Meeting with Doug Cantwell - Carroll Shelby's project manager for the original GT350

[NoReins]

Chuck is definitely a nice guy. I live near him, and he cruises around in his original 1966 GT350 that is in Guardsman Blue with White Stripes from time to time

Got him to sign his book for me, plus i had a 1/18th GT350 Diecast, also got him to sign that for me at a local car show

Sponsored

 

[Muligan]

Great stories throughout - thanks to everyone who shared. Mr. Cantwell's book on the GT350 is outstanding and something I used as a trusted resource when I was building a GT350-clone vintage racer.

We're very lucky to still have with us a few of the guys who were around back in Shelby's Venice, CA days.

I'm another one of those consumers of all things Shelby, but unfortunately my "Cobra" is not an original, so I do have to always answer "that" question... quite a bit. It's a Factory Five, but I spent lots of time researching and incorporating little details to make it look more authentic so that it would be a worthy tribute to Shelby, Miles, and everyone who brought us that iconic car.

 

[MIDLYFE]

So cool. These are the days.

 

[falcongtho3]

Got to meet him at Carlisle in 2014, and at the Ford GT anniversary dinner happened to sit right next to him. Needless to say it was a very memorable dinner experience. I have the Shelby offered 1:18 GT350S, with his signed COA, and I had gotten him to sign a '66 replica brochure at Carlisle. He was surprised to see that, and asked where I'd gotten it. I had to tell him wasn't an original, he didn't care and I'm pretty sure I saw him run off in that direction. I did order the signed book and I'm looking forward ot getting soon, I hope.

Please note the threads title...who is DOUG Cantwell?

 

[s2ms]

I had opportunity to meet Chuck at SAAC-35 in 2010. It bears repeating that he is a super nice guy who is so giving of his time, especially anything Shelby related. Chuck brought his newly acquired 66 GT350, 6S796, out from PA to CA for the convention. There was an "unofficial" event the day before the convention started where a bunch of us 65-66 GT350 owners went on a drive with Chuck and his wife Joanne. The drive featured lots of back roads and several stops including a winery and lunch at a cool hotel in Occidental. It is definitely my favorite memory of the convention.

Funny story...as the group left the winery 6S796 refused to start. The problem was quickly diagnosed as a broken ignition switch but nobody had a spare, so we went old school, a good old fashioned hot wire. Worked like a charm, pretty scary how easy it is to do on old cars. Chuck was thanking us the whole time while I'm thinking what an honor it is to help fix the original GT350 Project Engineer's personal car!

Another honor was helping Mark Hovander a little with the restoration of 5S003, mainly photo documentation of the unibody after media blasting and metal repair, before being sent to John Brown's shop. Very special to work on the car that started it all.

Cantwell GT350 drive group before starting out:

Drive stopped for road work:

5S003 before restoration to prototype config, still in R-model trim:

5S003 unibody on rotisserie:

 

[Bikeman315]

I had opportunity to meet Chuck at SAAC-35 in 2010. It bears repeating that he is a super nice guy who is so giving of his time, especially anything Shelby related. Chuck brought his newly acquired 66 GT350, 6S796, out from PA to CA for the convention. There was an "unofficial" event the day before the convention started where a bunch of us 65-66 GT350 owners went on a drive with Chuck and his wife Joanne. The drive featured lots of back roads and several stops including a winery and lunch at a cool hotel in Occidental. It is definitely my favorite memory of the convention.

Funny story...as the group left the winery 6S796 refused to start. The problem was quickly diagnosed as a broken ignition switch but nobody had a spare, so we went old school, a good old fashioned hot wire. Worked like a charm, pretty scary how easy it is to do on old cars. Chuck was thanking us the whole time while I'm thinking what an honor it is to help fix the original GT350 Project Engineer's personal car!

Another honor was helping Mark Hovander a little with the restoration of 5S003, mainly photo documentation of the unibody after media blasting and metal repair, before being sent to John Brown's shop. Very special to work on the car that started it all.

Awesome post Dave, thank you. I guess I should mention that 5S003 owner Nick Smith & restorer Charles Turner were speaking at the museum as well.

 

[s2ms]

Awesome post Dave, thank you. I guess I should mention that 5S003 owner Nick Smith & restorer Charles Turner were speaking at the museum as well.

Thanks Ira. Have to admit I thought it was completely nuts when I heard Nick Smith was planning to re-restore the car. Mark had done an unbelievable job on researching the car's history and restoration back to street prototype config, it was perfect IMO, and saw no reason whatsoever to touch it. However, after seeing what they did to take it apart and restore it to the knock-down car sent to Shelby American in late 1964, I have to congratulate Nick and Charles Turner on their creativity thinking outside the box. Of course their restoration back to street prototype was also outstanding.

 

[falcongtho3]

At MCACN in 2019, before the Shelby portion of the build.

Sponsored