The death of legendary Carroll Shelby reminds all of us that raced Baja, and every form of motorsports, what a great impact this man had on
performance and speed.
My favorite Shelby story....
The late Western NASCAR champion, Jack McCoy (who in his latter years race both the 500 and the 1000 with me) attended a special racing party a few
years back. His wife Peggy, one of the all time crusty racing wives, bent over a low level c-cktail table to pick up a drink. An older gent, sitting
in an easy chair, next to the table, reached out and ran his hand up under her dress, all the way around, actually.
Peg, as only Peg could do, slowly stood up, turned to face the dude and said, "Excuse me, do I know you."
And with a big grin he replied, "You do now, I'm Carroll Shelby"
One of a kind, the racing world will miss him.Bob H - 5-12-2012 at 12:06 PM
RIP Carroll... he was 89. Long life and a good man, for sure.David K - 5-12-2012 at 12:08 PM
I know you were a fan, Bob... I remember a certain family pet who was honored with his name!Bob H - 5-12-2012 at 12:37 PM
Quote:
Originally posted by David K
I know you were a fan, Bob... I remember a certain family pet who was honored with his name!
Yes, fond memories of "Shelby, the wonder dog!"
Thanks for remembering her David. She is still sorely missed to this day.
Cypress - 5-12-2012 at 12:41 PM
RIP!Skeet/Loreto - 5-12-2012 at 01:19 PM
Thanks to Carroll Shelby:
Short story in his Honor:
Heard about a "Mustang for Sale in San Jose from a couple of my customers in Chowchilla, called the Lady and she said yes she had a "Mustang" and and
wanted $1800 for It so my son and I drove over and opened the garage door and their sat a 1868 Shelby GT500 with a 428 Super Corbra Jet Engine. Dorove
back to Los Banos and had a friend go through it, took down to Riverside Speedway one Week end and got to get on the Track for a few Circles.
Fastest Car in Los Banos for 3 years then sold it to a Farmer for $10,000 he sold it a couple of years later for $15,000 then the guy found an
Aircleaner which is was missing and sold it for $53,00 at the Auction now it has a price list of $143,000.Skeet/Loreto - 5-12-2012 at 01:22 PM
It was a GT500 KR{King of the Road } Model. and had a Calif. Plate Number GT500chuckie - 5-12-2012 at 01:38 PM
A "one of a kind" guy! We'll miss him.....LaPazGringo - 5-12-2012 at 01:39 PM
Just read a good write-up on him here. There just haven't been many guys like him in automotive history and there certainly aren't now. Who can argue that he was in the very
middle of the Golden Age of automotive performance history?Skeet/Loreto - 5-12-2012 at 02:21 PM
In the early 70's I was in Los Banos several times eating sat a local Cafe. one or two Car Carriers would stop in loaded with Mustangs from the Fod
Plant in Fremon, They were headed to Riverside to the Shelby Plant to be converted to Shelbys...
He knew how to make Cars go Fast!!!acadist - 5-12-2012 at 03:25 PM
Great chili mix too! RIP CarrollDavidE - 5-12-2012 at 04:24 PM
I remember the date October 7, 1969. Carroll Shelby's garage. He, Ak Miller (Part of the Over The Hill Gang) and I standing over my Sunbeam Tiger.
"&@#$%&!! Autolite inline carburetors! Get 'em the #@$%^& off there. Go call a @#$%^&! cab, this @#$&^%!! ain't goin' anywhere
until these DCOE Webers get new venturis".
Look at this &*^%$#%!! autolite inline manifold! Those @#$*&^%#!! ought to be shot! Wait till we get these Webers dialed in and this little
&^@#$^%!! is going to haul @#$%^@!!
Result? Street driven motor vehicle. Fremont Raceway when it was AHRA. 10.556 elapsed time 134.006 mph. Two foot high trophy. New B Modified Sports
Production World's Record.
Thanks thebajarunner. tho I have tears running down my cheeks. Freakin' memories, anyway.
Shelby GT350H
skippermike - 5-12-2012 at 05:10 PM
Wow - This brings back old memories, however fuzzy!
