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Once a year—just before the annualScottsdale auction bacchanalia—SportsCar Market publishes their pocket priceguide which they send to each of their sub-scribers. It’s 4 1/2˝ x 6 1/2˝ and will fit intoyour pocket...which is probably why theyrefer to it a “pocket price guide.” Duh. Weimmediately looked up Shelby and the list-ing is pretty complete, from 1962 through1970. The prices (low as well as high) ap-pear fairly accurate, and we’re discountingthe occasional absurd auction highs whichwould throw any price guide out of whack.They break out Cobra 260s and DaytonaCoupes ($10M-$12M in case you were won-dering what the buy-in was likely to be).They also advise that 10% should be de-ducted for 289 worm-and-sector cars and20% deducted for 1966 Hertz cars and1967 GT500 with automatic transmis-sions. The listing includes production fig-ures, which are as accurate as possible fora condensed list of cars that seeminglyhave more exceptions than rules. The coverfeatures an enticing photo of a 1966 Hertzcar. Our point, here, is that they could havechosen any car for the cover of this guide,from a Abarth to a Vector (sorry, no Zilprices, which would have made for a tidyanalogy). They chose the Shelby. That doesnot surprise us. Without choices like this,this would be a pretty sparse column. Butevery time another Shelby or Cobra ap-pears on the cover of a publication like thisit reinforces the fact that they are popularand interesting cars. Or does it cause it?The chicken or the egg?

There are articles or pictures of Shelbys inalmost any magazine, any month, on thenewsstand today. The cars are popular andinterest in them shows no signs of flaggingthat we can detect. So it takes a lot to catchour attention, but the February issue ofHemmings Muscle Machines succeeded.They visited the car and memorabilia col-lection of John Atzbach in Redmond, Wash-ington. The collection is nothing short ofastounding. We plan on visiting (again)next year and spending a little time takingsome pictures and filing a full report. Untilthen, Hemmings Muscle Machines willhave to hold you.

AMERICAN AUTO LEGENDS - Clas-sics of Style and Design. Published by theEaston Press, Norwalk, Connecticut; threemonthly installments at $49 each.

Up front, we have to admit that wehave not seen this book. This review is onlybased on a four-page color flyer we re-ceived. Our opinion of it would have beena lot different twenty years ago. We mighthave suggested it would make a good ad-dition to your Shelby collection only be-cause Shelbys and Cobras (we assume)were included. That used to be enough of areason for us. But in the intervening yearsthere has been so much published aboutthese cars (a lot of it by SAAC) that ittakes more than a few photos and briefmentions to compel us to suggest it be inyour collection. There has just been toomuch out there for anyone to try to keepup with it all and get one of everything.This book has plenty of glitz: gold stamp-ings on the leather cover, gilded page endsand a satin ribbon marker. None of itseems to justify the $147 price.

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Eagle-eye Tom Dankel of Hollister, Califor-nia snapped this picture of a Cobra Co.Auto Oil t-shirt in a Lucky Brand store inLaJolla. Cobra Co, believe it or not, claimsto be “the home of innovative outdoor liv-ing” and they sell a variety of outdoordecor: planters, hanging baskets, pot hold-ers, garden stakes, shrub supplies and firepits. Who knew?

When Cobrameister Ned Scudder sends us an eagle-eye sighting you can bet it’s goingto be a good one. While shopping for artichokes his eye was drawn to the box from Un-derwood Ranches (Camarillo, California, if you’re taking notes). You don’t need threeguesses to see why. And we’ll bet that if you go out to Scudder’s garage you’ll find thisbox up on a shelf with something in it. And it won’t be artichokes!

Ok, we don’t know anything about Cobrasucker rod guides, either. James Grant ofAustin, Texas sent this ad to us and afterreading it we still don’t have any idea whatthey are. We’re guessing they’re used on oilwells or pumps. No matter: they’re calledCobra sucker rod guides and they come intwo models: King Cobra and King CobraLT. That’s all we need to know. Now movealong: there’s nothing more to see here.

