August 11, 2008
By now, many of you have heard of Jerry Heasley. Jerry is one of the most famous writers and photographers of special automobiles of modern times. He has worked with vehicles such as Shelby’s, Corvettes, Orbitrons and many other. Look below to read more about him and some of his work in my blog. He has traveled the world taking some of the most famous pictures of some really famous cars and people. Also take a look at his site – www.jerryheasley.com.
Jerry is also a great guy. I got to hang out with him at the 85th CSBB. He and one of the Bull Run camera crew even joined me on the second leg into Vegas in my Tasca Shelby. As a freelance writer, Jerry travels to the locations, often at his own expense, working each photo shoot and story as a work of art. He takes pride in being able to tell real-world stories about people and their cars. He also really enjoys putting people’s cars in the magazines and seeing how appreciative they are in seeing their car in those magazines. He even wrote a paragraph about me (from riding with me in the Bull Run) in Mustang Monthly this past June. I was thrilled.
As you’ll see below, he has written some great books such Mustang Weekend Projects, Mustang Chronicles, Corvette Masterpieces and many more. I own a signed copy of the Corvette Masterpieces and it’s an awesome book. He has written many of the stories and taken most pics in magazines such as Mustang Monthly and Modified Mustangs, among other. Jerry even wrote most stories and took most pics for the Shelby magazine last year and is currently working on another one right now.
Well I’d like to let you all know that Jerry has written another long awaited amazing hard covered book called SHELBY MASTERPIECES (edit – his publisher made him change the title to “Mustang Masterpieces” in order to attract more people). Here is the cover. Naturally, as you see, it’s of the 2008 GT500 KR in my favorite color choices for the KR the silver with blue stripes.
These books will be available for sale September 16th. The first 289 books will be signed by Mr. Carroll Shelby and Jerry and will come with a numbered plaque (and I think a certificate of authentication for the Shelby signature). Don’t bother asking for book number 38 because I’ve already preordered it.
The price of these books is not yet set, but I would assume that if the Shelby signature is $150 and then add the cost of writing, making, shipping and so forth, I am guessing it will be at least $249. I will have no problem paying for a special edition book like this in that price range. I think the first book may go for auction at BJ this January. I’m sure it will move to a pretty high price increasing the value of all the other 288 books. In fact, I may try to order book number 289 too.
I am confident that they will go really fast. The non-signed, non-numbered books will go for sale on some of the major store sites such as Amazon, Barnes and Borders sometime in a few months.
So if you’re interested in ordering one, email Jerry at jerry@jerryheasley.com. If you email Jerry, still comment here as it would be interesting seeing how many pre-orders we can get for him.
July 4, 2008
So my 5 year old son AJ, Adam Jr, asked me about a week ago to work with him on a project. I am a very handy person. I have built lots of things including a workshop that looks like a cottage, back massage machine, finished basements, ornate furniture and many other.
So out to the workshop we went. On the way, I ask him what he had in mind. He said, he wanted to build a Shelby out of wood. So together we drew a Shelby on a board and cut it out on the jigsaw. Next, we cut 
another larger backing board which he proceeded to paint all white. Next he painted some trees, a road, sky, clouds, sun, grass and flowers. Then he painted the Shelby black and I painted some of the silver lines. He did the rookie stripes and a few other items and then glued the Shelby to the backing board.
Here is the final product. His mother and I are very proud of him. It is on his bedroom wall. Now he wants to make more so he can sell them at a yard sale. Already the businessman.
See some of the very nice comments he received on the TeamShelby forum.
July 3, 2008
I want to congratulate my friend Roger or his car making it as the “Shelby of the Month” on the ShelbyForums website. Here is the direct link to his car (it’s on the main page as well):
Here is the link.
When someone is looking for something, he is quick with an answer. When people ask questions, they often single him out for advice. Just about every time I speak with him, I hear stories about some Shelby enthusiast or friend that he is helping or simply sharing tales with. As for me, we often laugh our butts off over some of the silliest of things, but I too learn a lot from him. And, I know personally that his family life is awesome but I don’t want to get into that here.
Every time I turn around he is doing some sort of research for someone. He is always working on some upgrade or mod such as rear seat delete packages, roll bars, suspension upgrades, steering wheels, upholstery, and he has many other items up his sleeve that we will all hear about someday soon. Roger is the Shelby Go-To-Guy (SGTG).
I am sure many who attended the CSBB can recall Roger spending lots of time helping remove air bag covers so they could be signed by Mr. Shelby. He did this all while in the Vegas heat a short time after he was hospitalized – while he could/should have been resting and relaxing. Unknowingly, I had asked him to do something for me in between all this and he seemed all calm and collected; yet later I realized he was hurting.
Roger is an awesome person and I am proud to call him my friend. I know he has many more friends on this forum. He is always quick to wish people a Happy Birthday, he always asks how the family or kids are doing, and always seems to have an interest in or know how someone is doing on a personal note. I admire that and wish I could be better at that myself. BTW, AJ said hello and thank you.
Congrats again Roger. You are a great friend and person and you have the best Shelby out there – this month LOL.
I also posted this on the Team Shelby Forum. Take a look at all the other wonderful comments others have added. Also, here is a link to Roger’s Blog to read more about his story, it’s awesome.