Back in the late 60's (I think) Hertz bought a bunch of GT350s, I think all gold with black racing stripes, badged them GT350H, and rented them out.
People found they could be competive in SCCA B production (I think - maybe A). People bought varying amounts of race gear (wheels & tires,
exhaust systems, etc.), rented a car, prepped them, then raced them for a weekend, put them back to stock and returned them to Hertz. Eventually
Hertz caught on, and that program was over.
I remember running 135+/- in one of these cars - rough, loud, very primative!! I haven't seen one of these for years. Saw one in a Barrett-Jackson
auction a while ago for big bucks.
Going fast in one of them got your juices going way more than the same speed in a Mercedes, or going 100 in a chase truck!!DavidE - 5-12-2012 at 05:25 PM
Yeah, I saw Jesus (the church figure) when my attempt at designing a front end spoiler failed at Sears Point raceway at 202 mph. Front end got way
light, don't know exactly how close I came to eating dirt but it put the cure to me. Forever.Marc - 5-12-2012 at 06:15 PM
I looked at a Cobra in 1968 and thought $7,500 was way to much.
dog
captkw - 5-12-2012 at 06:40 PM
What a " muy linda perro"..struck me in the heart..K&Tbufeo - 5-12-2012 at 07:17 PM
Raced ACs in the late '50s prior to the Shelby improvements; also owned a Cobra (the 289 version). CS was iconic. The passing of an era.
Allen RDavidE - 5-12-2012 at 07:22 PM
Bufeo, have you ever seen or know about cobras with a SOHC 427? I saw a white one near Clearlake Highlands in 1970. I was (and am) still astonished.Bob H - 5-12-2012 at 08:38 PM
Quote:
Originally posted by captkw
What a " muy linda perro"..struck me in the heart..K&T
Wow, thank you so very much. She was a sweetie, for sure! We miss her sweet brown eyes!BajaBlanca - 5-12-2012 at 08:45 PM
boy, sounds like a real character...RIPDavidE - 5-13-2012 at 10:12 AM
Paula,
Por Favor, put away that huge paint brush and treat each reply separately, if you would...
I know nothing of his social conduct except his dealings with myself. He was indeed a "larger than life" character, in many, many respects. To some
folks myself included "some" of his behavior (reports I read about) was unacceptable.
But in many respects he was a genius. A cranky genius. Eccentric, abrasive, a competitor par excelánce.
And he did not bullchit when talking face to face about what he could and could not do. He could set up Weber carburetors like no other person on the
face of the planet. He bragged that he could and would. And then he backed it up. One hundred and ten freakin' percent.
As I really get serious about turning into a old fart. I am far less tolerant of people who B.S. their way through life. In tourist Mexico I have met
more Vietnam era helicopter door gunners (who could not somehow remember how to disassemble and reassemble a 7.62mm M60), retired CIA spooks, CEO's of
various corporations, and retired astronauts). Around the year 2003, in Puerto Vallarta, I happened to screw up and merely mention that I had lived in
Tecate, California for several years. One loudmouth at the table who had happened to be telling the most outrageous of tales, cried forth "That's
impossible. I'm calling you on this! I've been through Tecate, and there's nothing there!". I excused myself and walked away from the table.
Shelby may have had his negative points but the sonofab-tch performed and backed up what he said.
Yeah, it's a guy thing.bufeo - 5-13-2012 at 01:13 PM
Quote:
Originally posted by DavidE
Bufeo, have you ever seen or know about cobras with a SOHC 427? I saw a white one near Clearlake Highlands in 1970. I was (and am) still astonished.
Yes, those motors were absolute brutes. Talk about muscle-car in that AC! Wow! One, two, three in the 1966 Le Mans 24 Hr. in the GT40s prepped by
Shelby (although I think Holman-Moody did the third-place car) and they were a joy to listen to down the Mulsanne Straight. The fourth-place (Porsche)
was several laps down.
Having that happen would be analagous to having the Dakar Minis come over and sweep the podium in the Baja Mil. (Doubt that's going to happen though.
)
During the time I owned the 289 I had a reason to call Shelby-American with a question. This was prior to the move to Nevada. A person answered the
phone; I explained my need; she said, "Just a moment."
