VINELAND, NJ – True Ford enthusiasts well-know what the acronym SAAC stands for – the Shelby American Automobile Club. That’s because SAAC was there from the beginning of Shelby fandom, fostering the enjoyment of owning any of Carrol Shelby’s creations as well as working to preserve their history. The club’s efforts documenting Shelby cars is legendary and, as the precursor to today’s Team Shelby enthusiast organization, SAAC’s event activity is just a year away from reaching the half-century mark. To that end, the Shelby American Automobile Club 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. This year, “SAAC-49” was held at New Jersey Motorsports Park as a joint national convention with Team Shelby.Hundreds of Ford performance enthusiasts were on hand in late July for the yearly Shelby extravaganza, which included three full days of activities for Shelby vehicle owners and fans. On-track, SAAC and Team Shelby offered full Open Track sessions and Parade Laps, enabling participants from all skill levels and with all types of vehicles to participate on the newly repaved 2.25-mile Thunderbolt Raceway. Off-track, organizers planned a Poker Run on Thursday and a visit to the famed Simeone Museum on Friday. Thursday's dinner was hosted by Team Shelby at the Flanders Hotel in Ocean City, while Friday's dinner and Evening Program was hosted by SAAC and held at the Savoy Inn, in Vineland, NJ.Originally started by about a dozen Shelby enthusiasts, SAAC has held a national convention every year since 1976. SAAC explains that 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 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.Our own photojournalist correspondent, SAAC-MCR co-founder and 289 FIA Cobra Replica owner Jeff Burgy, was in attendance at SAAC-49 with his camera to capture some of the Fords he saw among the hundreds of cars that were on display that weekend. He shares some of his favorites in our photo gallery below:

FORD PERFORMANCE PHOTOS / COURTESY JEFF BURGY