Carroll Shelby

Introduction Hello and I am here to talk about Carroll Shelby.

Carroll Shelby won the Le Mans 24 hour race.

He also made high performance cars.

He co-developed the GT40 with Ford Motor Company.

Carroll Shelby also was an author and published his first

and only book in 1967.

My interest in Carroll Shelby came when I watched a

movie about him and wanted to find more out about

him.

Carroll Shelby was born in 1923 in Leesburg, in East

Texas.

As a youngster he sometimes accompanied his Dad, a

US. Postal worker on his route.

He had one sister, Lula, who was three years younger

than Carroll.

Shelby’s interest in automobiles began at a young age.

He could not wait to own a car and by age 15 he was

driving and caring for his Dad’s two door Ford sedan.

After graduating high school, enlisted in the Army Air

Corps in 1942 like my dad.

He soon earned his wings and was commissioned a

second lieutenant.

It was practice in World War II of the Air Corps to keep

the best pilots in the USA to train others.

Carroll Shelby’s Early Days

1923-1951

Although Shelby requested it, he never went into

combat.

His favourite aircraft was the B-26 bomber because it

was faster in a straight line than any Japanese, German

or Italian fighter planes produced during the war.

This is Carroll Shelby ready for flight.

When World War II ended, Carroll mustered out of

Army Air Corps.

He had many businesses, but Shelby had a real need for

speed.

Winning his first race in 1952 in a MG-TC got his road

racing career on a fast track.

Soon Shelby was driving for Ferrari and Maserati sports

racing cars.

He won 12 races in two years.

Impressed by his driving talents, Shelby was invited to

join Aston Martin factory team in 1954.

The pinnacle of Shelby’s driving career came in 1959

when he won the crown jewel of international sports

His Racing Career

1952-1960

cars racing, the 24 hours of Le Mans, driving an Aston

Martin.

A heart condition caused Shelby to retire from racing in

1960.

During his international racing career Carroll Shelby

drove the fastest and most expensive sports cars of the

day.

Although obviously fast Ferraris, Maserati’s, Aston

Martins and Jaguars were very expensive and featured

very complex engines.

Shelby was impressed by the speed of these sports cars,

but not unreliable engines that required constant

maintenance and repair.

With this idea in mind, he wondered why no one in the

US built a sports car that offered European handling

and balance with an American V-8 engine that could be

easily be serviced at any car dealership or independent

garage.

The Cobra

1961-1964

He began to think to build such a sports car and selling

it for half the price of those from European marques.

During a dream, he came up with a name for his car,

the Cobra.

Carroll Shelby’s idea became reality when he learned

AC Cars in Great Britain lost the engine supplier for

their Bristol sports car.

Shelby contacted AC Cars and told them his idea.

They were enthusiastic and told him to reach back out

when he had an engine manufacturer lined up.

Shelby proposed his sports car to Ford Motor Company,

who liked the idea of offering a sports car that would

go head-to-head with the Chevrolet Corvette.

Carroll, always, the racer explained his ambition to race

Cobras against Corvettes in the US and Ferrari in

Europe.

He wanted to win the World Manufacturers’ GT

Championship that had been sole property of Ferrari

since its inception.

In 1962 Shelby created Shelby American, a new

company to build his car in California.

Equipped with the Ford 260 and later the 289 cubic inch

engines, the Cobra proved to be a success for Ford

dealers and on racetracks worldwide.

These are three of the Cobras that went racing.

The Ford Mustang was a huge sales success when

introduced in 1964.

However, Lee Iacocca, Ford Division General Manager,

was concerned that the Mustang, while selling well,

lacked a performance image and did not fit into the

Ford Division Total Performance marketing program.

To correct image issue, Iacocca called Carroll Shelby

and asked if he could make the Mustang into a sports

car with a winning performance image.

The result was the 1965 Mustang GT350.

This latest Shelby Performance car earned its sports car

and performance image on road race circuits around

America.

Shelby and Ford

1965-1973

Competing in the sports car club of America’s B

production Class against the Corvette Stingray, Jaguar

XKE, Sunbeam Tiger and various Ferrari models, the

new Mustang GT350 dominated the competition,

winning the 1965 B Production National Championship

while building a performance image for the Ford

Mustang.

The Shelby GT350 was produced from 1965-1970, with

the GT500 model added in 1967 after Ford enlarged the

Mustang enough to hold a big-block V-8.

The Shelby GT500, powered by a 428 cubic inch engine,

from 191

In early 1965, Ford handed over a struggling Ford GT40

racing program to Carroll Shelby and his band of hot

rodders.

In just a few short months, Shelby American had

transformed the Ford GT40 from a corporate loser to

instant winner.

Winning both international endurance races at

Daytona and Sebring.

By 1966 Shelby American Ford GT40 program was all

conquering, completely dominating Ferrari at the

famed 24 Hours of Le Mans, the crown jewel of sports

car racing, with a 1-2-3 finish.

Carroll Shelby is the only person to win the 24 Hours of

Le Mans as a driver, and manufacture and as a coach.

The Ford GT40

1965-1967

This is a GT40 from 1966.

When Ford Motor Company assumed production of

Shelby automobiles in 1968, the vehicles moved further

away from sports car Shelby American envisioned.

In January 1970, Carroll Selby retired from the

automobile and racing business.

A feature article in road and track magazine at the time

explained the history of Carroll Shelby’s storied career,

especially the car building segment.

The article was titled, A Legend Says Goodbye.

While Shelby might have retired from the car business,

it was hardly goodbye.

In the early 1970s, Carroll Shelby travelled to Africa for

around nine months every year.

The Retired years

1974-1981

He explored many places and recharge his batteries

after a long decade of racing and building performance

cars.

Carroll was a fan of chili.

In 1967, he was one of the founders of the world’s first

Championship Chili Cook-off held in Terlingua, Texas.

At the 1972 cook off, Shelby launched his Original Texas

Brand Chili Mix to the delight of chili connoisseurs

everywhere.

It was a huge success across the country.

In 1971 Shelby established Shelby Wheel Company in

Gardena, California.

The company manufactured and distributed

aftermarket specially wheels.

After a few years he went back to work with Dodge.

This is Carroll exploring Africa.

From 2005-2012 he worked with Ford on various

mustangs.

On May 10, 2012 he died in hospital.

He revealed this a month before he died.