The 2023 Shelby GT350 Tour is under way and their first stop: Nashville!
On Oct. 23, around 40 Vintage 1965-1967 Shelby GT350 Mustangs came into Nashville from French Lick. Their vehicles, with two people in each, were parked at the Washington Street parking lot during the day as the guests shopped in town and then proceeded to eat lunch at the Seasons Lodge.
Lee Cross, leader of the tour, said he woke up that morning and saw it was going to be a nice and sunny, crisp day and couldn’t wait to be in Nashville.
“We’re ticking all the boxes here,” said Cross. “It’s warm, it’s sunny, the roads are great, the foliage is just starting to pop, so the timing couldn’t be better. What a great day to be in Nashville, Indiana.”
This is the seventh year the tour has been exploring the country. Cross said the group was originally started by Tom Cotter in 2015 to mark the 50th anniversary of the Shelby GT350. However, Cotter didn’t plan to keep the tour going and Cross thought that would be a mistake.
“I was in the basement bar of the Story Inn in Story, Indiana with Tom, and I told him he needed to do another tour and he said, ‘Lee I can’t do it, but you can do it.”
Cross said in 2017 he started the tour back up and by word of mouth, it continued to grow from 15 cars to the now 50 traveling today. He said people from all over the country come on these tours including some big-name people in the car world.
“We’ve got people like Bernie Kretzschmar, who worked as a mechanic for the original Shelby GT350 R Model race cars, and Tim Cindric who’s the president of Penske Racing,” said Cross.
Chad Parrish came all the way from Australia to be on the trip. Cross said there are also people who ask him where they can land their private jets and people whose only car is a 1966 Shelby they bought used in 1970.
“I say all of that to say this,” said Cross. “When I get this group of people together, you can’t tell anybody from anybody. They’re all the most down-to-earth people.”
“I think we’re all just in one big family,” said Parrish. “There are idiots as far as Australia here.”
Cross said this all started for him in Indiana and he knew wanted to come to Nashville and take route 135 South out of town because it was such a great road.
Chris McAllister, a Hoosier from Indianapolis, helped Cross find all of the roads and decided to join the tour himself.
“Chris said ‘I think I’m going to come on the tour with you as well and you should come up and see my collection in Indy,’” said Cross. “And of course being a lifelong Hoosier, he knew all of the roads.”
“We are having a great time so far,” said McAllister. “The roads have been great, there’s no traffic and it’s warming up. All of these cars here are rare and high-performance models, which has been very successful in racing history. I’m excited for everyone to come see my collection as well.”
Cross said he couldn’t believe the signs Sandie Jones, Nashville Town Manager, put out welcoming the group to town. He said Jones had been so helpful throughout the process and because of people like her, these tours are so successful.
“People like Sandie making me look good is amazing,” said Cross. “All of these people on the tour are loving Nashville, and I didn’t even have to do anything.”
Cross said about 98 percent of people on the tour keep coming back year after year, and while the cars are enjoyable to drive, it’s really just an excuse for a bunch of them to get together.
“They are the nicest people you could meet. I wouldn’t work this hard if they weren’t such wonderful people. They keep coming back, so I figure they must be having a good time.”
