cool cars

Carroll Shelby’s Masterpiece: The AC Cobra

Carroll Shelby’s Masterpiece: The AC Cobra
Photo by Lans Christensen

Carroll Shelby:  Legendary automotive icon, Le Mans winner,  engineer, driver and definitely outspoken Texan,  decided that he wanted to build cars.

His thought was to produce a competitor to the Chevrolet Corvette.  His mantra: “Little car, big engine,” and with that in mind he convinced British AC car manufacturer to supply him with chassis — and Ford to supply him with V8 engines.

Only Shelby could have pulled it off  … but he did, and in 1962 he produced arguably the coolest American “sports car”: the AC Cobra.

Here’s how he described his vision: He said he wanted a car that “you could drive to the market, and race on weekends.”

The AC Cobra was carefully modified, and evolved in 1964 to the staggeringly powerful street racer known as the Shelby Cobra.

Between 1962 and 1968 there were only 998 examples built. The terms “rare” and “priceless” don’t even come close to describing these models.

Smaller custom manufacturers were licensed to keep building the Shelby Cobra. These are considered “continuation cars” and are exact replicas in every respect.

But it all started with the AC Cobra. The perfect example in the photo above is a 1965, with 9,000 original miles. It took owner Perry Margoules four years to find it; it had sat untouched for 25 years!

It was a super cool sighting of a super cool car, that Margoules brought to a July 31 Concours at Candlelight Farms in New Milford, Conn.

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Juneteenth and Mumbet’s legacy

Juneteenth and Mumbet’s legacy

Sheffield resident, singer Wanda Houston will play Mumbet in "1781" on June 19 at 7 p.m. at The Center on Main, Falls Village.

Jeffery Serratt

In August of 1781, after spending thirty years as an enslaved woman in the household of Colonel John Ashley in Sheffield, Massachusetts, Elizabeth Freeman, also known as Mumbet, was the first enslaved person to sue for her freedom in court. At the time of her trial there were 5,000 enslaved people in the state. MumBet’s legal victory set a precedent for the abolition of slavery in Massachusetts in 1790, the first in the nation. She took the name Elizabeth Freeman.

Local playwrights Lonnie Carter and Linda Rossi will tell her story in a staged reading of “1781” to celebrate Juneteenth, ay 7 p.m. at The Center on Main in Falls Village, Connecticut.Singer Wanda Houston will play MumBet, joined by actors Chantell McCulloch, Tarik Shah, Kim Canning, Sherie Berk, Howard Platt, Gloria Parker and Ruby Cameron Miller. Musical composer Donald Sosin added, “MumBet is an American hero whose story deserves to be known much more widely.”

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A sweet collaboration with students in Torrington

A sweet collaboration with students in Torrington

The new mural painted by students at Saint John Paul The Great Academy in Torrington, Connecticut.

Photo by Kristy Barto, owner of The Nutmeg Fudge Company

Thanks to a unique collaboration between The Nutmeg Fudge Company, local artist Gerald Incandela, and Saint John Paul The Great Academy in Torrington, Connecticut a mural — designed and painted entirely by students — now graces the interior of the fudge company.

The Nutmeg Fudge Company owner Kristy Barto was looking to brighten her party space with a mural that celebrated both old and new Torrington. She worked with school board member Susan Cook and Incandela to reach out to the Academy’s art teacher, Rachael Martinelli.

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In the company of artists

In the company of artists

Curator Henry Klimowicz, left, with artists Brigitta Varadi and Amy Podmore at The Re Institute

Aida Laleian

For anyone who wants a deeper glimpse into how art comes about, an on-site artist talk is a rich experience worth the trip.On Saturday, June 14, Henry Klimowicz’s cavernous Re Institute — a vast, converted 1960’s barn north of Millerton — hosted Amy Podmore and Brigitta Varadi, who elucidated their process to a small but engaged crowd amid the installation of sculptures and two remarkable videos.

Though they were all there at different times, a common thread among Klimowicz, Podmore and Varadi is their experience of New Hampshire’s famed MacDowell Colony. The silence, the safety of being able to walk in the woods at night, and the camaraderie of other working artists are precious goads to hardworking creativity. For his part, for fifteen years, Klimowicz has promoted community among thousands of participating artists, in the hope that the pairs or groups he shows together will always be linked. “To be an artist,” he stressed, “is to be among other artists.”

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