You need to know a bit about Carroll Shelby to truely appreciate the cars bearing his name. Books have been written about the Shelby story. I am not going to tell the whole story here, but I will give you an overview of Carroll Shelby, his story and his cars. Use the menu of links to access the different pages on this topic.
Also in this section will be links to some resources on the net and a list of books that will provide you much more information. The story of Carroll Shelby is more than just a story about cars. Carroll Shelby was a man for the times. His vision of what an American sports car could be made a tremendous impact on the direction American sports cars took. The Ford Mustang and its competitors were children of Shelby’s.
His influence on racing earned Shelby American and Ford a permanent place in racing history. Shelby American was the first American auto manufacturer to win an international championship. Shelby’s team then took a losing Ford GT 40 and turned it into a winner.
There are numerous books about Carroll Shelby, Shelby American and those years, including several by Shelby, himself. In this section I’ll list all of the books I know about.
If you are a classic Shelby fan, you must join SAAC. The Shelby American Automobile Club (SAAC) is the primary source of information on the Shelby Cars. There are regional clubs across the nation as well. The national SAAC newsletter/magazine will keep you in touch with the national and regional events of the SAAC clubs and is well worth the admission. You can join SAAC by clicking here. Here is a list of the regional SAAC clubs.
Table of Contents
- The Early Carroll Shelby story to the AC Cobra story. – Shelby stuffs a Ford small block 260 cid into an English sports car body and calls it a Cobra. The performance of that car became what legends are made about.
- The Shelby Mustang GT 350 – Part 2 of the story. The beginning of the Shelby Mustangs. Making the Ford Mustang into a performance car.
- The 1967 GT 350 & GT 500 Shelby Mustangs
- The 1968 GT 350, GT 500 & GT 500 KR Mustangs
- The 1969-70 GT 350 & GT 500 Shelby Mustangs
- Shelby American Production Numbers – Full listing of the production numbers for all the Shelby cars from 1962-1970.
- Shelby Racing History – You can’t talk about Shelby cars without appreciating Shelby American’s involvement with all sorts of racing. The racing version of the Cobra was unbeatable. The 1963 Split Window Corvette should have been the biggest splash when it was introduced. The Cobras stole that recognition. This section can’t tell the whole story but it can give you a good idea of how serious Shelby American was about winning races. And they did.
- Shelby Stories and Legends – some short stories from those times
- Carroll Shelby Time Line (From carrollshelby.com)
- Shelby Home Page
- Shelby American.com – in Las Vegas NV. Shelby American lives on. You can actually buy a NEW Shelby Mustang or take you stock one to them for conversion. Lots of cool stuff and cars.
- Carroll Shelby History at Shelby American in Las Vegas