IGX

Carroll Shelby, a Texas chicken farmer turned hot-rodder who went on to build innovative sports cars like the Cobra that challenged Europe’s longtime dominance of road racing, as well as high-performance versions of production cars like the Ford Mustang, died on Thursday in Dallas. He was 89.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/12/sport ... at-89.html

Sad day for American sports car fans. Carrol gave us the most recognized car of all time when he took the AC Ace and crammed a Ford 260, then 289 and 427 under the hood. Gave America it's only world sportscar championship with the Cobra Daytona. And was instrumental in America's only LeMans win with the Ford GT40.

The story goes that Shelby asked Ford how what his budget to win LeMans was, and the replay was "we'll let you know after you've won".

Other good Shelby Quotes:
"Speed is money. How fast do you want to go?"
"I can make it fast, I can make it durable, and I can make it cheap. Pick two."

When I was restoring Triumph sports cars I did business with a place in Atlanta called Atlanta Imported Auto Parts. They were a salvage yard/restoration shop/race prep shop for English sports cars. Saw some truly awesome stuff roll around in there. Lister Jaguars, Allard J2X, E-Type Jag race car. The owner had the E-Type and a 289 Cobra he races in HSR and SVRA. He had a pure race motor in the Cobra because he didn't want to risk the original 289 (which he had pickled in the garage). One of the single loudest automobiles I've ever heard was them tuning that Cobra for a race inside the garage. Whole fucking building was shaking.

I've always wanted a 289 Cobra. Much nicer handling car than the 427 with a big block to weigh down the front end. Now that Carrol is dead I'm sure the price of a real Cobra just doubled.

The who now? Was she the mom from Brady Bunch?

RIP

RIP... father of my favorite car ever.

RIP++