Shelby PT.2

Last week, we explored Carroll Shelby’s legendary racing career. Indeed, he accomplished an incredible array of feats during his time behind the wheel, but it his time under the hood for which he is most famous.

Shelby originally made his name racing Cad-Allard J2s in the 1950s. The race-ready version of the J2 was an Allard chassis and transmission married to a 5.4L Cadillac V8, hence the “Cad” designation. US Allards where actually imported from the UK without engines and then equipped with a variety of V8s from different manufacturers per the buyer’s request. This modular design was the inspiration for the first AC Cobra.

Upon retiring from racing in 1959 due to health complications from a congenital heart defect, Shelby started his own racing school and partnered with the British firm AC Motors to engineer and import the AC Cobra. Although it handled like a true British sports car, the Cobra was actually an AC Ace coupled with a domestic Ford Zephyr V8. Shelby was keen to work with Ford, having had success with early Mercury-powered Allards that did not share the Cad-Allard’s tendency to catch fire.

Shelby had considerable success working with Ford and produced two of the most iconic cars in racing history - the GT40 and the Shelby GT350/GT500.

The GT40 is a legend in its own right. When Henry Ford II, Bruce McLaren, and Chris Amon took the podium at the 1966 24 Hours of Le Mans, the GT40 was the car that got them there. Not only was it the first American car to ever win at Le Mans, GT40s took a 1-2-3 finish in 1966 finished first the next three years consecutively. That historic four-win streak was thanks to the same engineering principles that Shelby had applied with the Cad-Allards. Three different large-displacement Ford V8s (4.2L, 4.7L, and 4.9L with a concept 7.0L never raced) were married with a Shelby chassis that was significantly lighter than the Ferraris that had previously dominated. The “40” designation after the GT (grand touring) was in reference to the overall height of the vehicle. The modern Ford GT is an homage to the classic GT40, and in 2016, the second-gen GT took first place at Le Mans on the 50th anniversary of that first momentous win.

The GT40 might be the most famous Shelby vehicle in racing history, but perhaps the most iconic car in pop culture history is Eleanor, Shelby’s Mustang GT500.

Having cemented his place in automotive history with the Shelby Cobra and GT40, Carroll set out to overhaul a number of different production cars. The 1965 Mustang GT350 was the first iteration, an extremely lightweight Mustang with a two-barrel 4.7L V8.

It wasn’t until 1967 that Shelby crammed the 7.0L V8 from the GT40 concept into a custom Mustang frame. Much of the GT500s success was due in no small part to the use of lightweight fiberglass for the front end, hood, deck lid, side scoops, and quarter panel extensions. The most famous iteration came seven years later in the film Gone in 60 Seconds. Toby Halicki’s character, Maindrian Pace, is tasked with stealing 48 cars in five days, the most challenging of which is a yellow 1973 GT500 codenamed Eleanor (the actual car was a 1971 dressed up as a ‘73).The car ends up being the driving force of most of the movie, with the thieves attempting to steal three different vehicles before finally succeeding with the fourth. The GT500 chase scene is most famous for being 40 minutes long and featuring 93 car crashes, one of which, unfortunately, is the Shelby in question. In 2000, Nicolas Cage starred in a remake of Gone in 60 Seconds, which featured a 1967 fastback as the Eleanor GT500 (the DuPont Peper Gray is my personal favorite Mustang).

In addition to his automotive pursuits, Shelby also started a line of chili spices and kits and an annual chili cook-off in Terlingua, Texas. He finally succumbed to heart failure in 2012 at age 89, which is truly a feat in and of itself given his frequent battles with heart issues, including a heart transplant in 1990. Carroll Shelby will always be remembered as one of, if not the greatest builders in Mustang history, and he truly left his mark on the automotive world.

-Trey Fennell