Francis Classic Cars wins the “Gold Award” at the 2008 Pismo Beach Classic with their 1968 Shelby G.T 350 Convertible.

Jeff Francis and his father Ben took home the prestigious “Gold Award” at the 2008
Pismo Beach Classic with their beautifully restored 1968 Shelby G.T 350 Convertible.
It’s their second major Pismo Beach Classic win in the last two years as their silver
1967 Shelby G.T 350 Fastback won the overall title in 2006.

The meticulously restored G.T 350 convertible was one of over 1,400 entrants, as the
Pismo Beach Classic is known for their large fields of respected and impressive
restored classics.

As the Francis’ deep blue Shelby glistened in the beautiful Pismo Beach sunlight, the
judges took to their task of evaluating the pride of the Francis stable of classics. After
a few nervous moments, the judging was done and Jeff and his father Ben had been
rewarded with the prestigious “Gold Award”. “Receiving an award such as this makes
all the effort that goes into restoring a car like this worthwhile”, commented Jeff, “to be
given an honor like this by people that know how much time and effort goes into restoring
and maintaining a classic means a lot to us”.

One thing Jeff and Ben are most proud of is the pleasure they get from actually driving
and enjoying their classics. The “Gold Award” winning Shelby G.T 350 Convertible, like
the other classics built and maintained by the Francis’, is not a “trailer queen” or a
“warehouse jockey”. With this in mind, Jeff loaded up his family in the newly crowned convertible and participated in the Saturday night cruise along the Pismo Beach coast
with hundreds of fellow competitors. “That was the best part of the weekend’ said Jeff, ‘spending time with my wife and kids while cruising up and down the beautiful Pismo
coast meant a lot to me”.