In Celebration of the late Carroll Shelby’s 93rd birthday, Superformance and Hillbank Motorsports sponsored a Shelby Cruise-In to the Petersen Automotive Museum on Sunday January 10^th, 2016.  Despite a questionable weather forecast, we had a nice morning with blue skies, which made for happy Cobra owners! We had a great turnout with well over 100 Shelby vehicles in attendance. We distributed awards to celebrate cars that truly embodied not only the spirit of Superformance and Hillbank, but the spirit of Carroll Shelby too. These were the People’s Choice, Hillbank Choice, Superformance Choice, Shelby American Choice and the Petersen Perfection award. Lance Stander CEO of Superfomance said” Having personally know Carroll and receiving his endorsement on our products makes this event at the Petersen Museum very meaningful to us.”

Shelby owners from all over the southland cruised in for a fun filled morning, complete with hot coffee and bagels. We had an outstanding turnout with everything from an original unrestored barn find Cobra, belonging to Lynn Park, the second Cobra built CSX2001 belonging to Bruce Meyer, to current model Shelby Mustangs, GT40’s and Shelby Daytona Coupes. Car culture is alive and well in Southern California and it was great to see so many enthusiasts gather at the hub of automotive history, the Petersen Automotive Museum.

With such an impressive display of Shelby cars, judges had difficulty narrowing down their choices. After much deliberation, the Superformance Choice Award went to Jay and Mackenzie Weil and their gorgeous Superformance MKIII while the Hillbank Award went to Cully White and his CSX7098 Shelby FIA. The Shelby American Choice Award went to Olen Nelson and his Mustang GT350, the People’s Choice went to Kenny Adam and his late model Shelby Mustang and the prestigious Petersen Perfection Award went to Lynn Park and his unrestored, barn-find 289 Cobra.

As the only Cobra, Daytona and GT40 Reproduction Company licensed by Carroll Shelby Licensing Inc., we feel it is our duty to honor the late, great Carroll Shelby every year on his birthday. We were fortunate enough to have worked with Carroll on a number of projects including a special edition GT40 for his 85^th birthday. Carroll was very involved and helped us a lot at Superformance and often offered his sage advice, he really liked our reproductions and build quality.

Carroll often voiced his displeasure over all of the sub-par reproductions being built in competition to his Cobra without paying license fees but he loved our company and mentioned that, “Superformance builds a 2 seater roadster called the MKIII, it’s not a true Shelby but I find the build and quality exceptional, I’ve endorsed and licensed this car along with their Daytona Coupe.”

Carroll often attended the COCOA (Cobra Owners Club of America) Orange County Christmas party and loved the annual gift exchange. Carroll was very fond of his employees and honored them each year at Willow Springs where a donkey fund collection was taken up and lunch was provided to former employees. Superformance has contributed to this fund for some years now, and we’re honored to be able to do something nice for the guys whose hard work has given our community so much pleasure.

A very big thanks again to the Petersen Automotive Museum and their wonderful staff, Shelby Craft Beer and Beverages and all those that came out!