goolsbee.org, serving useless content from an undisclosed location since 1997
The server that hosts a lot of my images is down. It is my own personal box, which is almost as “vintage” as the cars it displays. It is a wonder that it works at all to be honest… clean living in a clean room I guess.
It had a minor disk issue earlier this morning and I’ve fixed it, but now I’m making a backup before I bring it back online. “Have patients!” …said the Mad Doctor! 😉
Update: OK, as of 11:45 Pacific Standard Time the image server is back online.
It seems Carroll Shelby is suing his most loyal supporters. I heard the first echoes of this in Sports Car Market a while ago. Now I guess it is happening.
I liken this to when Ford threatened to sue XKEdata.com concerning the use of various trademarks and whatnot… except this is even worse. This is a recognized car club, whose very existence has in many ways created order out of chaos. Without SAAC Shelby cars would not be the valued items they are today. Their documentation, which was neglected by Shelby himself, has been painstakingly re-created by SAAC. Without that documentation (The SAAC Registry) a Shelby is only slightly more valuable than the donor Ford or AC (Or Chrysler, oh wait, …never mind) car that it started life as. Now Mr. Shelby wants to take it all under his dubiously competent wing? The mind boggles.
Car clubs, and Registries are NOT for-profit industries. Those that treat them as such are doomed to failure. These are labors of love and dedication. This is the whole reason why Mr. Shelby didn’t want to do these tasks in the first place. Perhaps his memory is going in his old age?
The photo above was taken on the rainy New England 2000 rally. IIRC it was a rally checkpoint at a fish hatchery somewhere. Yes Sandro, I’m pretty sure that is a Jensen-Healey in the background.
I went out to the barn today during a brief sunny interlude between winter storms to move the jag out, in preparation for replacing my exhaust. I opened the bonnet and saw the above in the area next to the battery (I have a battery cut-off switch that is always the first thing I do when starting the car.) I need to rearrange the lift to do this exhaust job.
Upon further investigation I found this around the brake system:
Obviously some small rodent has taken up residence in the slumbering Jaguar. We have several cats who live in the barn that have for years have kept the car mouse-free… they are obviously sleeping on the job! I can’t stand the creatures (I’m allergic to them for one thing) but I tolerate them if only for this single purpose. I’m informing the rest of the family, who DO like them far more than I do, that they are to have their rations cut. Obviously they have become fat and lazy and incapable of the task.
grrrr.
I ran into town (in the 65E) and grabbed a box of moth balls and threw a few around the engine bay and interior. The car is up on ramps and jack stands now (above the dropped lift) and I’m in the process of removing the exhaust system. More news on that later.
Hell, it is 2008 ferchrissakes!
While this may appear to be some mythical barn find, it is merely the storage area of a well-known restoration shop. Anyone car to have a go at guessing ALL the cars visible?
Been a while since I’ve posted one of these. The car in the foreground is famous, and should be an easy one. Big bonus points if somebody can guess the one behind. SERIOUS car-guy cred can be yours for naming every car visible. 😉
A nice shot through the windscreen on my Dad’s (now living in Denmark with a new owner) Jaguar XK 120.
The location is somewhere south of Reno, NV. June 2001.