"We understand the power our stamps have in helping to celebrate our American history and culture-in this case, the innovative brilliance of our automotive technology and design," said Anita Bizzotto, chief marketing officer, U.S. Postal Service. "They will be a reminder of the unique style and culture of the 1950s."
For those who never lived through the era, there was a time in the late '50s when the same 39 cents you'd pay for one of these stamps would get you close to two gallons of 97-octane gasoline. Now it's barely enough to mail a letter. Interesting how times have changed.
Race Car Of The Month
Shelby Cobra Daytona Coupe
You've heard of Carroll Shelby. Now here's the car that made Shelby someone worth hearing about.
As great as Shelby's Cobra roadster was in competition, it was aerodynamically atrocious, and there was no way it could be competitive against Ferrari in international sports car competition-and Ferrari was the only competition that mattered. So in the spring of 1963, the Shelby brain trust started scheming to make the Cobra a car that could dominate the world.
This called for an all-new aerodynamic body for the otherwise stellar Cobra chassis, and It was designed by Pete Brock using instinct and eyeballs instead of a wind tunnel. The Cobra Daytona Coupe was significantly slicker than the roadster thanks to a shape that started with a shark-like front prow that melded into slick flanks and abruptly ended with a large Plexiglass-covered fastback. It would gain the name "Daytona" because the first race it entered was the Daytona Continental in February, 1964.
The first 289-powered Daytona Coupe was built at Shelby's California facility and trucked to Riverside Raceway, where it was instantly 20 mph faster on the long straight than the Cobra roadster. More importantly, with its strong Ford V-8 doing the pulling out of corners, it was potentially quicker than the Ferrari GTOs, even though the Ferraris had a higher top speed.
Shelby built a total of six Daytona Coupes (with much of the construction subcontracted), and they were intimidating enough during the '64 racing season that Enzo Ferrari decided that his championship-winning factory team didn't need to participate in the '65 season.
During 1965, the Daytona Coupes thoroughly dominated the GT class, winning their class in six of the eight major races and challenging the more exotic prototype racers (where Ford's own GT40 was running) on occasion. However, it didn't win at Le Mans, with four of the five entered Daytonas dropping out and the fifth finishing eighth overall and second in GT. The 1965 FIA World GT Championship was Shelby's.
The Daytona Coupe project was abruptly dropped when Ford asked Shelby to take over much of its floundering GT40 program, but the six Daytona Coupes are still clearly the greatest Shelby products of all time.
V-Power
Shell has recently introduced a new formulation premium V-Power gasoline that it claims features five times the amount of detergents found in other brands of gas. This is aimed at improving performance over the long haul to prevent carbon buildup on fuel injectors and limit carbon buildup on the backside of intake valves. This V-Power fuel is the result of innovation learned from years of formulating gasoline for Ferrari's Formula One racing team. It will be easy to find your local Shell station. They're the ones sporting those bright yellow flags across the drive. For more info, see www.shell.com.
In & Out List
In: Throaty big-cube exhaust system
Out: Buzzy sport compact exhaust systems
In: High-performance vinyl graphics
Out: Custom paint landscape graphics
In: Classic performance magazine collecting
Out: Pin collecting-any kind
In: Sportsman drag racing
Out: Street racing
In: Classic race car restoration
Out: Anything that stops guys from racing old race cars
In: Cruising
Out: Garage queen musclecars