Wally's Corner- author, photo journalist and artist
Author Interview
Title: COBRA and SHELBY MUSTANG Photo Archive
Type: Softbound, vertical format
Illustrations: 16 pages of b & w pictures
Price: $19.95 - see Memorabilia page
Author Wallace Wyss has just published
the book SHELBY The Man The Cars The Legend but is not resting on his
laurels.
He told us that , right after finishing that book, he decamped to his
spread, Cobra Ranch, in the wilds of Mendocino and began putting together a
book of photos called COBRA and SHELBY MUSTANG Photo Archive for delivery to
the press in late summer .
To give our Shelby fans a heads-up, we asked him a few questions about that.
Q. Why did you think this book necessary when you just came out with a
Shelby book?
Wyss: The answer to that is that the SHELBY The Man The Cars The Legend book
was planned from the beginning to be primarily a words book, a business bio
in effect, though one with lots of personal highlights. But due to the way
that book was formatted, being vertical, you couldn not have the pictures of
cars run very big so we decided to do another Photo Archive, this one on the
cars of Shelby-American. That will be the set format of horizontal so the
pictures can be at least 7" wide.
Q. Does it also cover the Dodges, Series 1, etc?
Wyss: No, this time space was a consideration. We know Cobra fans and Shelby
fans
want to see as many of “their” cars in one book as possible and even when my
old book Shelbys Wildlife, included some Dodges in the second edition,
there was grumbling from the true blue Ford fans. So rest assured, Blue
Ovaliites, this one is 100^% Ford powered cars (except for maybe the
Scaglietti-bodied Corvettes, a litle known Shelby project--Ed.).
Q. Will not we have seen these pictures before?
Wyss: Not necessarily—I discovered some unknown photographers, who were able
to provide art, and I went through 40 years of my own pictures, taken at
various Shelby conventions and vintage races, so I think readers will be
pleased at my selection.
Q. But what about historical pictures?
Wyss: There are a few, notably from the 1965 Shelby American press kit,
which Ford graciously granted me permission to use, seeing as how I was
given the press kit legitimately while visiting Shelby-American back in 1965
while on assignment in my role as an associate editor of Motor Trend. But I
also feel that most press pictures have been over-exposed in other books so
that's why I am beating the bushes for rarer shots.
Q. Who is writing the forwards?
Wyss; I am hoping two giants in the Cobra world will be welcoming readers to
the book. One is Lynn Park, who is the sharpest Cobra owner in the world,
and has been into the cars since Day One, and the other is Steve Volk, who
founded the Shelby-American Collection. Both are world class experts in
Cobras and Shelbys and can identify cars even by serial number in a race
shot.
Q. Is the book all in black and white?
Wyss: There will be some color but I have no way of knowing where those
signatures are (note: signatures are 16-page sections) so I am submitting
color not knowing until it is published if they will be runing in black and
white or color.
Q. Who do you see as the buyer for the book?
Wyss: I see those who own replica Cobras who are eager to get any visual
reference they can to
the way the cars looked “back in the day.” Same with owners of real and
cloned Shelby Mustangs. The real unknown is the owners of the new 2007
Shelby GT500s, 2007 Shelby GTs and 2007 GT/CS models. Since there is few of
those cars on the street yet I have no way of knowing how enthusiastic those
owners will be--whether they will be interested in their own model's history
as they evolve as much as the first era Shelby owners are.
Q. Are there Ford GT40s --the oriiginal GT40s or the new Ford GTs--in the
book?
Wyss: I wish there was, but I submitted so many pictures—over 200 for a
120-picture book—that the editor said something had to go so I asked for
those images back and maybe we could look for those in a Vol. 2.
Q. You said you are still beating the bushes for art. Do you want to give us
a wish list?
Wyss: Sure do. Anybody who has any of the following, please do not send the
originals
but a scan (can be low res at first) and we can talk:
Q,Thank you.
__Wyss:Photojournalistpro@hotmail.com_______________________________________________________________
Wally does art! photojournalistpro@hotmail.com
Original Fine Art in 'Giclee' (pronounce: gee-clay) form Capturing the Shelby era....
The author of several books on Shelby, Wallace Alfred Wyss, recently (7/07) turned to art work to depict his favorite cars and drivers. He paints his originals 8" x 10" working from his photographs, and then upsizes them to various sizes according to client requests. Each print is printed on canvas,and measures approximately 18' x 24'.
Scarab 063A (Meister Brauser 1960)
This one depicts 'Shel driving the Augie Pabst-owned
Chevrolet powered Meister Brauser Scarab. This car might have impelled Shelby
more toward making an American V8-powered sports car than anything else.
Shel and the checker Palm Springs '57
Here Shel celebrates a victory with a checkered flag.
He also totalled a Ferrari at Palm Springs that year.