Meet the Fleet – Sportscars: Shelby GT350

• BODY, WHEELS, & TIRES: Road Race Replicas

I can’t ever again say “this is the last one” because I keep saying that and then there’s another one! So rather than saying “this is the last RRR Mustang I’m adding to the sports car fleet,” I’ll say “this is the last one I did add.” I’ve said many times this is just about the coolest slot car body ever made (topped, if it is topped at all, only by RRR’s own version of the Ferrari 250GTO) which is why I’ve bought half a dozen of them over the years. Too bad I didn’t buy more, as they are now all long gone.

This yellow racing version with the deep notched air dam and without the front bumper came into my collection when the pickin’s were gettin’ slim, and I was disappointed when it arrived to find the stripes were orange rather than red as I believed they would be (damn monitor calibration!) But, I was able to make it work by salvaging a set of orange roundel decals from a wrecked car thus bringing #70 back to the fleet, and with a set of gray finish Torque Thrusts and some cool advert decals it all came together very nicely. This is another of those cars that is so fast its difficult to control, and so its always been a handful for all but the most skilled drivers. The chassis was not modified in any way, but the combination of the luck of a fast chassis with RRR’s superb low profile silicone tires which brings the trac mag closer to the rail and improves handling makes this car a holy terror on the track if the driver can keep it there!

Named “King Kong” for being the bully that it is, this throbbing V8 powered racers is campaigned by Canadian driver Cody “Clutch” Connors, who was born in Detroit but raised in Windsor, Ontario. He acquired this modified but genuine Shelby GT350 in the late ‘70’s in Dearborn, later discovering it had been used there by Shelby American as a demo car for Ford’s top brass. It had already passed through several owners by then and was in rough condition, but he massaged it back to health electing to keep the yellow paint it acquired at some point in its past. Early in the 80’s Connors relocated to the San Diego area where he began racing the car in various local events, and decided to try his hand on the dangerous curves of Drag City right around the time the Mk IV track opened. The extremely powerful machine has won him several races and trophies, and though a tournament win has been just out of reach he did make it to the final elimination on at least one occasion. Speed is not the problem, for sure; Connors just needs to keep the rubber parts down, and once that skill is acquired, that championship win is all but assured!