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CARROLL SHELBY A Look at the Legend
With the retirement of Lee Iacocca and death of Zora Arkus-Duntov, Carroll Shelby stands alone at the top of the automotive legends' ladder. He can and does make news in a way that no other individual can. He has been recognized for his past accomplishments by being voted in a number of Halls of Fame including the Automotive Hall of Fame where he was the first inductee from the automotive performance industry and he currently sits on its board of directors. They are building a new museum next to the Henry Ford museum in Dearborn, Michigan which is scheduled to open in the fall of 1997. He is introducing the Shelby Series I, a new line of sports cars for the 21st century with roots in the tire-frying '60's. This Oldsmobile Aurora-powered roadster will be in selected Oldsmobile dealers' showrooms later in the year. Also, Shelby American, Inc. will open its new facilities at the showplace Las Vegas International Speedway this year. No, Carroll Shelby is not sitting still or slowing down at age 74; he is at the wheel and blasting his way toward the millennium.

WHAT HAVE YOU DONE FOR ME LATELY?
How about introducing a new Component Cobra, the CSX 4000 series? Trying to count the number of manufacturers who make replica Cobras is about like trying to count cards at a 4-deck Las Vegas blackjack table; after a while you lose count and have to start all over. Shelby has never been one to miss seeing a market niche and decided that this would be a good time for him to clone his own Cobra. After all, who better to make them than the original maker? They are currently being assembled out of his temporary Las Vegas facility and shipped to a dealer network throughout the country. You can expect a quality built fiberglass body car minus the drivetrain for less than $40 grand. He will even finish it for you complete with one of his new 427 aluminum block & heads engines and an aluminum body. Only the depth of your pockets can define your limits.

The new 427 engines come out of Shelby's Gardena, California facility where they will build you a new engine or rebuild your old one. The technological know how born in Venice, California at the Cobra plant ensures that your engine will perform as you dream. Hey, as long as you're building a fast car, you'll need tires for racing. Shelby's got them too. As the Western States Distributor for Goodyear racing tires, just tell them to slap on a set of sticky skins for you.

CHILDREN'S FOUNDATION
The Carroll Shelby Children's Foundation, a tax-deductible fund to help indigent children with heart or kidney problems, was born when Shelby received a heart transplant in 1990 and a kidney transplant in 1996. In his characteristic style, Shelby saw a need to help out those who were in no position to help themselves and he proceeded to fill that need. Originally named the Shelby Heart Fund, the Children's Foundation has become a center piece of Shelby's life. Golf tournaments, autograph signings, cruises, donations and a percentage of the profits of the continuation 427 Cobras have been the primary fund raisers.

THE CHRYSLER YEARS
When his old boss at Ford, Lee Iacocca, took the helm at the Chrysler Corporation, he saw that he needed someone, a swashbuckler, to bolster the image of the Corporation; who better than the 'Ole Pirate from Princeton Drive, Carroll Shelby?

The first efforts were limited to stripes and decals on a Dodge Charger but it grew into a "Skunk Works" factory in Whittier, California where Shelby's buccaneers transformed Dodge Omnis, Chargers, Lancers, Shadows and Dakota pickups into pavement rippers from 1986 to 1989.

Carroll's vision of building one more ultimate performance car was heard at Chrysler and the Viper was developed with Shelby serving as the inspiration. He drove it as the pace car at the Indianapolis 500, the second time he was chosen by Chrysler for that honor. If there were 33 like cars back of him, he would have probably not pulled into the pit lane.

BITTEN BY A DREAM
Shelby always kept a pencil and paper on a night stand next to his bed, in case he had an inspiration during the night, and one morning awakened to find the name "Cobra" written on it. He had always wanted to build his own "sport car" and this would be its name.

Timing is important in life and in automobiles. AC Cars of England had lost their supplier of engines and Ford Motor Company had a brand-new engine with only a Falcon to put it in. Shelby massaged both sides into sending him samples of their product and he married them together. Born was the Cobra. The 260/289-engined Cobra came as the fastest car on the planet and then Shelby's group of tinkerers started to make them even faster. So fast that they won the FIA Manufacturers Grand Touring World Championship in 1965, the only American car company to ever do so.

The 427-engined Cobra was even faster but Shelby's racing team was now racing Ford GT40's in International races. Henry Ford II had determined that he wanted to win the Le Mans 24-hour race for the Ford Motor Company. He usually got his way or there was hell to pay. Shelby American was the right team to hire and they delivered an overall win at Le Mans in 1966 and repeated it in 1967. Mr. Ford then lost interest.