Anyone looking for a blue 2008 Shelby GT? Pop over to this link below and take a look at Skip’s car, it’s a beauty. Unfortunately he is in a situation where he needs to sell it so get in touch with him through that forum. Or, if you wish, email me and I will get you his info.
http://www.teamshelby.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=30024
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February 23, 2008
I’d like to take a moment to talk about the great and admirable Jerry Heasley (www.jerryheasley.com).
As mentioned in this blog under the 85th Carroll Shelby Birthday Bash, I met Jerry at a breakfast shop in Los Angeles on the morning of Mr. Shelby’s birthday party – January, 11th of this year. Jerry was introduced to all of us that morning as he was going to be taking pictures and writing about the whole event. Eager to meet him, I introduced myself and briefly told him about my Tasca Shelby story not knowing that he was intimately familiar with Tasca and the Cobra Jet engine (since he wrote many stories about it). He expressed his interest in riding with me during the Bull Run and I was beside myself with excitement.
As we rode together, I was a bit nervous and awestruck as he is basically like a celebrity to me and here he was riding in my car listening to me try to get my story out – stumbling looking for words – all while trying to race Patrick 
Dempsey and others during the Bull Run. Later that week, I got to spend more time with Jerry hanging with him at night during one of the social events, while taking pictures of my car, and at the Barrett Jackson auction.
During that week, I was absolutely amazed by how hard Jerry worked. Here he was, taking pictures and writing stories at all hours of the day and night while putting many miles on the car in between. He rode with us during the 5-hour Bull Run from LA to LV and filmed (took pictures) the whole thing. He filmed the Shelby birthday party and all 
activities around that, filmed us racing, filmed Carroll while signing cars and parts, drove from LV to Scottsdale (another 5 hours) and filmed all of the Barrett Jackson event. All of this took place in a week’s time and he was in his hotel room writing these stories in between. He’s amazing.
In addition to his hard work, Jerry and I had some laughs as we talked about how I enjoyed taking pictures of him while he was taking pictures of cars. While out taking these pictures of my car, I even snapped a picture of his rental. It was funny. It can be found in my photobucket site if you want to see more.
Jerry has been writing about and taking amazing pictures of some fabulous cars for nearly 30 years – especially Shelby related. He has written countless stories about all sorts of cars from Corvettes and Camaros to Mustangs and Shelby’s. He has writtten many other car related books such as “Mustang Weekend Projects 1 & 2” and “How to Paint a Mustang.” I’ll list a bunch of them at the bottom of this blog. Some of Jerry’s other genious work is with magazines ranging from Corvette Fever to Mustang Monthly and many other popular ones in between. He also wrote most of and took most of the pictures for the new Shelby magazine shown here.
In a recent issue of Mustang Monthly, Editor Donald Farr mentioned that Jerry has been an editor of that magazine since 1981 (Feb 2008, page 6). In the same Mustang Monthly issue, he wrote a great story about the recently re-announced (after 40 years) Shelby Terlingua. Not only are the pictures amazing, but the story about the cars and program makes us all wish we owned a Terlingua and were part of the old and new race team. He even interviewed Carroll and, although Jerry already knew the story, he was able to get Carroll to tell some more of the story again. It was awesome.
I had the honor of purchasing one of Jerry’s books called Corvette Masterpieces. I even was lucky enough to have purchased one of his limited editions #268 of 283 and he personally signed it to me saying “Corvettes are cars too.” I thought that was funny. Although my passion is for Shelby’s, I love lots of cars, including Corvettes. The book is amazing and I absolutely recommend it to any car enthusiast – even Ford guys. It is filled with awesome history of the Corvette and great stories about real-people’s cars and their passions. The pictures are incredible. Many of them are so close and clear you think you could just jump in the car and drive it away. I eagerly look forward to his next book like this one. He told me what it will be but I’m not sure if I can say just yet. Needless to say, I hope to get one of the first ones.
I would highly recommend to anyone reading this to click on either of these links to Google.com and Amazon.com to find more about Jerry and his work. If you wish to purchase one of Jerry’s remaining Corvette Masterpieces limited editions, email him directly at cobra2549@aol.com. Tell him you read about it here as I would love to help him move those books. He’s a great guy.
Here are more books from Jerry:
1: Mustang 1964-1/2 – 1978 Buyer’s Guide
2: Mustang Special Editions: Hot, Rare & Collectible
4: Mustang Weekend Projects 1964-1967
5: Mustang Weekend Projects 2: Maintenance and Repair How-Tos for 1968 to 1970 Mustangs
7: Mustang Car-a-Day 2009 Calendar w/toy (hmmm, that scenery on the cover looks familiar)
9: The Best of Mustang Monthly Magazine (Highlights of 1981: GT, Shelby, Boss ,64 1/4 Mach 1 Cobra Jet)
There are many more books and magazines to be found written by this great and hard-working man. I’d engourage everyone to go and purchase some of his work, they truly are masterpieces. While writing this, I went ahead and ordered a few more of his books too.
Below are a couple more pics of Jerry at work snapping pictures of my car and guitar being signed by Mr. Shelby as well as a Cobra owner’s car.
Jerry, if you should happen to ever read this blog, it has been an absolute pleasure to have met and gotten to know you. You are a wonderful person, your work is amazing and your contribution to the Shelby and automobile world has been a blessing. Thank you.
Tasca Shelby GT/TR 
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