There was silence (maybe Musac, I don't remember that part because...) then a voice came on, "This is Carroll."
I was stunned into stuttering, "Well, you see, I've got this 289...Is this really Carroll Shelby"?
Anyway, there's lots more to that story. Won't bore you with it here.
I loved the 289. It was as quick and nimble as a polo pony but I don't think it held a candle to the 427s or the street-version 428s.
Allen RDavidE - 5-13-2012 at 01:35 PM
I have never had the heart to relate this story to anyone:
In 1966, the Ford dealership in Concord, CA. had a parts manager by the name of Simpson. Earl Jones Ford, and Rett White Ford in Walnut Creek turned
out to be sponsors in my brief career as an AHRA drag racer.
I purchased a new cosmoline coated Paxton supercharger, complete 312 cylinder head set, camshaft, and pistons for the 312 engine for the sum of
ninety-nine dollars cash. All for the 1957 Thunderbird.
In 19970, my landlord a young man himself, had visibly drooled over these parts stacked in my garage. One day after returning from visiting my folks
at Lake Tahoe, I found everything gone. The only entrance to the garage was through the house or opening the garage door. Of course the landlord had a
copy of the house keys for security purposes. He denied everything. My house door had a Schlage industrial 6-pin tumbler dead bolt and the garage door
had eighth inch stainless sister plating around the American Lock manganese steel padlock. The windows in the whole house had oak one-by-ones jammed
into the slider railings.
Such I guess is my fortune or lack of it...
And all on a borrowed heart
thebajarunner - 5-13-2012 at 02:39 PM
He got a heart transplant in 1990
Made 22 years on the swap.
Sort of like dropping a 427 into the slot where a 305 had been.bufeo - 5-13-2012 at 03:31 PM
Quote:
Originally posted by thebajarunner
He got a heart transplant in 1990
Made 22 years on the swap.
Sort of like dropping a 427 into the slot where a 305 had been.
That would have been really "Boss"!
Allen RMexray - 5-14-2012 at 09:18 PM
The passing of a special guy from a by-gone era - when there was no substitution for Cubic Inches when it came to building a hot rod...
We bought a 'new' Lime Green 1968 GT500KR, rag-top Shelby Mustang from the SF Auto Auction in early 1969 - the car was a Ford District car, and never
been licensed, 1,700 miles on the 'clock' - Price, $3000...
We had a ball with that car, even put a portable hitch and towed a small pop-up trailer for a wild vacation - nobody passed us on the road that trip!
Our KR had a specially valved automatic, and you could punch it going 50, it would down shift clear down to 'low' if you weren't careful for ONE WILD
RIDE!...got it sideways more than once, just screwing around...
One New Years, we decided to go up to Tahoe for a long weekend, and decided to stay at Shelby's Motel in Stateline (he owned the Ford Dealer there at
that time)...
Our luck was holding, and Shelby was in town for some skiing/business. We met him during a lull, I suppose, as he spent about an hour with my wife
& me, telling tales he'd probably told to others a 1000 times, but with that Texas speak like we were old buddies....
He put up with us dragging him out to the parking lot to take a couple of pictures standing in front of our GT500KR - wish I'd had the forethought to
have him sign inside the hood or something...He told me that the 428 was the best motor they'd ever put in the Mustangs...
He had been out of the Shelby Mustang business by the time the 68's came out - he said he'd sold it back to Ford...He was spending most of his time
down on this 'little' (mega acreage) ranch in Texas when we met him...
His motel was all decked out in the small lobby area with lots of his old racing pictures, as well as some Cobra stuff - it was a great, cozy place
with only about a dozen rooms - probably his way of having a Tahoe place to stay that might have returned a few bucks as well!
A great guy that will be missed by many in his racing circles...
I still buy his Shelby Chili seasoning for my home made chili - made my last batch just last Thursday - Karma, perhaps...
RIP old friend...Sure wish we hadn't sold the GT500KR back in 1976!!!!!!!
[Edited on 5-15-2012 by Mexray]
acadist - 5-15-2012 at 05:03 AM
What a cool bunch of stories! The Cobra always was and always will be my dream car, just the damn powerball won't cooperate. RIP Carroll
)