February 2008
David Clem 93 #16
I’m a Mustang guy
and I’ve been a Mustang guy for my entire driving life. My parents
bought me a 1969 Mustang coupe in 1978 when I was 16 and I kept that car
until after I bought my next one, a 1993 5.0 LX convertible, in 1999.
In 2001 I met my
now wife, LuAnn.
Back in “the day”
her first two cars were Mustangs, a 67 and a 68. It was a match made in
heaven! After we became a couple we found her a black 96 Cobra coupe so
she would have a toy car of her own. Since I bought my 93 I have been
very active in the club and show scenes and LuAnn has joined me in those
endeavors.
I did a two-year
sentence… er…. term as president of the Island Classic Mustang Club in
Oak Harbor, WA and I am currently the activities director of SVTOA/Seattle,
where my wife is the treasurer. We seem to have some sort of
Mustang-related event happening two or three weekends a month between
May 1st
and the end of September. When we’re not attending a show or a cruise,
I do 90% of my own work on our cars. I have done a complete
heads/cam/intake job as well as an automatic to manual transmission swap
on my 93 and have installed a polished Kenne Bell blower on top of the
4-valve 281 in LuAnn’s car. In short, both my wife and I are
really into
our cars.
.jpg)
My
first exposure to Saleen Mustangs came at the 1999 Mustang Round-Up, a
car show with 1400+ cars held over the third weekend of July every year
at Bellevue Community College, just east of Seattle. Mustangs Northwest
has been putting on the Round-Up for over a quarter century.
I remember walking
through the Saleen area of the show field, looking at the new cars and
thinking that they were really rather gaudy. The vast majority of the
cars there were SN95’s or New Edge cars and the fact that every
available surface seemed to say “Saleen” put me off.
The one owner that
I attempted to engage in conversation that day seemed to think that it
was beneath him to answer questions from someone who obviously was
clueless about Saleens. This was not a good experience and soured me on
Saleens for quite a while.
William Smallwood
III (Billy to his friends) has been a mover and shaker in the Mustang
scene in the Seattle area for many years. Billy is a past president of
Mustangs Northwest, has been the show chair for the Round-up numerous
times, he is the Founding Director of SVTOA/Seattle and he owns five
Mustangs including 89-0663, a white/blue hatch that was a Montgomery
Ward giveaway car.
Since LuAnn and I
joined SVTOA/Seattle, Billy has become our very good friend. The first
time I ever really paid any attention to his car was while waiting for a
ferry upon our return from a car show on Vancouver Island. I was taking
pictures of our members’ cars in the ferry line and the way the car sat
really caught my eye, especially the rear three quarter view with that
big whale tail hanging off the hatch.
I sat down in the
car and admired the supportive Flo-Fit seats and the Momo wheel. The
interior was very purposeful and simple with tasteful logos on the door
panels and seats. Hmm… not bad.
Fast forward to
last summer. LuAnn drives a transit bus for King County Metro. One of
her co-workers (they
all know
that she’s into Mustangs) told her that he had seen a reader board at
the Kidd Valley Hamburgers restaurant in north Seattle that said
“Mustang Cruise-In Saturday Night”. Since Kidd Valley is about ten
minutes from our home, we decided to check it out. About 25 cars showed
up that night including Bill Sellers and his daughter Tianna with his
Kenne Bell-blown red/gold 89 Saleen hatch and the manager of Kidd
Valley, Mr. Dennis Mickelberry and his lovely wife Tamara with their
white/gray 88 Saleen convertible that was shown in the General Tire
display at SEMA in 1988.
Bill, Dennis,
Tamara, LuAnn and I are all fairly close in age and we’re all very into
our cars. This resulted in us all becoming fast friends. Pretty much
every Saturday night during the summer we would all show up around 5
o’clock, have a burger and then hang out and chat until long after the
restaurant closed at 10:00.
During the summer
Bill ended up blowing the engine in his car at the track day of the
Round-Up. After he installed the replacement engine I spent some time
with him getting it running properly. Some more up close time with a
Saleen ensued. I felt an itch starting. About this time Dennis became
the Northwest Regional Director for SCOA and decided to hold a NW
Regional show at his restaurant.
Since LuAnn and I
live close by and have quite a bit of show experience, we volunteered to
help him with it. As it turned out, the weather was absolutely
horrible
and the turnout was rather poor, but the people that did show up were
all very nice. Two folks, Dennis and Bruce, made the trek all the way
from Montana and we did our trick of staying past close with them, just
visiting and sharing car stories. I was liking this.
