INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. – The Shelby American Automobile Club (SAAC) has been holding an annual convention every year since its founding, called simply “SAAC” followed by a number that signifies the numerical order of the show. Because these conventions always involve some very special Shelbys and exposure to a racetrack, they enjoy a strong enthusiast following. But this year at “SAAC-47” there was even more to love at the weekend event – and that was the show was held in conjunction with the Brickyard Vintage Racing Invitational at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. The combination of seeing great Shelbys and performance Fords along with the myriad of historically significant vintage race cars fielded by the Sportscar Vintage Racing Association (SVRA) was a double delight for participants and attendees alike.We offered you a glimpse at the vintage racing going on that weekend in our Quick Look section last week, so this time around, we’ll give you an inside look at SAAC-47, which took place June 16-18, 2022.

Originally started by about a dozen Shelby enthusiasts, SAAC has held a national convention every year since 1976. These are not cookie-cutter events that use the same hotel and same race track every year. Rather, each convention is a little different, and they rotate around the country. A typical SAAC convention – spread over three days and nights – includes a judged concours, a popular-vote car show, open-track driving, a parts swap, a vintage race, evening programs, a sit-down dinner and panels of guest speakers made up of former Shelby team drivers, engineers, designers, fabricators and race mechanics. As many as 3,000 people have attended past conventions, some bringing up to 1,000 cars. Cobras and Shelbys, to be sure, occupy the center stage but all types of Ford-powered performance cars are welcomed: Tigers, Panteras, Boss Mustangs, new Ford GTs, Cobra, Shelby and Ford GT40 replicas, Falcons, Galaxies and Mustangs of every year and description.This year marks 60 years of Shelby American, so it was perhaps only fitting the annual Shelby convention returned to The Cathedral of Motorsports to experience the Brickyard, walk through Gasoline Alley and drive their Shelbys on this historic racetrack. Longtime Shelby enthusiast and SAAC-MCR club founder Jeff Burgy attended SAAC-47 with his camera, and so did Ford Marketing retiree and Mustang aficionado-turned-roving car show photographer Bill Cook. So we asked Jeff and Bill if they’d send us their event photos so that we could share some of them with you. Well, our beloved  Ford Performance photographic correspondents teamed up to provide us with more than 1,000 photos from SAAC-47 alone. Of course, that’s way more than we can share here, but we sifted through all of their amazing photos to offer you this gallery below – enjoy!

FORD PERFORMANCE PHOTOS / COURTESY BILL COOK & JEFF BURGY