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U S car legend Carroll Shelby is dead as The Snake

Dearborn (USA), 14 May 2012
The automotive world is mourning one of its biggest names: Carroll Shelby has died at the age of 89. Shelby became famous through powerful sports cars like the AC Cobra and the eponymous versions of the Ford Mustang.


Late Appeals
In the second world war with the U.S. Air Force as a pilot work, Shelby was relatively late to the motor sport. In 1952 he came with a Ford V8 Hot Rod for the first time in quarter-mile race. Just two years later he undertook the then sporting director of Aston Martin, John Wyer, as co-pilot in a DB3 at Sebring for the race. Within a few months, the Texas chicken farmer Shelby was in a league with the likes of Juan Manuel Fangio, Phil Hill. Shelbys biggest success was the victory as a driver in the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 1959 driving an Aston Martin DBR1.

The cobra bites to
In 1962, work began on the later legendary "Cobra", a type AC Ace roadster with Ford V8 under the hood. Already in early 1963 drove the first light Cobra race wins against the then dominant Chevrolet Corvette. Until 1966, the Roadster were built since 1995 Shelby again made copies of the open queue. Highlight the development of 1965 was the Cobra 427 with seven-liter V8, 425 hp and 641 Nm of maximum torque. That same year, Ford hired Carroll Shelby to the experts for the GT40 program. With the cars they wanted to offer on the Ferrari stand up to long distance, but at their first Le Mans race in 1964 fell from all the cars. Shelby was mounted in a more reliable with seven-liter V8. The result: The GT40 dominated until the late 1960s, the circuits in the world.


King of the Road
Shelby finally became a legend by the revamped models of the Ford Mustang from him. Already in August 1964, the producers had approached Shelby, just a month later was the first Mustang GT350 with 310 hp completed. In the following years increased the payments to continue: In the GT500 came as the culmination of the GT500KR, with KR for "King of the Road" was. 1970 ended for the time being, the cooperation of Shelby and Ford

Comeback in the 2000s
As recently as 2001 Shelby was brought back on board to work as a consultant to study the GT40 concept is. That vehicle was the Ford GT built in small series. 2004 Ford Shelby Cobra studies showed the concept and GR-1 concept might look like a modern Cobra. In 2007, the Shelby GT500 Mustang rolled onto the base to the dealers. The last project that Carroll Shelby was involved in his lifetime, began in 2011: the current GT500 with 671 horsepower under the hood and a maximum torque of 856 Newton meters. Also this vehicle according to the philosophy of Carroll Shelby, "Horsepower sell cars, torque wins races."