RIP Carrol Shelby
- Thread starter menotyou
- Start date
texan
Well-Known Member
Shelby was born on January 11, 1923, to Warren and Etoise Shelby, farmers in Leesburgh, Texas.
Though many attribute his penchant for speed to a stint as an Air Force pilot in World War II, it actually
seems to have emerged long before. In Rinsey Mills' authorized biography, Shelby recounts how, upon earning h
is license at the age of 14, he was busted for traveling at 80 mph driving to work the next day.
Read more: Carroll Shelby: Cobra Creator and American Racing Legend Dead at 89 - Automobile Magazine
Though many attribute his penchant for speed to a stint as an Air Force pilot in World War II, it actually
seems to have emerged long before. In Rinsey Mills' authorized biography, Shelby recounts how, upon earning h
is license at the age of 14, he was busted for traveling at 80 mph driving to work the next day.
Read more: Carroll Shelby: Cobra Creator and American Racing Legend Dead at 89 - Automobile Magazine
texan
Well-Known Member
In 1956 and '57, Sports Illustrated named Shelby Driver of the Year. Two years later, while co-driving with
Roy Salvadori for the Aston Martin factory team, he won Le Mans. A diagnosis of angina ended his racing career in
1960 (part of a lifelong battle with heart disease), but not before he won the USAC driving championship that year.
By then racing had become his passion, and he kept his hat in the ring, picking up a Goodyear Racing Tires
distributorship and opening a high-performance driving school with Peter Brock as an instructor - which, years
later, would be passed on to ex-Shelby American driver Bob Bondurant, who continues to operate the school to this very day.
Read more: Carroll Shelby: Cobra Creator and American Racing Legend Dead at 89 - Automobile Magazine
Roy Salvadori for the Aston Martin factory team, he won Le Mans. A diagnosis of angina ended his racing career in
1960 (part of a lifelong battle with heart disease), but not before he won the USAC driving championship that year.
By then racing had become his passion, and he kept his hat in the ring, picking up a Goodyear Racing Tires
distributorship and opening a high-performance driving school with Peter Brock as an instructor - which, years
later, would be passed on to ex-Shelby American driver Bob Bondurant, who continues to operate the school to this very day.
Read more: Carroll Shelby: Cobra Creator and American Racing Legend Dead at 89 - Automobile Magazine
texan
Well-Known Member
But Shelby longed to build his own car. His first attempt, which tried to marry an Italian body from Scaglietti with
Chevrolet Corvette running gear, faltered when General Motors management nixed the deal. Several years later, the
planets finally aligned-. In 1961, when AC Cars in England lost Bristol, its engine supplier, Shelby contacted the company
and outlined a plan to use the chassis to build a V-8-powered sports car, which AC approved. Shelby's pal
Dave Evans inside Ford helped him secure a deal to buy small-block V-8s, and he acquired fellow racer
Lance Reventlow's race-car building enterprise, which was falling on hard times. Within a matter of months
Shelby had a chassis, an engine (a 260 cubic-inch Ford V-8), a building to assemble them in, and the engineering
brains behind Reventlow's operation, Phil Remmington.
"Evans carried me into (then Ford president) Lee Iacocca's office in Detroit," Shelby recalled late last
year. "I said I needed $25,000 to build two chassis that I thought could blow the doors off the Corvette.
Iacocca said he'd think about it, but then he told (product engineer/ Mustang father) Don Frey
'Maybe we should give him $25,000 before he bites somebody.'"
Read more: Carroll Shelby: Cobra Creator and American Racing Legend Dead at 89 - Automobile Magazine
Chevrolet Corvette running gear, faltered when General Motors management nixed the deal. Several years later, the
planets finally aligned-. In 1961, when AC Cars in England lost Bristol, its engine supplier, Shelby contacted the company
and outlined a plan to use the chassis to build a V-8-powered sports car, which AC approved. Shelby's pal
Dave Evans inside Ford helped him secure a deal to buy small-block V-8s, and he acquired fellow racer
Lance Reventlow's race-car building enterprise, which was falling on hard times. Within a matter of months
Shelby had a chassis, an engine (a 260 cubic-inch Ford V-8), a building to assemble them in, and the engineering
brains behind Reventlow's operation, Phil Remmington.
"Evans carried me into (then Ford president) Lee Iacocca's office in Detroit," Shelby recalled late last
year. "I said I needed $25,000 to build two chassis that I thought could blow the doors off the Corvette.
Iacocca said he'd think about it, but then he told (product engineer/ Mustang father) Don Frey
'Maybe we should give him $25,000 before he bites somebody.'"
Read more: Carroll Shelby: Cobra Creator and American Racing Legend Dead at 89 - Automobile Magazine
menotyou
bella amicizia
The things I could do driving that car, in that car, on that car................... God, I love those cars.
texan
Well-Known Member
One of the greatest thing in my life was winning the (FIA) World Championship in 1965," Shelby said last year, "but I got a lot
of satisfaction from winning at Le Mans [with the GT40]. Winning it in 1966 and 1967 as a builder, after winning Le Mans as a
driver in 1959, may be the biggest thing in my life, as far as I'm concerned."
Read more: Carroll Shelby: Cobra Creator and American Racing Legend Dead at 89 - Automobile Magazine
of satisfaction from winning at Le Mans [with the GT40]. Winning it in 1966 and 1967 as a builder, after winning Le Mans as a
driver in 1959, may be the biggest thing in my life, as far as I'm concerned."
Read more: Carroll Shelby: Cobra Creator and American Racing Legend Dead at 89 - Automobile Magazine
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