The Shelby Mustangs of 1965 through 1970 were the products of Ford's great success with the Mustangs. The sporty looking sales sensation of 1964« didn't have much of a performance image. Ford decided to get it accepted for sports car racing but failed. They asked Shelby to help them and before you knew it there was a factory at the Los Angeles, California airport pumping out a couple of hundred GT350s a month. Pretty small numbers by Detroit Standards, but it seemed like there were thousands of them because everyone remembered their white paint with blue stripes. A dozen were actively involved in racing and it seemed like about half of the cars in the races were GT350's and they always finished up front. The non-race cars looked just like the race cars so everyone thought that all Shelby Mustangs were race cars. Advertising cannot build images like racing can. Ford sold Mustangs like they were ice cream. Since the early Shelbys were all painted white, you could call them vanilla ice cream but with Jalapeno peppers under the hood.

By 1967 the performance car market in the United States demanded a big engine in a small car and Shelby responded with a GT500, a 428 cubic inch engine in a modified Mustang chassis. The GT350 was enlarged to 302 cubic inches. Later, the factory was moved to Michigan and the engine was made 351 cubic inches and the 428 engines were replaced by a Cobra Jet 428.

By this time Ford Motor Company was competing with itself by supporting Shelby and building Boss 302 and Boss 429 Mustangs in their own plants. The insurance and safety lobbyists were claiming that since the performance cars from all manufacturers were so high powered, they should have high insurance rates. It was time to end the program.

FROM BEER TO CHAMPAGNE TO BEER
Farming and racing seem to go together. After all, name a great racer who grew up in New York City? Maybe it was the attraction to the farm machinery or perhaps the automobile represented a means to get away from long days in the fields. Shelby had been a flight instructor in World War II and had time with machinery. He like it. When his first opportunity came to race, he liked that too and he was successful. It was the dawning of sports car racing after WW II and Shelby was there at the right time. He quickly became well known and was offered rides in wealthy sportsmen's cars and became a household name.

Sports car racing in the United States was strictly an amateur affair and even though he was winning everything in sight, it didn't pay the bills. He was named "Sports Car Driver of the Year" by Sports Illustrated magazine in both 1956 and 1957 and featured on the cover. They paid money for racing in Europe and Shelby headed there to get some of it, eventually landing a ride with John Wyer's factory Aston Martin Team where he and Roy Salvadori won the 24-hours of Le Mans race.

He returned to the U.S. in 1960 and was still winning races when a heart ailment caused him to retire after winning the USAC championship. At 37 years old he was flat busted with no job prospects.

OTHER VENTURES
Shelby's business acumen extends to other companies he has formed through the years. The Original Texas Chili Company started after Carroll invested in hundreds of thousands of acres of land in Terlingua, Texas and couldn't sell it. He and his partners decided to have a chili cook- off and they flew in a plane-load of their friends. Bowls and Buds later the land was sold and so was born the Texas Chili Company and the International Chili Society. The original pack of chili contained an emergency ration of Bromo Seltzer for those who overdid the cayenne pepper!

The Sky Terrace Motel with its Trophy Room and Cobra Snack Bar were a fixture with enthusiasts in South Lake Tahoe, California along with his Ford dealership there in the 1960's and 1970's. Motel postcards and the dealer license plate frames are favorites of collectors.

The Shelby Racing Company, the Shelby Parts Company and Shelby Automotive were three divisions of Shelby American, Inc. in the late 1960's. The Shelby Racing Company fielded teams in the Trans-Am and Can-Am racing series and Shelby Automotive produced the 1968- 1970 Shelby Mustangs. The parts company supplied racing and street parts for the Shelbys, Cobras and Trans-Am Mustangs.

Shelby also conceived the Shelby Spec Racer and built the cars for this popular racing series that featured identical cars that allow the drivers to be the center piece of the races.

BEGINNINGS
Carroll Hall Shelby was born on January 11, 1923. His parents were Warren Shelby, a rural mail carrier in Leesburg, Texas and Eloise Lawrence. They moved to Dallas seven years later where Carroll graduated from high school. He enlisted in the Army Air Corps and served out World War II as a flight instructor and test pilot. In the middle of the war he got married and started raising the first of his three children. At the end of the war he mustered out as a Second Lieutenant.

He went into business running a small fleet of dump trucks and then decided to get into the oil business where he started at the bottom, a roughneck. After a few years he took an aptitude test that showed that he was cut out for raising animals, so he went into the chicken raising business. His second batch of broilers caught Newcastle's disease and they all died ending his animal husbandry career in bankruptcy.

He started his racing days at the drag strip with a 1932 Ford and moved over to sports car racing in a MG TC. He was a winner from the very beginning.

SUMMARY
Carroll Shelby is probably the only person to have worked at a visible level with all three of the American Automobile manufacturers. His charisma, vision and ability to know the best person for the job have made him into a master organizer and team leader able to produce results. His greatest accomplishment as a driver was winning the 24-hours of Le Mans in 1969. The FIA World Grand Touring Championship and his Ford GT wins at Le Mans were his biggest successes as a race team manager. But perhaps his greatest achievement is the establishment of the Carroll Shelby Children's Foundation and its new British arm, the Shelby Transplantation Trust, his best contribution to the future.

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Page Updated Sat Apr 28, 2001 6:14pm EDT