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When I was much younger I learned a tremendous amount about engines, cars, & racing from magazines. You always had to look around some of the B.S. or "product placement" but in generial there was a lot to be learned. Today it seems journalistic integrity is gone. Pick up any magazine and it might says such & such spark plug wires ADD more power! Now this might be true, but not likely unless your old wires were rotting & broken.
I try to look at everything I read to see what I can take with me because not all of it is useful to me. I also tend to believe the older or more "seasoned" writers. This leads me to a place that I didn't want to go but feel I need to. The following is just some of the mail that is being sent to Hot Rod Magazine following the Cam Benty article about Carroll Shelby "Shelby Uncensored" in the June 2008 issue........
Letters...we get letters....
In the wake of the "interesting" article in Hot Rod Magazine, many members and friends have written letters to the editor. We have started to get CC:'d at SAAC HQ.
As we see them, we'll post them here for discussion. We'll have a collection of all the letters up on the website this week.
If you write a letter, be sure to send a copy to SAAC HQ.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Ron Kinnan
Editor
Hot Rod Magazine
[email protected]
Dear Ron,
As an historian who has researched and written about the cars built by Shelby American for more than a quarter of a century, I take considerable exception to the stories told by Carroll Shelby in your June 2008 issue
("Carroll Shelby Uncensored"). In fact, some of the tales are so devoid of truth that the article might better be titled "Carroll Shelby Untruthful". While he (Shelby) does show that at 85, he can still spin a good tale, he
also shows that he has little regard for actual, historical fact. Having one's name on the deck lid of one of the most highly-desirable muscle cars of all time gives one certain rights, but one of them is not a wanton
disregard for the truth.
Specifically:
On hiring Jerry Titus and he (Jerry) winning the first Trans-Am race at Daytona: In actual fact, Jerry finished fourth in this race, but won the second at Sebring (this is a statement of fact, and is in no way intended to
diminish the abilities of Jerry Titus, which were considerable).
On building the original GT500KR: Shelby claims after he stole the name from GM (essentially true) he called down to the production line at Los Angeles International Airport, where he was building the cars, and asked how many convertibles were in the next day's build. The GT500KR was a mid-1968 introduction, but at the end of 1967, Shelby American had moved to Ionia, Michigan and became known as Shelby Automotive.
On the Shelby GT-H (Hertz) and the original GT350H: Shelby claims that they (Shelby American) had to, and in fact, did, deliver to Hertz 200 cars before 1 January 1966. Production records show the total to be 96 (less than half Shelby's claim) and his claim that 40 cars were totaled as a result of "an ice storm" is not substantiated by any historical documentation. He states that the man who sold the idea of selling the cars to Hertz was "Peyton Kramer" when in fact his name was "Cramer".
On John Holman: Aside from what might be construed as a very disparaging remark about John Holman, Shelby¹s contention that his "guru" was Bill Moody is not true; Holman's partner was Ralph Moody.
On the Daytona Coupe: Shelby claims that Ken Miles had to put 15,000 miles on the car, done at a rate of 5000 miles per week for three weeks, to get the car sorted out, when in actual fact, considerable documentation exists (including Carroll Shelby's own book, "The Cobra Story") that shows that the car performed perfectly on its first, and only, test session. Also apparently not taken into consideration is the simple math of the situation, that there were not three weeks (actually, less than two) between the car's debut and first race. Shelby's ongoing feud with Coupe designer Peter Brock is no secret, and one wonders if his (Shelby's) misstatements are simply the result of a deteriorating mind, or a deliberate, malicious attempt to discredit one of the great automobile designers of all time.
But whether Shelby's tall tales are simply forgetfulness or deliberate is not what I feel is at issue here. What is, I believe, is the well-known phenomenon of something becoming Gospel once it appears in print. Shelby's tall tales are going to be taken as the absolute truth by Hot Rod readers, and since Carroll Shelby's quotations still carry a bit of weight, this a compounds the damage done. Shelby's misstatements are a great disservice to
those interested not in a good barroom story, but historical, documentable fact and will serve to further cloud history the way it actually happened. I recognize that when a magazine interviews some one, they have a
responsibility to quote the individual accurately, but if the person being quoted is making inaccurate statements, the magazine also has a responsibility to the truth, and if that means a polite but well-documented
repudiation of the statements made, readers are owed that. And it need not be a lifetime project; the facts that I question above took me no more than fifteen minutes of research through publically-available sources (books,magazines). Thank you very much for letting me clear the air, and make some important corrections.
