Shelby: The Early Years

There used to be a monthly feature in the Reader’s Digest called something like “The Most Unforgettable Character I’ve Ever Met.” For me, that’s Carroll Shelby. I guess perhaps I’m prejudiced because we’re dear friends. But here’s a guy—83 years old—with two transplants (heart and kidney). He has a large facility in Gardena, California, that houses his experimental engine laboratory, a shop that makes aluminum heads and blocks for his Cobras, his car collection and the Carroll Shelby Children’s’ Foundation charity. In addition, he has an office in a West Los Angeles high-rise for his licensing operation, a Dodge car dealership in San Fernando and a home near UCLA. In Las Vegas, he has an automobile manufacturing factory, his Goodyear Racing Tire distributorship and another home. Oh yes, he has two ranches in Texas and has just inked a deal with Kraft Foods for a new Shelby chili. (He sold his original chili recipe some years ago.) Whew, surely enough to wear out an energetic thirty-something, much less a venerated senior citizen.

Everyone knows about Shelby and his Cobras, but often overlooked, especially by younger folks, is that during the fifties, Carroll was a leading road-racing pilot. Road & Track called him “America’s best sports car driver.” Had his racing career not been ended due to a poor ticker, he might very well have joined Phil Hill and Mario Andretti as another American World Champion. Certainly, he had the talent.