Picture courtesy Arild Gronnevik/NORSK Mustang Club
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Claude Dubois has been the official Shelby dealer in Belgium from 1966 through to 1972. Initially his sales area was limited to Belgium, but later extended to Europe (1967-1969). Another important
european Shelby dealer was Performance Cars. Ltd. from George Filippinetti in Geneve/Switzerland.
Claude Dubois sold about 120 - 125 Shelbys and Cobras to european 'snake maniacs'. When Claude
received the bad news in 1970 that Shelby was not going to send any further G.T.350/500 to him, he proposed a special Shelby
Europa licenced Mustang conversion to him.
Carroll agreed and the first one was completed in January 1971 and shown at the Brussels Motor Show. Actually all cars that went to Claude Dubois, were not send
from Shelby American, but were ordered via Bob Ford, a dealership in
Detroit, Michigan from Ford Motor Company. Not all were
shipped via Bob Ford, some of the later cars went directly from the Ford
factory to a shipping agency called Sopac Transport to Port Newark. research from Kevin Marti
(www.martiautoworks.com). Special
Shelby parts were actually delivered from Shelby American.
Carroll Shelby joined the Brussels presentation and he had a good hot Chili with
Claude together in the evening. It has not been reported, wether they had a portion of Belgium's famous Pommes frites as well, but it is very likely that they were
available that same evening.
The Shelby Europa was offered as a fastback (sportsroof) and convertible, both powered by a 351.
Acc. to french and dutch sales literature they were offered
in a G.T.500 version as well.
One at least had a 351 race engine with a 780cfm Holley carb and 360HP, another one a 429 with a Drag Pack option and closely 400HP.
The cars were not allowed to be re-imported to the US due to the then stronger safety and exhaust emissions regulations. Due to the high fuel prices, the demand for a Shelby Europe was not really
big, only scandinavians did not care as for most muscle cars in that period.
Less than 10 Shelby Europe were built and sold in 1971 and 1972. 6 are currently accounted for and on file
at the SAAC. After some thoroug research in 2013 we had to sort out 2
1972 models. One turned out to be a special 460 Ford internal project, the
other VIN issue vs. documentation has not been re-confirmed with the owner
after several contact attempts. There were 3 in the Netherlands, however the third dutch Shelby Europe of C.V. Bastiaanse has been stolen
in 1987 and never appeared again. Watch out for a red one. One of the
other one not yet found is the white 429 equipped Shelby Europa.
Only 2 of the 9 or so (we still leave some room here) made are convertibles and both are currently owned by Rauno
Harvima in Finland. |
Some more information
about Claude Dubois.
Picture courtesy Eric Ambrosino
(from an article on Spa 1966)
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Claude was a very famous race driver back then. He was not a very rich man, so he thought becoming a race driver would allow him to drive and race expensive cars at least. Starting in 1955 he was actively racing until 1967. He piloted amongst many
other cars a D-type Jaguar, a
Lister-Jaguar, Porsche 550RS and some Ferraris. He won his first race in
Spa/Belgium on his own Triumph TR-2. After this race he was nominated into the Belgium national race
team. In 1964 he drove a Sunbeam in the Le Mans factory team. In 1966 Claude intended to start with a Ford GT, but was kindly advised that there was no place for him - from Ford.
He simply entered a Ferrari GTB. This was a kind of provocation to FORD, as a Ford and Shelby dealer should not sit in a Ferrari. Then through a special deal and Top management intervention, he got a Shelby R-model SFM 5R539, which he entered in the Le Mans
race. Unfortunately it did not finish due to the well-known transmission neck cracking problem and subsequent oil
leak..
Monsieur Dubois was in fact not really a Ford dealer, but he sold them. Other cars were FRUA 428 and De Tomaso
Mangusta and Pantera. Some of the Panteras and all Shelby Europa carry a tag of Claude
Dubois for identification, which was necessary for homologation.
But sales were really decreasing by 1970, so Claude quit business in 1972.
I have done an interview with Claude Dubois in May 2001. The german version (8pages) was published in our club mag June 2001.
The english version is available since 2003 from the menu on the left, if you
have opened this main
site
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