Then Dennis and
Tamara pushed me over the edge. They bought 88-0634, a black/gold
hatch, from Windy City Motorsports to add to their collection. At the
SCOA End of the Season get together Dennis said “Take it for a spin and
tell me what you think.” Well, okay. If you insist. I slid behind the
wheel and took a lap around the parking lot. Wow! The thing was rock
solid and cornered like it was on rails. I was hooked.
After that, I
started dropping my version of subtle hints to my wife that I wanted to
get a Fox body Saleen. I “casually” mentioned that I thought an early
Saleen would be a good investment. I sent her links to Craigslist ads
and eBay auctions. I found the Performance Autosport website and showed
her a few cars there. Then Modified Mustangs magazine had a column that
called Saleens the next “big thing” in collector Mustangs! Hallelujah!
She couldn’t deny it if it was written in a
magazine,
could she? But all of my overtures were met with a roll of the eyes and
a “uh huh, and how do you plan to pay for that?” Drat, a flaw in my
plan.
In November, as
Christmas season started to approach, I was told to stay out of LuAnn’s
computer. This is a normal thing in our household this time of year.
Since we don’t have any children, we tend to go a little overboard with
each other’s Christmas presents and some secrecy is often required. I
don’t know what I was expecting, but it certainly wasn’t what happened.
Saturday,
December 8th,
SVTOA/Seattle had our Christmas party playing Whirlyball, followed by
dinner at a friend’s Mexican restaurant. Whirlyball is a combination of
lacrosse and basketball played in bumper cars. Very fun.
.jpg)
Earlier in the day
I had had the misfortune of ripping the nail off of the big toe on my
left foot. Don’t ask. It was very messy and very painful and I
actually had thoughts of not attending the party but wanted to hang out
with my friends, so off we went. We played our game and I thought we
were getting ready to leave for the restaurant when LuAnn directed me to
sit down at a table in the spectator area of the facility.
Everybody gathered around as my wife handed me a wrapped present. I was
confused. I wasn’t Christmas yet. Under the wrapping paper I found a
box of Kleenex. I was more confused. She handed me another package,
which I opened to find a small paper
bag with
“priceless” written on it. I was now baffled. I’m sure that most of
you have seen the Mastercard commercial where the guy shows up with two
new cars for Christmas for his wife and him? Well, that wasn’t anywhere
in my mind at that moment. As I sat there looking at the priceless bag,
Dennis started waving a set of Ford keys in my face and telling me to
come out and look at my new car.
WHAT?!?! The
whole club trooped outside to find a gorgeous Bright Calypso Green
Saleen sitting in the parking lot! It was 93-0016. LuAnn and the
Mickelberry’s had spent the last several weeks shopping for a Fox body
Saleen for me. They had gone so far as to fly to look at one in Oregon
while I was at work one day. They had scoured the internet and came up
with what would be the ultimate car if I was picking it out for myself.
93-0016 is pretty much bone stock with less that 20,000 miles on the
odometer at this time. The condition is 99 out of 100 in my book and it
drives like a dream.
As I write this,
I’ve owned the car for five weeks and have driven the car just over 300
miles. It has resided in my garage and I’ve been able to tinker with a
few small issues, but I’m really jonesing for the opportunity to get out
and drive it. While I will probably only put 2-3000 miles a year on the
car, this car WILL get driven, rain or no. Cars like this shouldn’t be
locked up and only taken out once or twice a year.
LuAnn purchased
the car from Rich Pearlman in Florida. The plan from day one had been
to present it to me at the party on the 8th.
When the car was picked up by the transporter, the driver decided to
take the southern route across the country to avoid foul weather in the
Midwest but he hit Portland just as a gigantic storm hit the Pacific
Northwest in the first week of December. The Chehalis River overflowed
its banks and submerged Interstate 5 under nine feet of water. I-5
closed Tuesday night and didn’t reopen until late that Friday night, the
7th. The party started at noon the next day.
The transporter
finally arrived at Dennis and Tamara’s house south of Seattle at 11:00
that morning!
Dennis gave it a
quick wash then headed out to the party. Tamara went to a licensing
agent and got a trip permit, then ran the car through emissions and
drove it up to Edmonds, north of Seattle, for the presentation. When I
sat down in the car, it had been in town for just over three hours.
So that’s my
journey to Saleen ownership. I started out as something of a Saleen
hater. I moved on to someone with a mild interest in them and finally
to one that wanted to be an owner. I had
thought
that that day was years in the future. But, thanks to my wonderful wife
and friends, that day has already arrived. Car show season and the nice
weather of summer can’t get here soon enough.
We’ve already made
our reservations for the MCA Grand National show in Park City, Utah in
August. I hope to see some of you there.
*If you would
like to see a video of the unveiling of my car, visit
www.youtube.com and search for
“Best wife ever”. It will be the first item in the list. Enjoy!
.jpg)