Dan Drury finds some pretty amazing stuff every now and then and this is one suchexample he recently discovered in a Kirkland’s retail store in Paducah, Kentucky. It’snot an original painting but a canvas art print which is stretched on a wood frame andthe surface has textured brush strokes. So it looks like an original oil painting. Thesize is 40˝ x 40˝. For those who must have one, they are available through Kirkland’swebsite <kirklands.com> item # 126635 and the cost is $69.99 (shipping additional).Kirkland’s is a chain, originating in Tennessee. They presently have almost 350 storesfrom Delaware to California, Minnesota to Florida.

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Ken Young must have a sixth sensethat he was standing over the trap door.We received a sudden flurry of eagle eyesightings but some of them were so pa-thetic that we will not publicize them.So “Kenny-Boy” Young is back on thecard, still in the ring scrapping with theother three master eagle eyes: “Gentle-man Jim” Hutchinson, Ted “The Snake”Warren and “Battling Bob” Barranger.

The Genuine Hot Rod Hardware catalogcalls this a Shelby Cobra “camp shirt.”Originally shirts like this had flowerprints and were called “Aloha shirts”but we’ve seen all kinds of car prints. In-cluding Cobras and Shelbys like thisone. Hutchinson spotted it but he didn’tmention popping for $45 for one.

YOUNG BOUNCES BACK LIKE AN INFLATABLE BOP-BAG

Young falls off ladder, lands on head,buys Corvette. That’s the cut-to-the-chase version of the story. When he cameto his senses he reportedly said, “Ibought a WHAT?” Oh, and one morething: he overpaid for it.

A “drive marit?” We have to admit that be-fore Warren sent this picture from a KateSpade catalog we had no idea what a maritwas. This one is identified in the online cat-alog as “Shelby” but that doesn’t really ex-plain anything. Kate Spade New York isthe purveyor of upscale women’s clothing,shoes and accessories. We’re told this is acosmetics travel bag. The name “Shelby”explains why Warren sent it to us but itdoes not explain what Warren was doingbrowsing an upscale women’s clothingwebsite. Maybe we don’t want to know. Oh,by the way, the Shelby drive marit is $128.

As if to underscore that he is back,Young sent us a page he ripped out of aHot Rod Deluxe magazine. The editorsof this publication rummage throughPetersen Publications’ photo files look-ing for pictures that were never usedback in the day. They printed this photofull-page but we reduced it by about75% so it wouldn’t take up a whole page.The photo is of the staging lanes at the1966 Winternationals drag racingchampionship at Pomona. It appears tohave been taken early in the morningwhen it was still overcast. Young spot-ted the 427 Cobra among all those carsand that feat, alone, is a testament tohis eagle eye talent. The car has to beCSX3198, the only factory 427 Dragon-snake produced. It was owned and spon-sored by the Harr Motor Company inWorcester, Massachusetts and driven byGus Zuidema. He set both ends ofNHRA’s A/Sports class record at thatevent: 10.86 secs. @ 127 mph.

The 1964/1965 World’s Fair was held inNew York City (actually in FlushingMeadows, Queens—one of the city’s fiveboroughs). It ran for two six-month sea-sons (April 22 - October 18, 1964 andApril 21 - October 17, 1965). The eventwas used by Ford to unveil the new Mus-tang when the Fair opened. Ford had alarge display of its products and the newMustang was the central focus. It gener-ated a huge amount of interest. Ford’sdisplay was updated on the second yearand it included the new GT350. Youngfound this picture in a copy of Hem-mings Classic Car’s January 2015 issuewhich contained an article on theWorld’s Fair.

Hutchinson found this interesting walkingstick at an antique shop in New Orleans.It has four cobras entwined around it.Hutch was evasive about other details,leading us to believe he couldn’t resistadding it to his collection but may havebeen embarrassed about the price.

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Young also spotted this photo in the Hot Rod Deluxe magazine. A GT40 mounting adummy movie camera in the nose was towed in a Los Angeles parade by a Jeep sport-ing a “Grand Prix” movie banner. A real GT40 was used for some of the filming, butit wasn’t this car.

