The Amazing Life, and Strange Death, of Carroll Shelby

As you will have read in last month’s Vintage Racecar news, the automotive world lost one of its last remaining titans when Carroll Shelby passed away on May 10.

Shelby’s life was remarkable on at least a dozen different levels. A truly accomplished racecar driver, he won countless races during the sport’s postwar heyday, including the 24 Hours of Le Mans. However, as early as 1959, Shelby was suffering with an extreme heart condition that would ultimately scuttle his active racing career. The fact that Shelby went on to live for another 53 years(!) with a variety of “replacement parts” including a transplanted heart and a kidney is an absolutely stunning feat, all by itself. Yet, during those ensuing 53 years, Shelby redirected his focus to the business of racing and manufacturing sports cars, and we are all familiar with the level of success he enjoyed in that arena.