hence, cash outlay), any street GT350 could be made into a race car. This approach had been undertaken by several owners who campaigned their (former) street machines very successfully on the strip as well as the track.
Although it may sound confusing, in the simplest of terms, there could effectively be two versions of Shelby’s sports car version of the Mustang, the GT350: one for racing and one for street use. Both counted toward the 100-car production total.
Development of the Mustang into a race car was the primary emphasis of the new GT350 program, but there was also the secondary task to produce a street version, slightly detuned and only minimally more refined to satisfy production quantity minimums. The car took a somewhat convoluted route to become a sports car that was a bit different from that of other sports cars participating in SCCA competition.
Objective achieved, with honors; the acceptance of the Mustang GT350 for competition in SCCA’s B-Production racing class earned the Mustang the title of “sports car.” Grabbing the national title three years in a row was the icing on that cake.
Normally, production sports cars were developed to satisfy a consumer demand for such a vehicle; in other words, to sell cars to the public for use on the street. After the cars had landed on the showroom floors, the nationwide performance craze of 1960s America almost demanded that there be a performance and ultimately a competition version of those cars. Therefore, efforts were undertaken to turn the street cars into race cars. The process for the Mustang GT350 was somewhat different.
When it was decided that a sports car version of the Mustang was needed, work began on a model that could be used on the track, which allowed the Mustang to legitimately lay claim to the title of “sports car.” This was followed by the creation of a street brother. The unique GT350 process entailed a three-step process: street car (Ford Mustang) to race car (Shelby Ford Mustang GT350 competition model), then into another street car (Shelby Ford Mustang GT350 street version).
When Bishop and the SCCA visited Shelby American early in 1965 for their inspection, they found that the 100-car-production requirement was a bit short of fulfillment: only two race cars and a dozen or so street cars were complete. But the back lot behind Shelby’s facility was filled to overflowing with more than 100 white Mustang fastbacks in various stages of transformation into GT350s. That indicated that Shelby was serious about meeting his production commitment.
Seeing Shelby’s efforts, the Mustang GT350 was accepted for competition in SCCA’s B-Production racing class for 1965. Ford’s Mustang, or at least, one version of it, was now officially a sports car.
The newly minted race car showed what kind of sports car it was less than a month later when the GT350 won its first B-Production competition event. That winning trend continued for the remainder of the year. It culminated with Shelby American’s Mustang GT350 being crowned as the 1965 SCCA B-Production National Champion sports car, a feat that it repeated in 1966 and 1967.
Shelby’s people were not the first to put a Mustang on a racetrack. As soon as the Mustang was available for sale (in fact, even a little before), the little notchbacks hit all kinds of tracks in all levels of amateur and professional preparation where they quickly established themselves as worthy competitors. But they did so as sedan racers, not sports cars.
Mustangs hit the racetracks in the United States, Europe, and Australia almost as soon as the car was available for sale. The little notchbacks quickly established themselves as worthy adversaries. Although they were winners, they won as sedans and that didn’t allow Ford to lay claim to the Mustang as a sports car.
Shelby American changed that in a development process that began in late summer of 1964, when Ken Miles and Phil Remington began testing a pair of notchback Mustangs supplied by Ford. The fastback version of the Mustang, on which the GT350 was ultimately based, was still a couple of months away. They determined the exact modifications needed to improve the newborn pony’s performance, based on testing and development performed by Ford engineers well before the cars arrived at Shelby American.
From these tests, plus what was learned from earlier Mustang race cars, came features that have become synonymous with the GT350: the lowered front suspension upper A-arms, the cross-engine-compartment Monte Carlo Bar, the Fairlane station wagon’s large rear brake drums, and the aluminum high-rise intake topped with a Holley 715 cfm carburetor, to name a few. Simultaneously, Ford and Shelby American, along with the San Jose assembly plant, began discussing what could be added to and left off the Mustangs as they made their way down the assembly line, bound for Shelby American, and transformation into sports cars.
In October 1964, Charles “Chuck” Cantwell left General Motors when he heard of a small automobile manufacturer in Los Angeles who was building race cars. Cantwell’s first assignment with Shelby American was as the GT350’s new project engineer and his first order of business was to learn the new pony car inside and out. For two weeks, he worked with (and at) Ford in Dearborn. He laid out long, detailed, hand-written spreadsheets of components and their functions, planning ways to improve the Mustang’s performance.
Cantwell then toured the San Jose assembly line, picking out parts from the Ford production parts lineup to fulfill the Miles-Remington-Ford objectives. These items could be added relatively easily to, and deleted just as easily from, the Mustangs as they made their way down the San Jose line. That planning СКАЧАТЬ