Not likely many people will have spot-ted this in Mike Kelly’s Cruise News(Florida’s favorite auto enthusiast mag-azine). Point for Young. But as an eagle-eye sighting, even Stevie Wonder wouldhave had trouble missing this. Minus 1for Young. The article, a short history ofShelby cars, was written by AdamIcenogles who also supplied the accom-panying artwork. It was an excellent op-portunity for the artist to advertise hisart. In this case Young was his pimp.

“Hey buddy—got the time?” “Well, letme check my Cobra watch...” Hutchin-son sent this ad. Every Cobra owner willwant one of these, but the downside isthat they are on sale: list price is $1,581but the 87% discount brings that downto a measly $199. What Cobra ownerworthy of the name would want to weara cheapskate watch on his wrist?

What the hell was Young doing over onthe hoity-toity side of Naples, Florida?We’re guessing he took a wrong turnand was desperately trying to find hisway back to the Dollar Store. Upscalejewelers Pierre & Harry specialize inpearls and gemstones that cost morethan Young spends on those beaterstreet rods he is attracted to. They’renot rat rods when he buys them but hecertainly helps them on their way be-fore the next owner shows up at hisdoor. He spotted this ad in a Naplesshopping newsletter. The Cobra replicais an eye-catcher. Somebody must haveburned their calf on the side pipes be-cause the chrome shields look theycame off a Kenworth. The models looklike they fit right into the Naples scene,except they aren’t wearing nearlyenough jewelry. However, if they hadmuch more and fell off a pier theywould sink right to the bottom.

If it’s Mardi Gras time that means prowl-ing the costume shops in New Orleans,where there are always cobra opportuni-ties. Who knows that Pharaoh Ted Warrenwill come up with?

After looking through a seed catalog inpreparation for this year’s garden, FarmerBob Barranger spotted these cobra beans.Should we expect him to be getting a vin-tage Ford tractor before too long?

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Jack Compton of Dublin, Ohio sent us hisfirst Eagle Eye submission and it’s one wehad never seen before. The “Zip-It” toolisn’t one you’re likely to find in anyone’stool box, unless it’s a plumber. It’s a rela-tively short plastic snake that is used tounclog the sink trap J-bend. We showedthe photo of this product to Howard Pardeeand he got so excited about it that he ranout to buy one. As soon as he came homehe couldn’t wait to try it out. He said hissink was already slow to drain. He imme-diately employed the Zip-It and removed afew large wads of hair from the trap.

On 12/30/2014 the ClassicCars.com webpage ran this cartoon and requested read-ers to supply a humorous caption. It wasspotted and forwarded to us by HowardPardee. He didn’t include a caption sugges-tion of his own, but from the “Art ImitatesLife” file, we recall an incident, many yearsago, when Pardee was driving his sisterand her two young sons somewhere. Hewas pulled over for exceeding the speedlimit. There’s nothing unusual about that:Pardee has been pinched for speedingmore times than anyone else we know whohasn’t lost his license. But on this particu-lar occasion, as he was dealing with thestate patrolwoman standing at his window,the kids were in the backseat happilychanting “P-I-G, P-I-G, P-I-G.” Yes, he gotthe ticket.

We’ve seen these heavy-duty plastic laun-dry sinks in Home Depot but the thoughtnever occurred to us to paint twin bluestripes on one. If you have a Shelby in thegarage, however, it makes sense. Well,about as much sense as it makes to paintanything else in the garage white withblue stripes. Not only that, but this photowas sent to us with a note, “It’s not mine.”In certain circles it might not be somethingyou’d want to brag about.

Artist Dana Forrester specializes in illus-trations showing multiple car scenes indealerships or at race tracks which he hasmade into posters. One of his latest (avail-able at the B-J auction) shows ShelbyAmerican’s transporter, loaded with Co-bras and 5R002 in the foreground.

