User:Achitchcock/Shelby American Automobile Club

Shelby American Automobile Club

The Shelby American Automobile Club (SAAC) was founded in 1975 by Rick Kopec, Ken Eber, and Howard Pardee. The club has hosted a national convention every year starting in 1976 with the exception of 2020 when it was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The club's focus is on the history and preservation of Shelby Cobras, Shelby Mustangs, and GT-40s

Publications
SAAC has two publications: a magazine and a world registry. The magazine entitled "The Shelby American" has been published quarterly since 1976. The issues are available online to current club members and an annual collection is published at the end of each year.

Registry
The first registry published in 1976 covered only Shelby A.C Cobras and was a soft cover booklet. All subsequent publications have been hard cover books. The first three editions were all published as a single volume covering all Shelby American cars. The fourth edition was split into 3 volumes. Beginning in 1982 the club has maintained a registry of all known Shelby American cars. The registry contains lists of all Shelby American serial numbers and information about the car such as it's date of manufacture, factory color and options, as well as any known ownership history. The purpose of the registry is to help with the verification and validation of genuine Shelby automobiles. This is necessary because there are reproduction vehicles or "Kit Cars" as well as "Tribute cars" which are Mustangs modified to look like a Shelby. For the 5th edition of the registry, SAAC began publishing books for an individual year or model. This reduced production time and resulted in the information presented within being more up to date than previous registries which sometimes took years to compile.

Club Structure
The club is a global organization made up of many smaller regional clubs.

Lawsuit
In 2007 Carroll Shelby who had been licencing the use of his name to SAAC decided to disallow the use of his name citing several failings on the club leadership's part including failure to return official Shelby American records and failing to produce the printed registry in a timely manner, the last registry being printed in 1997. On August 8, 2008 SAAC announced that “an agreement was signed, putting behind us the turmoil and uncertainty that accompanied this legal conflict”.

National SAAC Convention
Beginning in 1976 the club has hosted a national convention every year. The conventions generally consist of a judged concours competition, car show, swap meet, vintage car racing, open track time, programs and guest speakers. The location of the convention moves around the country often alternating between east coast and west coast locations. Due to the Covid-19 pandemic the 45th convention scheduled to take place in June of 2020 was canceled.