Hot Rods Craig Breedlove ripped off by Carroll Shelby?

Hey guys! Here's the latest video in my Land Speed Legends video series. This one tells the story of how racing legend Craig Breedlove, who broke the land speed record five times in his Spirit of America jet car, played a key role in Goodyear’s domination of the drag racing tire market in the late 1960s...only to lose it all to Carroll Shelby!

Thanks to George Klass for first putting me onto this whole story about Craig's involvement in the drag slick business. I asked Craig about it when I was doing research for my Breedlove biography "Ultimate Speed" and he told me all about this thing with Shelby.

 

Very interesting I never knew any of that. Well done.

 

An interesting story behind the story. On face value it appears that the agreement between them was only a gentleman's handshake and not contractual. I'm sure that a lot of people already knew this however it just wasn't advertised as such, hushed up; call it what you like however I'm not casting aspersions, just thinking out loud.
Had it been contractual things could have been different! As well all know from our personal experiences, money does strange things to certain people, and sometimes someone you thought you knew isn't that same person after all. Others not in the know aren't aware of what goes on behind the scenes.

 

they always said ,"if you ever shook ol' Shel's hand, make sure you still had 5 fingers", after doing so.

 

quite a story, Shelby was very talented in more ways than one - yes, he did con a lot of people along the way - but having to deal with big time strictly business guys like those that ran Ford Motor Co and more he learned that you can't let anything stand in your way. make it happen - but, hearing Craig Breedlove's side of the Goodyear "deal" really is sad in the sense that Craig was always looking forward in his racing experience - where Shelby raced in a world with many curves and hills and competitors trying to run past him - racing is a dog eat dog world when in the top end of that world - have met Breedlove, and he is a terrific guy to talk to - so much of his racing life was spent trying to get and keep big time sponsors to get money to keep racing - Thanks for sharing this part of history

 

Shelby liked to take credit for "inventing" the Cobra, but he didn't. A year and a half before a Cobra was even thought of, a customer brought a wore out AC Ace roadster into Ak's shop with a blown up engine. When he found out what a new engine from England was going to cost, he told Ak to scrap the car. Ak was just beginning to get his foot in the door with Ford. He had one of the new 260 V8's still in the crate. He swapped in the 260 and a Ford 4 speed trans. Ak loved to road race. He had a course around Whittier that was his "proving ground". Ak's Ace got flogged to a fare the well, and Ak pronounced it "a pretty good sports car". One day Ol' Shell came by the shop to BS with Ak, and saw the V8 Ace. He picked Ak's brain for a while and left. A few months later the magazines were buzzing about the great idea that Shelby had with his Cobra roadster. Shelby American was off and running.

 

Shelby, a great innovator and developer. Practically beatified into sainthood. However, kind of like Mickey Thompson, there's been a lot of "great businessmen" that would sell their grandmothers skin for lampshades. Harsh? Yes but accurate.

 

It never ceases to amaze me that folks try their best to tear down big men! They made it happen! Did they use other people’s ideas? Hell yeah! Did shit happen? Yes. BUT, who got it done? Yeah, who made it happen? If the cry babies had the whatever it is, to make it happen , they would have been in the limelight! There always someone that feels big by tearing big men down. Get over it!








Bones

 

Very interesting story. Thanks for sharing the video.

 

Something just doesn't sound right. A year and a half before the Cobra, the new sbf 221" hadn't even arrived, and the 260" didn't until late '62/early '63. Nothing against Ak, but your story is one I've never heard of or read about, and with questionable time line.
Note-My date info above may be wrong based on greybeard's post below.

 

From what I get from the video,,,,,Mr Shelby was the main distributor for the West coast for Goodyear . Ok,,,he is essentially a broker,,,,he distributed the tires to everyone that wanted to buy Goodyear tires .
Now,,,,Mr Breedlove wants to develop the racing tire for Goodyear,,,and strikes a deal with Mr Shelby. Not a bad deal,,,,,his team works and develops the tires along .
I assume that the company is taking the Breedlove teams data and changing the compounds in the tires,,,,after all,,,,Goodyear is the producer,,they physically make the tires .

Now,,,,,from what I know about the corporate world,,,,anything you do for them becomes company property . Big corporations rarely want to pay out a chunk of the profits to anyone outside .

I don’t know all the story,,,,,but maybe Goodyear was the one that put the end to that agreement.
I’m not questioning Mr Breedlove opinion,,,,,and I’m not absolving Mr Shelby of anything either.
I just get uneasy when I start hearing something from people after someone has passed and can’t defend themselves.
And to be fair,,,,,Breedlove didn’t run Shelby down bad or anything.
He told an interesting story ,,that happened a long time ago,,,,and I have had things told about me,,,,and I have told things about my friends and dealing we all had together.
Sometimes it depends on the story that is still fresh in your mind.

I would still point a bigger finger at Goodyear,,,,they are the manufacturer,,,,and 10% is a lot of money!

