I have lived in Gunbarrel, which is a part of Boulder about 5 miles northeast of downtown, for 13 of the last 17 years and I have never followed the signs to the Shelby Car Museum, what a mistake. The official name of the museum is the Shelby American Collection and what you can find there is a very impressive collection of vintage race cars designed by Carroll Shelby.
The collection includes Cobra’s, Ford GT’s, Ford Mustangs, street Cobra’s, a Ferrari and a few other surprises. The collection is housed in a warehouse type building tucked away in an inauspicious location near a plumbing company, a school and a construction company.
The museum is only open on Saturday’s 10-4 and it costs $5 per person. Kids 12 and under are free. In addition to the cars, there is an impressive collection of period signs, engines, tools, tires, and photos. Each car has a placard which shows the owner and history of the car including race results. The Shelby Racing team had 55 worldwide wins, the cars in the collection in Boulder represent 22 of those wins.
I’m not a gear head but I really enjoyed my visit to the museum. My two sons really liked it as well. They especially liked looking at the display cases with car models and vintage printed materials and sitting in the mini sized Cobra go-cart. They also saw and chose music on a vintage Wurlitzer jukebox.
For more information and a map visit http://www.shelbyamericancollection.org/index.html
The Shelby American Collection is a great place to visit, I’d recommend it. Stay tuned for more things to do in and around Boulder.
