Carroll Shelby 1922-2012

[crazy steve]

The man that for many is the face of American high performance died today.

RIP

[natemoen]

That sucks.

[Rasputin]

When I heard that news today it almost brought a tear to my eye. The man was an absolute legend. I owned one of his creations back in the day. The mustang version not the AC Cobra. His influence on that car and motoring in general was huge. I believe we will have a brand new way to travel before anyone can top Carrol Shelby. RIP.

[DGXSER]

A true legend, we lost some brilliance today!! He was a huge influence on alot of my favorite cars. And motor racing would be no where near what it is without him. Sad day indeed!

[Rooster]

yup bad news for sure, my brother and I were just talking about how he extended his life by giving up on his racing career and most all of his other contemporaries have already passed away. My all time favorite story of his life is how ford motors had him fix up they're GT40 Lemans program and then shortly after they won from 1966-69.

[crazy steve]

My all time favorite story of his life is how ford motors had him fix up they're GT40 Lemans program and then shortly after they won from 1966-69.

That was an interesting story, in more ways than one. All that came about because Enzo Ferrari called Henry Ford II a 'peasant' while Ferrari was looking for some additional financing to keep him afloat in the early 60s. Ford and Ferrari were in negotiations for Ford to buy them out, but Enzo kept adding 'conditions' to the sale (one of which was that Ford cut Shelby loose) and Henry told Enzo 'no'. Enzo called HFII the name and it got back to Henry. That was the start of the GT40 program....

Shelby was called in because the Brits that were running the race team couldn't figure out what to do with all the HP the 427 put out; they kept breaking gearboxes. Shelby (and Holman-Moody) were brought in, new transaxles were designed (using toploader/9 inch components), and the rest was history...

Ferrari didn't win another GT championship until the FIA finally lowered the displacement limit to 3 liters.

[GARTHXS]

Rip a real American legend

[fredintoon]

That was an interesting story, in more ways than one. All that came about because Enzo Ferrari called Henry Ford II a 'peasant' while Ferrari was looking for some additional financing to keep him afloat in the early 60s. - - -

Enzo wasn't too pleased with GM neither when they used Ferrari's GTO designation for their Pontiac.
GM issued a multi-page dissertation saying they had a better right to use GTO than Ferrari did because the Pontiac went faster.
Enzo's reply? "When I build a 7 litre car it will go into orbit."

[jjz28]

I hated to hear that too. I am sure he was known to anyone who is an auto enthusiast. I saw it on MSN and i hollered out "Oh no!" MY wife said what wrong and i said "carrol shelby died". She said "who's that and i bout fell out of my chair". I thought EVERYONE had heard of him. I too had one of the cars he was involved with. It was actually a dodge daytona. I didnt have it long. I am a hardcore chevy man when it comes to cars but i think Carol Shelby was the biggest automotive icon ever, then parnelli jones.