Here's some interesting stuff if you are a
gearhead, regardless of whether or not you like Fords:
http://media.caranddriver.com/files/shelby-cobra-427shelby-cobra-427-roadster-road-test-nov-65.pdf
This is a great one, by everyone's favorite scribe, Peter Egan:
http://www.roadandtrack.com/special-report/remembering-carroll-shelby-1923-2012
http://www.roadandtrack.com/special-report/six-significant-shelbys
In the first picture accompanying this article there is a picture of a FORD cab-over car transporter bearing four Shelby Mustangs on their way to lucky owners. The cab-over is identical to one of the fire engines I used to drive, with a different back-body of course, when I first became a paid firefighter. The entire cab tilts forward after releasing a lever behind the cab to provide access to the engine.
I think R&T recently published the first road test they did of the famous CSX2000, which was allegedly painted different colors early in the Cobra development, so it would look like there were more cars than there actually were.
I found it! Here it is:
http://www.roadandtrack.com/tests/car/1962-shelby-csx2000
http://www.carrollshelbymerchandise.com/shelby_history
Here's a great story, much of-which you have read before if you have gone through the other links, but some absolutely great pictures:
http://www.legendsofriverside.com/images/legend_of_riverside.pdf
The next-to-last picture in the article shows a young John Surtees in the background, still and probably forever, the only World Champion Grand Prix motorcycle roadracer in the largest-displacement class, who was also Formula 1 World Driver's Champion. As a rider for MV Agusta, he won seven world championships before leaving motorcycles and entering F1. A number of years ago, I was at Daytona for the historic bike races and who did I find, literally at my elbow, as we watched the action in the hot pits? John Surtees! He was very gracious, and seemed pleased that I was able to recount to him having watched him race at Watkins Glen NY during his 1964 F1 career racing for Ferrari, the year he won the world driver's championship.
Interestingly, his connection to Shelby lies in-part in having won the 1966 Can-Am championship driving an Eric Broadley-designed Lola T-70 (Chevy-powered!) which supposedly was the basis for the Ford GT 40 (no 'rat' motor, of course!). Shelby ran the GT program for Ford after Henry Ford II was rebuffed by Ferrari himself who had been shopping to sell the company. Incensed, Ford spent tens of millions of $ to defeat Ferrari on the racetracks wherever Ferraris ran. Carrol Shelby helped Ford to do it.
Here is an article on Phil Remington, who worked on the design of the Shelby Cobra Coupe, credit is usually given to Pete Brock as principal designer:
http://www.hemmings.com/mus/stories/2011/06/01/hmn_feature11.html
He works for Dan Gurney at AAR in CA. Not bad for being 90!
The breed of racers from-which Carrol Shelby and John Surtees came, faced death every year. It was common then for one or two racers to die in competition, during each season, it was an expected risk. Thankfully, for the most part, those days have changed. So, let's raise a glass of something strong, and toast Carrol Shelby for all the memorable vehicles he made, the racing memories he gave us whether as a driver, a team manager, or a constructor.
unk:
