Sometime later, Art was moving the Shelby to his father's garage when his rare Autolite In-Line four got into trouble. A stuck float flooded the carburetor. Then, the engine backfired, starting a fire. Art watched in horror as the flames licked the fiberglass hood. Fortunately, he wasn't far from a firehouse. Still, it seemed like an eternity before he could get the Shelby close enough to find help. Must have been that guardian angel we spoke of earlier. Art has carried a fire extinguisher in the Shelby ever since.
Art's Shelby has evolved through the years. After the underhood fire, he replaced the hood and front fascia with new ones from Maier Racing. While he was at it, he customized the front end with some 'glass of his own, making the car unique. He deleted the front bumper to give the car a road race demeanor. Paint and GT350 graphics followed later.
Underneath, Art has kept his car much the way Carroll Shelby built it 40 years ago. He has 620 coils in front, five-leafs in back, Koni adjustable shocks fore and aft, staggered Boss 302 style aft for stability, and 16:1 worm and sector steering to help tighten up things. Those are genuine 15x8-inch Minilite color-keyed wheels married to BFGoodrich Radial T/As. Inside, Art left the interior very much alone, keeping the correct Stewart-Warner instruments and Shelby interior intact.
Underhood is where Art took a side track and tried something different. That's a Boss 302 engine with Autolite's In-Line four-barrel carburetor. Ford called it the Cross Boss induction system. Unique in its approach to metering and distributing air and fuel, the Cross Boss was designed for SCCA Trans Am road racing. For all the bells and whistles of this unique design, it didn't set the world on fire in competition. More conventional Holley-carbureted induction systems worked better and were easy to service.
The Boss 302 engine is a born to race V-8. This one has 12:1 compression, a 300-degree duration, 0.585-inch lift mechanical camshaft, a 13-pound flywheel, and that 875-cfm Autolite In-Line four on top. It's radical, and it is surely fast when the butterflies are pinned. According to Art, Ford did just 1,000 Autolite In-Lines and 100 Cross Boss manifolds before production ended.