Carroll Shelby’s Lifeline
Monday, February 13th, 2006
Carrol Shelby has achieved many great accomplishments in his time, most notably the latest Ford Mustang – the Shelby Cobra GT500. He’s generated alot of press lately, and I figured it would be fitting to offer an outline of his life and accomplishments.
Jan. 11, 1923: Carroll Hall Shelby is born in Leesburg, Texas, to Warren Hall Shelby, a rural mail carrier, and Eloise Lawrence Shelby.
November 1941: Shelby begins training at Lackland Air Force Base near San Antonio. On training missions, Carroll corresponds with his fiancee by dropping love letters placed in his flying boots onto her farm.
1949: Carroll goes into the chicken raising business. His first batch of broilers nets a $5,000 profit, but he goes bankrupt when his second group of chickens die of Limberneck disease.
January 1952: Carroll drives in his first race, a quarter-mile drag meet, behind the wheel of a hot rod fitted with a flathead Ford V-8.
May 1952: At Norman, Okla., Carroll drives in his first road race behind the wheel of an MG-TC, taking first place in competition with other MGs. The same day, against hotter competition from Jaguar XK 120s, he wins again.
November 1954: Carroll Shelby enters the Carrera Pan Americana Mexico and T-bones a large rock and flips his Austin-Healey four times. Indians find him and offer him strong drinks to ease the pain of his broken bones, cuts, contusions and a shattered elbow.
March 1955: Shelby continues to race with his arm in a specially made fiberglass cast and his hand taped to the steering wheel.
1956: Sports Illustrated names Shelby sports car driver of the year.
Early 1957: Carroll Shelby Sports Cars opens in Dallas.
March 1957: Sports Illustrated again names Shelby Driver Of The Year.
June 1959: Carroll and Ray Salvadori co-drive an Aston Martin DBR1/300 and win the 24 Hours of LeMans.
Dec. 3-4, 1960: Shelby competes in his last race, the third annual Los Angeles Times-Mirror Grand Prix for sports cars and finishes fifth.
1961: He opens Shelby School of High Performance Driving.
February 1962: The name Cobra comes to Shelby in a dream.
March 1962: Shelby-American begins operations at a shop in Venice, Calif. Shelby creates the original Cobra Roadster.
January 1963: Dave MacDonald and Ken Miles sign to drive Cobras for Shelby-American and place first and second at Riverside, beating the Corvette Stingrays.
June 1964: The Cobras and Shelby-American win Europes biggest race, the 24 Hours of Le Mans.
August 1964: Ford asks Carroll Shelby to develop a high-performance Mustang fastback for street and track.
September 1964: The first 65 Shelby Mustang GT350 race cars and street cars are built.
February 1965: With Shelby handling the racing program, Fords GT-40 wins its first race at Daytona.
October 1965: The brand-new 66 GT350 Shelby fastbacks go on sale.
June 1966: Henry Ford II watches proudly as a trio of GT-40 Mark IIs cross the finish line at Le Mans, 1-2-3.
March 1967: The last 427 Cobra Roadster is built.
August 1969: Shelby begins marketing his famous Chili mix.
October 1969: At Riverside, in the Trans-Am, Shelby fields his last Ford team race car.
December 1969: Shelby Automotive Racing Company closes.
February 1970: Ford ends its long-term racing agreement with Shelby.
October 1982: Shelby contracts with Chrysler to create performance cars based on Dodge products.
1987: Shelby envisions and begins prototype work on a Dodge sports car that later becomes the Viper.
April 1988: Shelby sues Ford for using GT350 for its 84 Anniversary Mustang.
1989: Shelby builds the first Viper chassis prototype.
June 1990: Shelby receives the heart of a 38-year-old gambler from Las Vegas in a long-awaited transplant operation.
May 1991: Less than a year after his transplant, Shelby paces the Indy 500 in a Dodge Viper.
September 1991: Shelby starts the Carroll Shelby Childrens Foundation that funds heart transplants for indigent children.
Oct. 1, 1992: Shelby is elected to the Automotive Hall of Fame in Detroit.
Dec. 30, 1992: Shelby helps introduce the Viper concept coupe at the Los Angeles Auto Show.
July 2002: Ford hires Shelby to join Dream Team of designers for new Ford GT super car.
January, 2004: Ford shows new Shelby Cobra supercar concept at the North American International Auto Show.
March, 2005: A prototype of the Ford Shelby Cobra debuts at the New York Auto Show.
Today: Production version of the 2006 Ford Shelby Cobra GT500 is unveiled at the North American International Auto Show.
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April 1st, 2006 at 10:43 pm
I have 1948 Triumph Harold CConvertable. I am very Poor but Ihave strong ambition. I will not ever get a cabra so I am going to build a generic. Any info you could contribute will help . Car crazy.