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It doesn’t look like much from the outside, but Okoboji ClassicCars’ 65,000 square-foot facility is a combination classic car mu-seum, car dealership and restoration facility in West Okoboji,Iowa. It began as a restoration shop with a showroom to displayfinished products. But now the showroom, which looks like a mu-seum decorated like a small town with building facades and ar-tifacts, houses about a hundred cars of all kinds (antiques,customs, fifties, muscle cars, sports cars) and all of them for sale.It’s a little kitschy and we didn’t seen any bona fide high dollarclassics, but in the You Tube video they look like very well donerestorations. A video link has been making the rounds (we re-ceived it from about ten SAAC members so far) and we spottedonly two Cobras in the clip (one an obvious replica and the other,a small block that was impossible to identify). We didn’t see anyShelbys but that’s not surprising based on the present sale prices.These guys buy cars to restore and resell and there isn’t much ofa margin in Shelbys. West Okoboji is in northwest Iowa and ifyou’re driving through the area it would be worth a visit. To seeit go to http://www.okonojicc.com/the-occ-experience.php

Radio-controlled cars have just been taken to the next level. TheBaja 5R On-Road model is a 1/5-scale ‘70 Boss 302 with fauxMinilite wheels and a lowered suspension (lower than their nor-mal off-road cars) made for parking lot use (rather than off-road).It is powered by a 23cc engine and is rear-wheel drive, so wheel-spinning and powerslides are possible. Just like a real Boss 302!Want one? Be prepared to shell out $1200. Thanks to RC masterDavid Maffucci of Lakeville, CT for sending this in.

Brian Card of Seattle, Washington sent usthis catalog page for the Steelman PROCobra series locking flex head ratchet.They are available in 1/4˝, 3/8˝ and 1/2˝drives, long and extra long. It will cost you$53.95 to show this off in your tool chest.

What? You don’t have a Shelby winch onyour trailer? Rodney Hengst of Mertztown,Pennsylvania came across this onCraigslist.

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Tom Dankel of Hollister, California seems to have a good eagle eye. While we wouldn’tput him in the category of the four master eagle eyes...yet...could be he just needs alittle more time. He was traveling through Cottonwood, Arizona when he saw this signon a chain link fence. Looks it might be a good place to get mufflers for your GT500KR.

The Villages, a huge retirement commu-nity in central Florida, is the fastest grow-ing small city in the United States. It has39 golf courses and almost everyone ridesaround on golf carts. There are over 100miles of roads. It has its own chapter of theAACA and there are a large number of re-tired automobile enthusiasts. There areseveral newspapers and Doug Cresanta ofHaskell, New Jersey saw an article aboutthe 50th Anniversary Shelby American427 S/C Cobra. Cresanta made a point oftelling us he is NOT moving there butwe’re not so sure. He might have picked upthe newspaper on a reconnaissance mis-sion. We’re sure he will advise us of an ad-dress change.

SAAC member and big-time author ColinComer was touted as the keynote speakerat a panel discussion at Scottsdale at thisyear’s Barrett-Jackson “Insider’s Seminar”which posed the question, “Restore or Mod-ify.” We weren’t there but we are assumingit was a respectful, orderly discussion onthis subject. We can’t picture Comer grab-bing some grayhair by the throat andthrottling him until he has a mouthful ofbloody chicklets. But then again, weweren’t there.

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Forrest Straight of Los Gatos, Californiaopened Sports Car Market’s “2015 In-sider’s Guide to Concours d’Elegance” andwas gobsmacked when he saw his 427Cobra, CSX3183 in a snappy ad for Put-nam Leasing. His first thought was,“Hey—how could they be leasing my car?”Then he realized that studio photographsof his Cobra had been taken a while backby professional photographer David Kim-ball. Is there a lesson to be learned for therest of us? When a pro takes photos of yourcar, he owns them. And most pros mightshoot on specific assignment but whenthey submit their work they are paid forthe image or images that get used. It’s usu-ally a one-time use fee and everythingthen goes into their portfolio. If the oppor-tunity arises to use the photos again, theywill. For the car owner, it’s the gift thatkeeps on giving. Once a pro has images ofyour car, you can never tell when they willshow up in an ad or on a calendar orposter. So, if you are approached by a pho-tographer who would like to shoot your car,jump on it. Five or ten years may go by andone day you’ll open up a magazine and getgobsmacked, like Straight.

