We have all heard of the name Shelby joined up next to another cars name like the Mustang and Cobra to mention a few, and the American car tuning icon Carroll Shelby is the man responsible for that. Mr Shelby was born in Texas 1932, and like many others, he had great ambition to make something superb out of anything he could lay his hands on and well it was cars of course.
He had a short racing car during the 50’s with Maseratti and Aston Martin which actually to hi9m to victory in the 1959, 24 hour of Le Mans. It was in 1962 when he started his own Shelby firm. So he started by importing AC Ace Cobras from England to USA and was then substituting their small 6-cylinder engines with Ford’s V8 monster, giving rise to the Shelby Cobra we all know today.
With Ford backing him up, he was then able to create the Le Mans winning Shelby Daytona which was more aerodynamic then the Cobra and with that he continued to influence Ford with their road cars by producing the GT350 and 500 Mustangs. He went on to give us more of those including the Ford GT and even played a role in the development of the Dodge Viper.
Carroll Lived a long life with a heart and kidney transplant back in the 1990’s until the age of 89 when past away. He lives behind a big family but an even bigger reputation for the Shelby name. We salute you.
JohnV
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