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If Mr. Carol Shelby were still alive, he would be 98 years old this year. Maybe you've heard his name or story, maybe you're a fan of Shelby like me... But do you really know him? Today, we share the story of car legend Carroll Hall Shelby.
Early life
1923-1951
Carroll Hall Shelby was born in Leesburg in 1923 to the son of a US.S. A Postal postman, Carroll has a sister named Lula, who is three years younger than him. Carroll Shelby has been fascinated by cars since childhood and can't wait to own one — just turned 15, he learned to drive and learned with his father to fix the family's Ford coupe.
Carroll Shelby and his father's Ford. He liked the car so much that he always borrowed it for a ride and thought it was his own.
A high school graduate, Carroll Shelby joined the Army Air Corps in 1942 and was soon promoted to the rank of lieutenant. During World War II, Carroll was left in the rear to train pilots because of his solid skills, and although he repeatedly asked to go to the front, he did not participate in any actual combat until the end of the war. Carroll says his favorite type is the B-26 bomber because it's faster than a Japanese, German or Italian fighter at the time!
Carroll Shelby flew several bombers during his service, including the B-18, B-25 Mitchells, B-26 Marauders, B-17 Flying Fortresses, and B-29 Super Fortress. *Second from left in the picture below is Carroll Shelby, who served in the army for three years and retired from the army in 1945.
Racing career
1952-1960
After World War II, Carroll tried to do business after retiring from the army, but he was always obsessed with speed. In 1952, he won his first race in an MG-TC car and has since embarked on a career as a driver. Due to his superb car skills, Carroll quickly drove a higher-level Ferrari and Maserati car, winning 12 races in the next two years! In 1954, Carroll accepted an invitation to join the Aston Martin factory team.
Carroll Shelby's first winning car, the MG-TC
The pinnacle of Carroll's career came in 1959, when he won the 24 Hours of Le Mans in an Aston Martin race! In 1960, however, Carroll Shelby abruptly ended her career as a driver due to heart problems.
Carroll's family photo above: daughter Sharon, wife Jeanne, sons Patrick (left) and Michael (right) on the table with trophies won in 1952 and 1953; below, Carroll poses with John Edgar's Ferrari 857S ... In the mid-to-late 1950s, Carroll won all the way from Riverside to Le Mans with his exceptional driving skills, driving top cars such as Ferrari, Maserati and Aston Martin.
The Cobra Era
1961-1964
Although his career as a driver was short, Carroll Shelby drove the best car in the world at the time. However, Ferrari and Maserati cars, while good, are expensive and complex in engine technology – Carroll is only impressed by the speed of those high-end cars, not the Expensive Maintenance Costs of those European treasures (which is not a concern for drivers).
Carroll Shelby driving the first Cobra sports car (CSX2000)
Carroll wondered why there weren't American-made sports cars in the circle. Given this, he plans to cram the American V8 into a European casing, which will give the Balance of European Sports cars and drastically reduce engine costs – if the plan works, the list price will only cost half that of The European model! Inspired by his dreams, he named the sports car the "Cobra" Cobra.
When Carroll Shelby learned that AC Cars, a sports car manufacturer in Bristol, England, had lost its engine supplier, he knew the opportunity had come. Carroll immediately contacted AC Cars and told them what he thought ... The British were happy and offered to let Carroll matchmaking. Carroll, on the other hand, approached Ford Motor Company and said he could build a sports car comparable to Chevrolet Corvette Chevette's! He made a wish to Ford with racing driver ambitions, saying cobra could become the "Ferrari of America" and win a world-class race.
In 1962, Carroll founded Shelby American in California to start building Cobra sports cars – first with Ford 260 engines and later with 289 engines. Soon, Cobra quickly gained the brunt of Corvette in North America and beat Ferrari on July 4, 1965, winning the World Manufacturers' GT Championship. Carroll Shelby made good on her wish.
*Below: In order to beat Ferrari on its own in Europe, Shelby American needed to design a more aerodynamic Cobra car, so peter Brock was asked to design the body. Cobra Coupe debuted on the Daytona International Raceway, hence the name "Daytona Coupe". In the ensuing campaign, cobra Daytona Coupe won the World Manufacturers' GT Championship after defeating Ferrari's unrivalled 250 GTO car.
The Ford era
1965-1973
Ford's Mustang sports car sold well in 1964, but Lee Iacocca, general manager of Ford's division, expressed concern that while the Mustang was selling well, it did not have the image of a performance car and would not fit Ford's overall marketing plan today. To that end, Iacocca called Carroll Shelby and asked him if he could "transform a Mustang into a high-performance sports car."
In 1965, the Shelby Mustang GT350 was born! This is also another masterpiece of Shelby American, and the discussion and boom about gt350 can be described as sweeping the roads and racing tracks of North America. In the Sports Car Club of America's B Production Class category, the GT350 overpowered Corvette Stingray, Jaguar XKE, Sunbeam Tiger, Ferrari and other opponents to win the 1965 national championship, successfully establishing the image of a performance car for Mustang.
Carroll Shelby and Dan Gurney, 12 Hours of Sebring, 1966
The Shelby GT350 was produced between 1965 and 1970, during which time the GT500 model was introduced in 1967 – the car was powered by a 428 cubic-inch engine and produced between 1967 and 1970.
In early 1965, Ford entrusted Carroll Shelby with a nearly struggling Ford GT racing project. In just a few months, Shelby American turned the Ford GT into a championship-winning car, and proved it at Daytona and Sebring. By 1966, the Shelby American Ford GT had reached the other side of the invincible shore - defeating Ferrari with the domineering spirit of the podium and winning the first and second place in the Le Mans Endurance Race! At the same time, Carroll Shelby became the only person to win the Le Mans title as a driver, manufacturer and team manager.
In 1966, the Sports Car Club of America launched a new event called the Trans-American Sedan Championship (Trans-Am series), which gave Mustang the opportunity to show his skills ...
The "retirement" era
1974-1981
Beginning in 1968, Ford and Shelby American had disagreements, the main conflict being in the design of the product. In January 1970, Carroll Shelby announced her retirement from the automotive and racing industries. At the time, Road & Track featured Carroll's career history, particularly in automobile manufacturing, under the title A Legend Says Goodbye.
Despite announcing his "retirement," Carroll never really left the automotive circle. In the 1970s, Carroll expanded its goodyear tire distributor to offer a growing number of racers high-performance tires; he also founded the Shelby Wheel Company in 1971 to produce a wide range of high-spec wheels. Carroll also frequents chili peppers with friends in the ghost town of Tringa, Texas, and co-founded the first World Chili Cooking Championship ... Incidentally, in 1972 Carroll launched the Original Texas Brand Chili Mix (Carroll Shelby Chili) chili sauce, which received a lot of praise from the industry.
Of course, "retirement" did give Carroll enough free time, so he fell in love with African adventures, traveling to Africa for about 9 months a year – aside from cars, which is his favorite pastime. In addition, Carroll has a farm in Texas, where horses and Kobe beef cattle are raised, and it is a garden where Carroll enjoys the world.
It is recommended that you go to see the ford vs Ferrari movie, you should have a deeper understanding of Carroll Shelby.
To be continued...
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