I heard from talking with a member that the molds for each Darrin part to become a Shelburg Sabre Sports Car reside with a club member somewhere in Colorado. Can anyone shed some light on this?
Found an article about this on-line and a flyer (attached). It obviously sold a lot since I see them all the time!!!!
Businessman Designs Deal With Russians
November 11, 1993|By George de Lama, Chicago Tribune
SCOTTSDALE, ARIZ. — David Shelburg is a car kind of guy. Just ask his wife, Paula. ''He eats, sleeps, drinks and talks cars; that's it,'' she says.
On their first date, back in Des Moines, Iowa, more than four decades ago, he drove over to her house and showed her his car. On their next date, he let her drive the car. ''When I looked at his baby book, his first word was 'cars,' '' Paula said of Shelburg, 64, her husband of 39 years.
Over a 30-year career in the car business, Shelburg was an executive with automakers Kaiser Fraser, American Motors and Subaru, helping oversee marketing, sales and distribution networks. It was more work than hobby sometimes.
''One day I looked at Paula and said, 'What am I doing all this for? Why don't we do this for us?' '' Shelburg said.
Why not, Paula agreed. Why not, indeed, he thought. If Tucker and DeLorean can do it, why not Shelburg? Unlike them, he might even succeed.
Now, at a time when most people his age in this Sun Belt community are easing into the rhythms of retirement, the Iowa native is embarked on an ambitious project that could make him an American automaking pioneer in his own right and fulfill a lifelong dream of seeing his name emblazoned on - of course - the side of a car.
From his offices atop a nondescript two-story white stucco building in the downtown section of this Phoenix suburb, Shelburg has launched a venture with Russian partners to manufacture and import the first Russian-built automobiles sold in the United States.
The Scimitar Sabre, a $28,889 sports car born of a joint venture between Reliance Motors Ltd. of Britain and Autokam of Russia, will become available in the United States in October under the banner of Shelburg's Scottsdale company, Autokam-Shelburg Ltd.
The Sabres will be built in England and in Ukraine - 15 a week in each place - as the first phase of his partnership with the Russians. Billed as a cross between a BMW and a Mazda Miata, the Sabre has a fiberglass frame, a leather interior and a Ford engine.
Next Shelburg plans to introduce the Ranger, an English-named version of the Russian Kamaz jeep, built at the giant Kamaz auto- and truck-manufacturing plant in Naberezhnyye-Chelny, southeast of Moscow along the Volga River.
But the highlight of the venture for the Arizona entrepreneur is next year's scheduled release of another new sports car, the Shelburg, or SGE 300i, a two-door tribute to the classic Kaiser Fraser Darrin produced in 1952, a forerunner of the Corvette and other sleek sports cars.