Mazda Raceway (Laguna Seca for us gray-beards) has a newsletter called “TheCorkscrew.” They send it out to everyoneon their mailing list and it’s also availablevia their website. The header shows an il-lustration of a GTP car, a motorcycle anda GT350 race car—all representatives ofthe track’s most popular race weekends.Ron Richards, SAAC’s esteemed webmas-ter, spotted this.

Mark Petri has the eagle eye. He submit-ted the Cobra Products sign and the truckfrom Shelby Mechanical, Inc. he spotted ashe tooled around his hometown of Mt.Royal, New Jersey.

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Roger Morrison of Salina, Kansas has been a SAAC member since the very beginning.He sent us this ad from Reliable Carriers. It’s one of the cleverest ads we’ve seen in along while.

The latest diecast model to appear (avail-able in June 2015) is 5R538, CharlieKemp’s legendary GT3590 racer. The carhas been described as the winningest R-Model of all time because Kemp raced thecar throughout the southeast between1967 and 1974, at one time winning 17races in a row. He was clocked at 184 mphat Daytona. Price will be $134.95. The com-pany producing it is Acme, which makes usthink of Wylie Coyote but this car is no car-toon. It’s as accurate as anything as you’llfind, made from 996 pieces. The advancednotice was sent to us by Howard Pardee,who seems to keep up to speed with R-Model models and memorabilia as much asanybody we know. We’re waiting patientlyfor some diecast manufacturer to come upwith a model of 5R095.

Rod Hengst of Mertztown, Pennsylvaniatook great pains explaining that he doesnot spend his free time hanging out incomic book stores. However, he did discov-ered this 1965 Hot Rod comic book.

Note Cobra t-shirts on crew.

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Nicholas Guisto III of Hinsdale, Illinois spotted the hand-carved Cobra sculpture in agift shop in Old San Juan, Puerto Rico. We can’t tell the actual size from the picture,but the image of him carrying it on the plane coming home is entertaining—not that itactually happened. He also snapped a couple of photos of interest in a Chicago parkinggarage. Seems logical that a garage would have automotive artifacts on display.

Cory Hitchcock of Granite Falls, Washing-ton spotted a rare NOS coloring book of‘60s, ‘70 and ‘80 Mustangs and Shelbys.They were originally available for $3.75each or three for $10. The eBay price was$19.60 with 22 days and 22 hours left.

The beginning of the year is always interesting for Shelby memorabilia collectors be-cause that’s when the new calendars come out. Classic Motorsports Magazine includedan 8˝x11˝ calendar to all subscribers. The January photo is of interest especially to 1967Shelby enthusiasts. It is a Shelby American public relations photo of the then new 1967GT350. The side running light identifies this car as an early production model. It’s hardfor today’s enthusiasts to understand but the Lime Gold color was a popular one andthat’s why this color car was chosen for this shoot. The picture was taken in RedondoBeach, California. In the background is the famous Portofino Inn, the site of the finishof many of the late 1970s Cannonball Sea-to-Shining Sea Memorial Trophy Dash.

Greg Melnyk of Arroyo Grande, Californiasaw this snake head at the Palm SpringsArt Museum. He noted that the Year of theSnake began on February 2, 1965. Is it pos-sible that the winning of the 1965 WorldManufacturers Championship during theYear of the Snake was predetermined bythe stars?

Ken Yeager of Loganville, Georgia spottedthis two CD collection of hits from the1950s and 1960s. The songs? Who cares?All he was worried about is if he beatHoward Pardee to the punch on this eagleeye sighting. He did. He noticed, of course,the blue ‘67 Shelby parked in front.