I saw Hurley Heywood drive that car at Lime Rock park some years ago at the vintage races.. He started out at the back of the pack, and he passed and lapped every car in a ten lap race. Beautiful car.
John Morton is a great guy. He drove a 427 for Shelby - but was working there more as an engineer. He went with Pete Brock when he started BRE and ran the Datsun 510s in TransAm winning that championship. He's run IMSA CART was a stunt driver for many years. Recently he was one of the development drivers when Shelby's old employees got together and formed the Original Venice Crew to build the R Model they wanted to build in the 60s. It has the IRS, and improved aerodynamic tricks Pete Brock wanted. https://www.ovcmustangs.com/shelby-gt350-competition-model
There is a great book about Morton's time at shelby, he was not an engineer but actually more of a janitor and he was eventually fired. It is called "inside shelby american" it is a great read.
I've got that book. Just about everyone started at Shelby's as a janitor. Then they started working on the cars. Shelby was hoping they were having so much fun they didn't ask for a raise. A friend worked for him in the mid to late 70s and said the life lesson he took away from his time there was - don't work for a guy who grew up during the depression, they want to keep all the money that crosses their palm. I saw Morton at a Shelby car show last year he gave my grandson some Hot Wheels of his 510 racecar. He said Mattel had sent him a case of them.
The Jalopy Journal