GREG KOLASA
Shelby American Automobile Club
4/22/2008
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Re: Letters to the Editor- Hot Rod
« Reply #1 on: Today at 03:32:52 PM » Quote
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holman & moody, inc.
9119 Forsyth Park Drive
Charlotte, NC 28273
704 583 2888
April 22 2008
To: Hot Rod magazine
In response to the story you recently published with a comment from Mr. Shelby about the Holman & Moody team. I would like to make note of a few things Mr. Shelby seems to have overlooked.
The correct name for Mr. Moody is Ralph Moody and he was a master at making a race car handle. Ralph’s talents were best for chassis adjustments on the smaller short tracks but they also applied to the road race tracks of both America & Europe.
John Holman, was a master tool maker and he had been part of the winning Lincoln Mexican road race team, crewed at the Indy 500, and dreamed of being able to make racing faster & safer. When he was hired in 1956 to manage the failing Ford factory race team on the East Coast he quickly changed the cars to reflect his own ideas. His team won so many races that the other car companies talked Ford into pulling the factories out of racing.
Our 1957 Thunder Birds were winning on the sports car tracks beating the Corvettes & Ferraris of their day. In NASCAR, the Holman & Moody built cars won race after race on both road course and oval tracks from 1956 on. In the early 1960s our Falcons sports cars out ran the Cobras at a number of events.
In 1963, the Holman & Moody Galaxies were storming across Europe winning race after race. Fred Lorenzen was winning in America in Holman & Moody Fords and Dan Gurney took on the field at Riverside.
In 1964, while Shelby was having a rough go with his Cobras in Europe, the Holman & Moody Rally Falcons were making history on the Monte Carlo Rally. This point was noted at a Shelby Club dinner some years ago when the guest speaker, Bob Bondurant, noted that he had used the Holman & Moody Falcons as practice cars at a number of events because the Cobras could not hold up for both practice and the race. He also said that the Falcon lap times were hard to beat in a Cobra.
When the new Mustang replaced the Falcon, it was Holman & Moody and Alan Mann Racing in England that built the first Mustang race cars. These Mustangs using the Rally Falcon parts were able to win the 1964 Tour De France.
Mr., Shelby seems also to have forgotten that it was Alan Mann Racing that raced the Cobra Coupes in Europe in 1965 with myself as part of the team that year, and that it was the performance of Alan Mann Racing that won the championship for the Ford Cobras that year.
While on Tom Cotter’s Cobra Tour last summer, I was please to hear a speech made By Mr. Tom Yeager. When asked how he was able to outrun the Shelby Factory team cars at most of his events. He replied that it was a little known fact that his GT 350 was prepared and maintained by Holman & Moody. He would pick the Mustang up and go outrun the Shelby Mustangs.
When you look back at the Le Mans races one should also recall that Mr. Shelby did race GT 40s at Le Mans without the help of Holman & Moody, in 1965 and the outcome was not that note worthy. I was at that race and the Alan Mann Team’s Cobra Coupes finished the race for Ford.
In 1966, Ford asked if Holman & Moody could and would help save the project. Because Ford owned the Shelby American company at that time, Holman & Moody was under team orders not to pass or race the Shelby team cars. Our drivers were able to follow orders and we finished in third place behind the two Shelby team cars. Dan Gurney talked about the team orders on film when he says that the only competition he had at Le Mans in 1967 was the Holman & Moody cars but they had been taken care of politically and were not a problem.
After 50 years of winning, Holman & Moody continues today building vintage race cars and engines. We just sent an engine to Europe for a 1956 Thunder Bird that will run in the Mille Miglia, and a new 427 for the original Holman & Moody Mark II that finished third in 1966. We continue to build race winning cars.
When Holman & Moody was inducted into the Motorsports Hall of Fame, The president of NASCAR said “ Without Holman & Moody there would be no NASCAR. “ Holman & Moody built and sold the quality parts that allowed ten cars to be racing for the win on the last lap. That made the races exciting so that TV wanted to cover that excitement. We sold the same parts that we raced to our competition yet as a team Holman & Moody continued to win.
While one does have to give Shelby credit for placing himself in the right place at the right time, so that he could become a legend of the performance industry, he did not do any of this alone. Other people had put a Ford V8 engine in a AC Ace, other people had won in Mustangs , but Shelby was able to market those products and himself. It took, Ford, Holman & Moody, Alan Mann and all the great drivers and team members of each of those teams and the hard work of the Shelby American Automobile Club to enable Mr. Shelby to be what he is today.
Lee Holman, President
Holman & Moody, Inc.
