Carroll Shelby - One of the Best By: Robert Tate

Carroll Shelby was born on January 11, 1923 in Leesburg, Texas. When Shelby was ten years old his family decided to move to Dallas, Texas. While growing up in Dallas, Shelby participated in his share of street racing. However, World War II soon took him from the driver's seat of a car into an airplane cockpit as a flight instructor. Although Shelby didn’t have his heart set on being a race car driver and designer, he soon gravitated toward the field after a number of other ventures proved unsatisfactory. In 1954, Shelby won his first professional prize of $2,000 for finishing fifth place at Monza. After a four race tour of Europe, Shelby returned to the United States to set records at Bonneville Salt Flats, Utah in an Austin-Healey sports car. During 1957, Shelby won nineteen races straight, won his first National SCCA Championship, and was featured on the cover of Sports Illustrated Magazine as “Driver of the year”.


Throughout his years as a driver, Shelby nurtured the idea of developing an inexpensive American sports car to compete with Europe's best model. By 1966, Carroll Shelby and the GT350 and 427 Cobra were part of the Ford Motor Company's high performance image. The Ford Mustang had total performance in place under the direction of Lee Iacocca. During the 1980s, the Los Angeles County Supervisors recognized Carroll Shelby for his professional accomplishments which earned him the title of “The Auto Industry’s Mr. Excitement” from Lee Iacocca.
Whether it was European rallying or SCCA road/drag racing, Carroll Shelby and the Ford Mustang were a force to be reckoned with. The Ford Cobra and Shelby gained national status among the people within the automotive racing field. In 1982, Shelby became involved with Chrysler as a performance consultant. By 1986, Shelby produced limited editions of Dodge models for the buying public.




Bob Lutz soon approached Carroll Shelby about building a sports car for Dodge, something that would resemble the 427 Cobra model design. Shortly thereafter, the Dodge Viper debuted at the 1989 Detroit Auto Show and was a huge success among the crowd. Tom Gale, Carroll Shelby, Francois Castaing, and Bob Lutz were the masterminds behind the Dodge Viper automobile.




Chrysler tested the Dodge Viper prototypes on proving grounds and city streets of Michigan and Arizona. By June 1991, the interior for the Dodge Viper was production ready and the official run for the Dodge Viper was held at the Indianapolis 500. Today, the Dodge Viper is remembered for its design and power. Carroll Shelby will always be a great leader among racing fans and automotive enthusiast and continues to be one of the best.




A special thanks to Robert Tate, Automotive Historian and Researcher, for donating his story to the MotorCities Story of the Week program. Photographs courtesy of the National Automotive History Collection. Please do not use any photographs without the permission of MotorCities/Robert Tate.

For further information contact Robert Tate at btate@motorcities.org

If you have a story that you would like to donate to be featured as a MotorCities Story of the Week, email Lisa Ambriez at: lambriez@motorcities.org