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Thanks for your patience - now let's continue. This is part 2 of 3, as the full interview was about 8 pages long, when published in our club mag.. |
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Claude, what was driving SFM5R539 - the Competition Model of Shelby - about? Was it easy?  Picture courtesy SAAC (if I remember right) |
"Easy" ist not exactly the word - you really needed balls to handle
that beast, but I alsways loved powerful cars with a predictable rigid axle
handling. The behaviour of the car was however not as "clean" as a
good Ferrari like the 250GTO, but I felt perhaps more at ease with it than with
(the year before) 275GTB with its independent rear suspension. That was a little
vicious. |
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In which other races did you enter SFM5R539 after Le Mans? 
Claude Dubois at the 1967 Spa 24 hour race in August, where the SFM5R539 parts and components were used on this hardtop body shell. He is standing behind the car in the white overall talking to his codriver Deprez. Heldé sitting next to him on the left. The cracked T10 gearbox put him out of the race in hour 21. Picture courtesy E.Ambrosino. 
Jacky Ickx and his Alan Mann prepared 1967 Mustang hardtop. Jacky is leaning on the left back side of the car next to Alan Mann. Hubert Hahne in the front talking to the man in the black suit. Picture courtesy E. Ambrosino |
I drove the car myself in two races only - Le Mans 1967 and my last race ever - in Zolder, Belgium that I won outright. All the parts and components of the Shelby were transfered -after Le Mans 1967 - on a hardtop Mustang body shell - in order to enter it in the Spa 24 Hours event for Touring Cars in August 1967. Jacky Ickx was there, too, but with a faster Alan Mann prepared 1967 Mustang with two Holleys whereas I had only one. Jacky posted the fastest lap time in Spa during practice, but I was very close behind him (1 second slower only), so we were side by side on the grid. I followed him during my first lap, but my fuel pump stopped functioning before the end of that first lap and I had to stop on the circuit, open the trunk and connect the spare pump. Never in my life I have seen one of those FACET fuel pumps failing, so the spare pump had been fitted, just in case, but was not connected.... So, I resumed racing, but lost about 3 or 4 minutes during that first lap and after two or three hours, we had to abandon for the same reason as at Le Mans: Cracked T10 gearbox extension. I was fuming, because otherwise we could have won the event easily. Jacky had broken its rear axle. The next year - after having stopped racing myself, I prepared 5R539 again for the Spa 24 Hours. We welded that Mustang hardtop roof to enter it in the Touring Cars class and under the banner of Team Claude Dubois, the car finished second overall, very well driven by "Heldé" and Yves Deprez. We could have won the event, if I would have accepted to post a claim against the winners - a Factory Porsche 911 - because they used three drivers instead of two and this was forbidden by regulations, but I refused. I have never won anything posting claims - I hate that. |
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When did you cut off the roof of SFM5R539 and how was it done? What happened to the roof and what about the rear set of side windows on the hardtop?  Picture Archive Fanatix/Autoforum - 5R539 at SPA1968 |
The roof was altered in 1968 in order to allow 5R539 to participate as a Touring Car - not a GT - in the Spa 24 hours. I don't remember what we did about the side windows, but on the only picture I have from that event, one can see a rear quater window that looks very much like "Mustang Hardtop". I don't know what happened to the roof, but what I know is that the gentlemen, who currently claim to own and restore 5R539 found many years ago, in my dealership old parts inventory, the original perspex rear Shelby R "glass" and is apparently refitting it on the car, with naturally a Mustang fastback roof. Editors note: SFM5R539 is finished, was identified by Claude Dubois and reappeared after some testing at the Le Mans Classic in 2006 ... however it did not met Claude Dubois expectations of performance, since the engine was not ready to be run at high revs. The car has vanished in the same garage since for final restoration work. We hope that owner Mr. C will present it once again. Still the Ford VIN is not verified through SAAC! |
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Did you change the colours of the car during the mentioned races? |
We raced the car in 1968 and 1969 in Belgium with the original white body colour. |
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When did you sell SFM5R539 and to whom? |
I have a vague remembrance of selling this car for about 5000$ to a german driver. Remember that the car was owned by Ford Antwerp, so it was perhaps Ford, who invoiced the car, not me. |
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Did you do any other racing later? |
I stopped racing after 1967, but at the Le Mans 24 Hours 1972, I was reserve driver on the De Tomaso Pantera Team Claude Dubois had entered. It raced as no. 32 and that finished 16th, but I did not race. J.M. Jacquemin and Yves Deprez drove the car. In 1975 I did an endurance race - 24 hours - as third driver on the Zolder circuit with a Pantera Group 3, but we had to retire the car for an oil leak at mid race. I was not happy with my lap times, but I never liked the Zolder circuit, too slow for me, I was a fast curves and high speeds specialist, never liked karting-style driving! I participated to my last motorsport event in 1978, but this time an endurance rally, which lasted 43 hours and 27 alpine passes in the rain, alone on a 1000cc Moto Guzzy motorcycle. Now, I sometime do an historic rally like the Liege-Rome-Liege or the Coupe des Alpes on the Triumph TR3B that I restored myself. But this is not real motorsport - it is nice little friends meetings, too easy. |
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I heard something about a race Shelby De Tomaso Mangusta that was offered in 2000 by a german dealer. Do you know anything about such a car? 
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Never heard about that one, but the Mangusta was originally a very bad car. With a bad chassis, a bad engine. Low performance, weak Ford 289 with "chocolate" con-rods, but a beautiful body. To make it a good race car needs a complete rebuild and major chassis modifications and would cost a fortune. The Pantera was a very good base for a race car and a very good production car, too. With - in the early years - a good engine.
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Do you know anything about the other european export Competition (R-model) Shelbys? |
No, I don't. |
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Did you have any relations to Alan Mann Racing in Byfleet, UK back then? |
No relations. |
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Did you have ever contact with the Ecurie Filipinetti or Performance Cars in Ltd. in Geneve, the other Shelby dealer in Europe? What can you tell us about the dealership cooperation in Europe? |
I met the Filipinettis. I went to cocktails at Mr. Filipinetti's castle etc. etc. I think I sold one or two cars in 1970 in Geneva. I had a distributor agreement with Shelby for the Benelux countries and in 1969 and 1970, while all the other distributors were either lazy, too rich or just absent-minded, I went to Dearborn, when Ford announced that the production of the Shelby was cancelled and that only a few cars were still available and I purchased the remaining 34 or 36 cars. So, when nobody had any car to deliver, I had cars in my inventory in Belgium. This is why I sold cars in Paris, Geneva, Istanbul, one in Germany and of course - the rest in Belgium and Holland, where I had some dealers. |
| What did you sell in your dealership aside from Shelbys, De Tomaso, Frua and AC? |
I have sold many De Tomaso. Over 270, best dealer in the world. A handful
of ACs, three race GT40 to Jean Blaton "Beurlys" and one only
Cobra 427. In the late 70ies, I sold some Clenet series 2 with Ford engine and Mercury chassis and I also sold some Panther, but the boss of that company was kind of a crook, selling directly to my clients, when I semt them to the factory to see a car, so I stopped quickly that relation. Alain Clenet - on the contrary - was a gentleman and a brilliant designer and stylist and he became a real friend.
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