PS I was not able to include the winning Drag racing, off shore ocean racing, ski boat races, or the off road part of John Holman’s history. If you would like to know more about Holman & Moody fell free to visit our shop in Charlotte, North Carolina.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I try to look at everything I read to see what I can take with me because not all of it is useful to me. I also tend to believe the older or more "seasoned" writers. This leads me to a place that I didn't want to go but feel I need to. The following is just some of the mail that is being sent to Hot Rod Magazine following the Cam Benty article about Carroll Shelby "Shelby Uncensored" in the June 2008 issue........
Letters...we get letters....
In the wake of the "interesting" article in Hot Rod Magazine, many members and friends have written letters to the editor. We have started to get CC:'d at SAAC HQ.
As we see them, we'll post them here for discussion. We'll have a collection of all the letters up on the website this week.
If you write a letter, be sure to send a copy to SAAC HQ.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Ron Kinnan
Editor
Hot Rod Magazine
[email protected]
Dear Ron,
As an historian who has researched and written about the cars built by Shelby American for more than a quarter of a century, I take considerable exception to the stories told by Carroll Shelby in your June 2008 issue
("Carroll Shelby Uncensored"). In fact, some of the tales are so devoid of truth that the article might better be titled "Carroll Shelby Untruthful". While he (Shelby) does show that at 85, he can still spin a good tale, he
also shows that he has little regard for actual, historical fact. Having one's name on the deck lid of one of the most highly-desirable muscle cars of all time gives one certain rights, but one of them is not a wanton
disregard for the truth.
Specifically:
On hiring Jerry Titus and he (Jerry) winning the first Trans-Am race at Daytona: In actual fact, Jerry finished fourth in this race, but won the second at Sebring (this is a statement of fact, and is in no way intended to
diminish the abilities of Jerry Titus, which were considerable).
On building the original GT500KR: Shelby claims after he stole the name from GM (essentially true) he called down to the production line at Los Angeles International Airport, where he was building the cars, and asked how many convertibles were in the next day's build. The GT500KR was a mid-1968 introduction, but at the end of 1967, Shelby American had moved to Ionia, Michigan and became known as Shelby Automotive.
On the Shelby GT-H (Hertz) and the original GT350H: Shelby claims that they (Shelby American) had to, and in fact, did, deliver to Hertz 200 cars before 1 January 1966. Production records show the total to be 96 (less than half Shelby's claim) and his claim that 40 cars were totaled as a result of "an ice storm" is not substantiated by any historical documentation. He states that the man who sold the idea of selling the cars to Hertz was "Peyton Kramer" when in fact his name was "Cramer".
On John Holman: Aside from what might be construed as a very disparaging remark about John Holman, Shelby¹s contention that his "guru" was Bill Moody is not true; Holman's partner was Ralph Moody.
On the Daytona Coupe: Shelby claims that Ken Miles had to put 15,000 miles on the car, done at a rate of 5000 miles per week for three weeks, to get the car sorted out, when in actual fact, considerable documentation exists (including Carroll Shelby's own book, "The Cobra Story") that shows that the car performed perfectly on its first, and only, test session. Also apparently not taken into consideration is the simple math of the situation, that there were not three weeks (actually, less than two) between the car's debut and first race. Shelby's ongoing feud with Coupe designer Peter Brock is no secret, and one wonders if his (Shelby's) misstatements are simply the result of a deteriorating mind, or a deliberate, malicious attempt to discredit one of the great automobile designers of all time.
But whether Shelby's tall tales are simply forgetfulness or deliberate is not what I feel is at issue here. What is, I believe, is the well-known phenomenon of something becoming Gospel once it appears in print. Shelby's tall tales are going to be taken as the absolute truth by Hot Rod readers, and since Carroll Shelby's quotations still carry a bit of weight, this a compounds the damage done. Shelby's misstatements are a great disservice to
those interested not in a good barroom story, but historical, documentable fact and will serve to further cloud history the way it actually happened. I recognize that when a magazine interviews some one, they have a
responsibility to quote the individual accurately, but if the person being quoted is making inaccurate statements, the magazine also has a responsibility to the truth, and if that means a polite but well-documented
repudiation of the statements made, readers are owed that. And it need not be a lifetime project; the facts that I question above took me no more than fifteen minutes of research through publically-available sources (books,magazines). Thank you very much for letting me clear the air, and make some important corrections.
GREG KOLASA
Shelby American Automobile Club
4/22/2008
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Report to moderator Logged
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Forum Guide for SAAC Forums.
Forum Guide
Global Moderator
Newbie
Offline
Posts: 49
Re: Letters to the Editor- Hot Rod
« Reply #1 on: Today at 03:32:52 PM » Quote
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
holman & moody, inc.
