The fiberglass hood has five—count ’em, five—NASA-type hood scoops, all functional. Four of them merely open into the engine compartment, while the fifth provides a ram-air effect for the carburetor. Along the leading edge of the front fenders are two more scoops to provide air to the excellent disc brakes, while another pair are mounted on the rear fenders to offer similar cooling for the rear brakes. These latter two were not functional on our prototype and their benefit cannot be judged, however they did manage to get plugged to the gills with snow and ice. Much of this plumage, including the spoiler and the entire rear deck, plus the front hood and fenders, is made of fiberglass. Some of it did not fit particularly well, but one can only hope this will be corrected.
Noise levels and ventilation were as good as any. The high lip on the dash, plus the low windshield and the general shrouding of the convertible top made front and rear-quarter visibility quite limited, but this deficiency was partly made up for by the extremely readable instruments and accessible controls. The high-back seats are a trifle upright and have no adjustment for rake (why is it that no American cars have decent seat-back adjustments—if they have any at all—when they are standard on all middle- and high-priced European cars?).
Whereas the old Shelbys were great short-haul machines, capable of eye-popping bursts of speed, the new car is a sort of baby Thunderbird—a Turnpike Cruiser with slots—that handles itself with great aplomb on freeways but is nearly useless on anything but smooth surfaces. Because its 351 cubic inch engine is smaller and lighter than the great lump of iron that composes the 428 used in the Mach 1 (C/D, November) the Shelby is innocent of the gross understeer and traction troubles we experienced in that particular Mustang variation, but that is not to say the Shelby is without fault. The flexible convertible chassis, coupled with strange compliance characteristics in the front suspension caused the front wheels to individually steer their way over bumps and deviations on a rough road surface. This means (or at least seems to the driver) that each front wheel is steering individually, making the car hunt and weave in such a manner as to border on the uncontrollable. Couple this to excessively stiff shock absorbers and you get a machine that bucks and weaves down a secondary road like a berserk go-kart. We found the Shelby hard to love on any kind of surface except dead smooth under those circumstances it is a stable machine.
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