Carroll Shelby was born in 1923 in Leesburg, Texas. He started driving cars at an early age. By the age of 15, Shelby was driving his dad’s two door Ford sedan. During the WWII, Shelby enlisted in the army, but never saw combat. From 1952 to 1960, Shelby indulged himself with racing. He started his first race with an MG-TC, and was soon driving Ferraris and Maseratis. In a span of two years, he won 12 races. In 1954, Shelby was invited to race for Aston Martin factory team for endurance races. In 1959, Shelby won the 24 hours of Le Mans driving an Aston Martin. He retired from racing due to a heart condition
Shelby Cobra
The Shelby Cobra is as iconic as a car gets. Built by the legendary Carroll Shelby, this starts its creation with an engineless body from AC Cars who recently lost their engine supplier. The story goes as followed.
Throughout his days of racing, he experienced very expensive sport cars with complex engines. He wanted to combine the European handling and balance with an American V8 engine that could be serviced at any car dealership or independent garage. He wanted to sell these cars at half the price of the European luxury cars. His idea became a reality when he learned the AC Cars in Great Britain lost their engine supplier for their Bristol and contacted them. Shelby proposed the idea to Ford Motor Company who loved the idea of car to complete against the Corvette. In 1962, Shelby created Shelby American, a company to build his car in California. The Cobra, their first car became a success at dealership and racetracks. In 1965, the Cobra won the World Manufacturers’ GT Championship as the team defeated Ferrari. Shelby American is the only American vehicle manufacturer to win that championship.
The Shelby Cobra was powered by a Ford 260 engine and later a 289 V8. Future iterations of this car included the Shelby Cobra 427, which was powered by a 7 liter big block from Ford. The car featured a 4-speed manual and was capable of going from 0 to 60 in just over 4 seconds and 0 to 100 in 10.3 seconds.