9119 Forsyth Park Drive
Charlotte, NC 28273
704 583 2888
April 22 2008
To: Hot Rod magazine
In response to the story you recently published with a comment from Mr. Shelby about the Holman & Moody team. I would like to make note of a few things Mr. Shelby seems to have overlooked.
The correct name for Mr. Moody is Ralph Moody and he was a master at making a race car handle. Ralph’s talents were best for chassis adjustments on the smaller short tracks but they also applied to the road race tracks of both America & Europe.
John Holman, was a master tool maker and he had been part of the winning Lincoln Mexican road race team, crewed at the Indy 500, and dreamed of being able to make racing faster & safer. When he was hired in 1956 to manage the failing Ford factory race team on the East Coast he quickly changed the cars to reflect his own ideas. His team won so many races that the other car companies talked Ford into pulling the factories out of racing.
Our 1957 Thunder Birds were winning on the sports car tracks beating the Corvettes & Ferraris of their day. In NASCAR, the Holman & Moody built cars won race after race on both road course and oval tracks from 1956 on. In the early 1960s our Falcons sports cars out ran the Cobras at a number of events.
In 1963, the Holman & Moody Galaxies were storming across Europe winning race after race. Fred Lorenzen was winning in America in Holman & Moody Fords and Dan Gurney took on the field at Riverside.
In 1964, while Shelby was having a rough go with his Cobras in Europe, the Holman & Moody Rally Falcons were making history on the Monte Carlo Rally. This point was noted at a Shelby Club dinner some years ago when the guest speaker, Bob Bondurant, noted that he had used the Holman & Moody Falcons as practice cars at a number of events because the Cobras could not hold up for both practice and the race. He also said that the Falcon lap times were hard to beat in a Cobra.
When the new Mustang replaced the Falcon, it was Holman & Moody and Alan Mann Racing in England that built the first Mustang race cars. These Mustangs using the Rally Falcon parts were able to win the 1964 Tour De France.
Mr., Shelby seems also to have forgotten that it was Alan Mann Racing that raced the Cobra Coupes in Europe in 1965 with myself as part of the team that year, and that it was the performance of Alan Mann Racing that won the championship for the Ford Cobras that year.
While on Tom Cotter’s Cobra Tour last summer, I was please to hear a speech made By Mr. Tom Yeager. When asked how he was able to outrun the Shelby Factory team cars at most of his events. He replied that it was a little known fact that his GT 350 was prepared and maintained by Holman & Moody. He would pick the Mustang up and go outrun the Shelby Mustangs.
When you look back at the Le Mans races one should also recall that Mr. Shelby did race GT 40s at Le Mans without the help of Holman & Moody, in 1965 and the outcome was not that note worthy. I was at that race and the Alan Mann Team’s Cobra Coupes finished the race for Ford.
In 1966, Ford asked if Holman & Moody could and would help save the project. Because Ford owned the Shelby American company at that time, Holman & Moody was under team orders not to pass or race the Shelby team cars. Our drivers were able to follow orders and we finished in third place behind the two Shelby team cars. Dan Gurney talked about the team orders on film when he says that the only competition he had at Le Mans in 1967 was the Holman & Moody cars but they had been taken care of politically and were not a problem.
After 50 years of winning, Holman & Moody continues today building vintage race cars and engines. We just sent an engine to Europe for a 1956 Thunder Bird that will run in the Mille Miglia, and a new 427 for the original Holman & Moody Mark II that finished third in 1966. We continue to build race winning cars.
When Holman & Moody was inducted into the Motorsports Hall of Fame, The president of NASCAR said “ Without Holman & Moody there would be no NASCAR. “ Holman & Moody built and sold the quality parts that allowed ten cars to be racing for the win on the last lap. That made the races exciting so that TV wanted to cover that excitement. We sold the same parts that we raced to our competition yet as a team Holman & Moody continued to win.
While one does have to give Shelby credit for placing himself in the right place at the right time, so that he could become a legend of the performance industry, he did not do any of this alone. Other people had put a Ford V8 engine in a AC Ace, other people had won in Mustangs , but Shelby was able to market those products and himself. It took, Ford, Holman & Moody, Alan Mann and all the great drivers and team members of each of those teams and the hard work of the Shelby American Automobile Club to enable Mr. Shelby to be what he is today.
Lee Holman, President
Holman & Moody, Inc.
PS I was not able to include the winning Drag racing, off shore ocean racing, ski boat races, or the off road part of John Holman’s history. If you would like to know more about Holman & Moody fell free to visit our shop in Charlotte, North Carolina.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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