Tommy

 

You are right about that. Love or hate him he was the great Conman. Ask the Shelby America Club.

 

The 221 went into production July 1961
The 260 in March 1962
The 289 in april 1963

Ak could have had a pre production 260 direct from Ford for testing or use in a race car. That happened a lot back then.

 

I have to question Breedlove's qualifications for developing or improving a new slick. Granted, he has done more than I could ever hope to accomplish but what would he have known about rubber compounds, cord angles and beads? No doubt the new Goodyear may not have had the bite of the M&H but did the Goodyear engineers need Craig to tell them that when I'm sure a chemical analysis of the M&H compound could have produced a tire with similar bite. Once the Goodyear slick became a better tire my recollection of T/F and F/C BITD was that the GY would ET better and the M&H was faster on top speed and then things went back and forth for a while. Some ran hard an M&H slicks and vice versa.
Craig ran Spirit II with a half-hearted effort, the car was a dud irregardless of the slicks it ran. Nye Frank was the man behind the design of Craig's dragster and just like Nye's twin inline SBC Pulsator I think a negative factor was the added weight of the full body. If it was only the slicks that held back Breedlove's rail it would have run again when the Goodyears were improved. Many attempts at streamlining T/F cars were tried in the mid '60's and all were soon forgotten.
For sure Craig struck a deal with Shelby and no doubt it's true that he got ripped off later, but for Breedlove to take credit with engineering a better slick seems like a bit of a stretch. Providing a trailer to sell tires at the strip and offering mounting and balancing is one thing, but to say you developed a better tire by only passing along what the racers told you is quite another.

 

Irregardless??
You can lighten your carbon footprint with regardless.
I like Shelby's version of what happened better.

 

Cause as we all know these men are not gentlemen, whose word is their bond. Doesn't matter how you get there, as long as you do. Right ? Nothing personal, its just business. For these men the means (lie, cheat and steal) justify the ends (gold for them). And the more they have the greedier they become.
Stay hungry my friends.

 

Exactly. Ak had a Torino Talladega months before dealers got one. The purpose of guys like Ak getting something before it was released for sale to the public was so they could wring it out and find possible problems.

 

The first Cobra was (born) tested late Jan. '62 in England, so 1 1/2 years earlier would have been Aug. of '60, well before any 221"s were ever produced, much less 260"s, based on your info above.

 

Thanks for watching, Tommy! You're right, Breedlove doesn't run Shelby down. He looked up to Shelby, still does, and views the whole thing as part of his own personal learning process. Breedlove is really measured that way when he's recalling the past. He doesn't hold grudges. I'm not trying to run Shelby down either. I just find this stuff interesting. It's part of history, REAL history, and I thought I'd share it.

 

I've got another story about Breedlove, Carroll Shelby, Andy Granatelli and the Indy 500. Might make a video about it next year. It's a barn-burner. (If you've read my book "Ultimate Speed," you already know it.)

 

Integrity goes a LONG way on my book. Good thing the HAMB members feel the same way or else any of our “for sale” transactions would be a gong show! And I wasn’t whining in my earlier post just stating a fact. “Whatever it takes” is a rather bottom feeder attitude, however it works well for criminal organizations and in some business circles.

 

Hi Sam,
Maybe I missed it,,,,are you the one that narrates the video,,,very good presentation !

Tommy

 

Just finished your book. Great job. Visited Maxwell Industries last week hoping to find something in progress on Craigs new endeavor. Did have an interesting talk there about their car. Gave me another place to visit on my trips to Calif. People need to read your book to understand what a great guy Craig was and the hardships he endured to get where he is.

 

Brock Yates ?

 

Or like the Asia guy and the moon disk.............

 

I’ve never met Shelby, but I’ve interacted with Craig Breedlove a couple times. “History” can be like gossip. As long as you figure-in it’s being told by one side and about someone who is dead you are fine. Enjoy the story, but take it with a grain of salt.

Breedlove is a legend. But in my experience he can be petty and he feels the need to knock others down to prop himself up. It’s sad because he 100% is a legend and doesn’t need to do it. It’s just who he is. Disappointing.

 

The Spirit of America was loaned by Craig to Chicago’s Museum of Science and Industry for a fifty year term on a vocal agreement. When the car was rotated out of exhibition after many years it was put into storage. Breedlove wanted to retrieve the car after the 50 years and cried foul, he said it had been damaged- the frame had been broken, some fools had scratched their names and graffiti on the body and “.....the supports for the air ducts had been stretched.” Whatever that meant?
Hard to understand how the frame was damaged in a static display but he sued for $395,000 claiming the vehicle needed a major restoration, settling out of court for an undisclosed sum.
Sounds like a bit of an opportunist, but that’s JMO.

 

If the ”big men” considered their business practises fair, back in the day, I’m sure they wouldn’t mind that people talk/write about it today. If they would’ve been upset about it, I guess not even the ”big men” themselves thought some of their actions were OK.

 

Who is Ak?