Three Men.
A Kitchen Table.
One Idea.
By 1991, Carroll Shelby had been absent from the Mustang world for over two decades. He was under contract to his old friend Lee Iacocca at Chrysler, lending his name to performance Dodges while the Fox-body Mustang — capable, popular, but unblessed — soldiered on without him.
Into this void stepped three members of the Shelby American Automobile Club: Rick Kopec, a senior SAAC officer; Ken Eber, the club's national director; and David Wagner, who ran Ford's Power Products Operations Group — the internal department that would become SVT. Wagner had previously supplied 302 engines to Brian Angliss for AC MK Is and helped Steve Saleen certify the SSC. He was, by any measure, the right man in the right room.
They formed the SAAC Car Company, based at 12650 Universal Drive, Taylor, Michigan — a facility operated by Watson Engineering, who would hand-build every car. Their performance targets were unambiguous: 0–60 in under six seconds, quarter mile under 14 seconds, top speed over 150 mph. Braking and handling to match. It had to be an honest performance car, not a cosmetic package.
Carroll Shelby drove prototype XX1 in Detroit and issued his famous challenge:
Building one car doesn't mean you're a manufacturer. Hell, anybody can build one car. You won't be a manufacturer until you've built 50 cars.
— Carroll Shelby, on driving SAAC Prototype XX1They built 62.
The EPA Masterstroke
Every other Fox-body tuner of the era — Saleen, Steeda, Kenny Brown — was blocked from creating a complete engine package by the cost of federal emissions certification. A 50,000-mile EPA cycle was pocket change for Ford, insurmountable for a small company.
Wagner solved it. He discovered that SVO could sell GT40 components individually but had never certified a complete engine package, because they had no production vehicle to certify it in. His proposal: SAAC would provide the car, Ford SVO would share the testing cost. When the car passed — and correctly built, it would — two things happened simultaneously: SVO received their first federally certified GT40 crate engine package. And the SAAC Car Company became a legal manufacturer in all 50 states.
Ford saved money and gained a product. SAAC gained their certification. The GT40 package that would eventually power the 1993 SVT Cobra got its federal approval on an SAAC Mustang first.
The Name They Couldn't Use
The first three cars unveiled at SAAC's 16th annual convention at Charlotte Motor Speedway, June 1991, wore handmade oval badges that said "Shelby." When the photographs reached Motor Trend — with the Shelby badge prominently visible on the cover — Chrysler's legal department reacted immediately.
Shelby personally interceded before any formal action was taken. His contract with Chrysler forbade his name on any non-Chrysler product. The first nine production cars carried "Shelby AAC MK I" badges — then those too had to be replaced. The final logo: a stylized Cobra snake forming the "S," with "AAC" in matching letters. Some early buyers, who had ordered specifically because of the Shelby name, cancelled.
They were wrong to. Every road test of the SAAC was a glowing report. Every owner was at a loss to say anything bad about the car. The name didn't save it or doom it. The car stood on its own.
What Killed the SAAC
In 1993, Ford's SVT division launched the Mustang Cobra using — almost precisely — the SAAC's parts list: GT40 heads, GT40 intake, 65mm throttle body, four-wheel disc brakes, 17-inch wheels. Built on the production line. With a manufacturer's warranty. At a fraction of the SAAC's price. One owner put it succinctly:
The '93 Cobra is where all our parts went. That's what killed the SAAC cars.
— SAAC owner, quoted in Hemmings Muscle Machines, November 2013The all-new 1994 Mustang platform would have required entirely new tooling. The SAAC Car Company quietly folded. 62 cars. That was all there would ever be.
