We knew August would be a full month but were surprised how the calendar immediately filled not only into September but October and now November as well. 

August was a series of massive events such as Monterey Week (as we're now calling a week of events that spans far beyond what used to be known as the Monterey Historics), followed by the Corvettes at Carlisle show which had a record attendance well into the thousands (both thousands of Corvettes and people). We were amazed by the successes we were involved in at these shows (described below) and how that continued into the smaller, yet high quality events of September, such as the LA SAAC (Shelby American Auto Club) annual show at the Santa Monica Pier and the prestigious Palos Verdes Rally and Concours. We share the highlights below.

Since our last newsletter my book on the origins of the '63 Corvette Sting Ray has been released so mixed in between the events above were book signings at the historic Auto Books store in Burbank, Pasteiner's AutoZone book store in Detroit and the Las Vegas Corvette Club.  We share pics and links to video below.  Speaking of the new book, we've been thrilled to receive your comments and to see the great reviews readers have been posting on Amazon.com.  Keep sharing your reviews here!

Sometime during all of this, our mascot Kit turned one year old.  Several of you have regularly asked for updates about her and even more of you have seen her in Monterey, LA and Phoenix.  The latest pics are below.

The shop has been looking especially good with three Superformance Brock Coupes currently in residence.  If you "like" our PeterBrockDesigns facebook page here you've seen regular updates/pics of what's been going on back there. We've also been very busy with our Aerovault trailers as you'll read below. 

And we save the best for last: John Morton's book on his years at Shelby American has just been released.  It's Excellent!  Details below.

Randall Richardson puts on a great show of Shelby cars every year.  We enjoyed the day along with Kit. She recently turned one year old and full grown now weighs 15 pounds and is 14" at the shoulder.  She happily greets everyone who visits the BRE shop. She is seen here at the LA SAAC show at the Pier (L to R) on the lap of Douglas Campbell, son of Doug Campbell, owner of Superformance Brock Coupe #088, on the lap of Qi (pronounced Chee) Lord and on the lap of her husband Jason Lord, who brought their '08 GT500 Super Snake ragtop to the show.

I've been very pleased with how well my book on the origins of the '63 Corvette Sting Ray has been received.  We had a great time in Detroit at Pasteiners book store on Woodward Ave (seen here).  I even caught up with a couple of old buddies from when I lived there in the '50s while working at GM.   

The week before we visited Autobooks in Burbank, CA, the west coast equivalent. You can view a video of the visit here. Both stores have great informal get-togethers every Saturday morning.  Jay Leno is a regular and appeared at the signing that day.  I'm seen with him below.

Two of the reviews on Amazon I'm most proud of are by fellow GM Designers that were there when I was.  Here is an excerpt from one by Robert Cumberford: GM Designer in the 1950s and current editorialist for Automobile magazine: 

"Given his distinguished design career, Peter Brock has every right to boast about his accomplishments and his key role in creation of the iconic 1963 Corvette. Instead, with admirable modesty he recounts exactly what happened in the long arduous process of creating the second-generation Corvette, the car that assured the continued existence of America's sports car. He neither embellishes nor understates his own role. As a participant in the struggle to keep Corvette alive even before Peter was hired in to GM Styling, I can state from personal experience that he tells the true story of those times when, with only 700-some cars sold for the entire 1955 model year, corporate bean-counters wanted to kill the Corvette, and only a few people worked quietly and effectively to keep it going. The writing is graceful, unobtrusive and highly informative... We can all be glad that the truth is presented now, by one of the few who lived it."

We couldn't be more proud of John's latest accomplishment, a book on his years at Shelby American.

Morton's successes with the BRE (Brock Racing Enterprises) team from '69-'72 were well chronicled in one of the best motorsports books ever written, Sylvia Wilkinson's "Stainless Steel Carrot", available here and on Amazon. John now takes to pen and paper himself and shares, in entertaining detail, what led to his championship years, specifically, but not exclusively, his years at Shelby American.

John starts at the beginning and leads us from his Midwestern childhood to how he came across the Carroll Shelby School of High Performance Racing at Riverside Raceway in California to fulfilling his dream of driving for team Shelby. Arriving at the school expecting to be taught to drive by Le Mans winning driver Carroll Shelby, Morton was understandably disappointed to find out I would be his instructor. As Morton says today with his traditional dry wit, "I guess I can say that turned out okay".

Any of you that have followed our Aerovault trailers closely know we have struggled with having enough built to satisfy demand. With the popularity of the trailers continuing, and growing, we've decided to take the entire production of the trailers in-house.

We've obtained a second facility (seen here) that will be dedicated to building the trailers, added a foreman and expert welder (Jerry Segal) with more additions to come. We look forward to sharing the details of our newly designed trailers with you over the coming months.