Shelby American - The Renegades Who Built the Cars, Won the Races, and Lived the Legend

Shelby American: Beyond the Legend : The Renegades Who Built the Cars, Won the Races, and Lived the Legend

Shelby American didn’t last long, but it was a flame that burned incandescently before being extinguished by corporate politics. In less than a decade, it created a legacy that will be revered as long as cars still roar around racetracks. Now, on the sixtieth anniversary of the founding of this iconic company, Shelby American: Beyond the Legend relates how the saga unfolded, as told by the men who were there at the time. For a brief and shining moment at the zenith of the Space Age, Shelby American was the American analog of Ferrari's artisanal factory that produced both iconic sports cars and championship-winning race cars. Carroll Shelby created the company in Southern California in 1962 to build the predatory two-seat roadster fittingly dubbed the Cobra. Originally fitted with a small-block Ford V-8, it spawned an even hairier-chested version powered by a fire-breathing 427. Later still came Shelby-ized versions of the Ford Mustang known as the GT350 and GT500. But street cars were just a means to an end for Shelby. The first Cobras won road-racing championships here in the States. Then, clothed in swoopy bodywork and known as Daytona Coupes, Cobras steamrolled over Ferrari on the world stage to win the GT Manufacturers’ World Championship in 1965. This victory prompted Ford to put Shelby American in charge of the mighty Ford GT40s that swept Le Mans in 1966 and prevailed again in 1967 the apogee of American involvement in international motorsports. Although Shelby was the focal point of the publicity his company generated, Shelby American was staffed by a who’s who of racing legends, from Phil Remington and Ken Miles to Peter Brock and Carroll Smith. And while the shop is often depicted as a menagerie of SoCal hot rodders, it also embraced mechanics and fabricators from Canada, England, Switzerland, Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa. Like the Cobra itself, the company magically came together as a whole that was greater than its constituent parts.