I am not so sure he will be remembered for the 1/4 mile. He made his name on the road course I believe. Anyway a great man who built great cars. RIP
At least we enjoyed him for a good long run. RIP
Aw, man ... too bad. RIP and thanks for the great rides!!
My gnome @ Ford heard last year that they took Ol-Shel for a sedate drive of a Shelby on their Dearborn Test Track while Parnelli Jones 70-ish went out and flogged a Boss 302 like he was a young man. That may have been the hint his health was not well...
I always thought of Shelby as kind of the Chuck Yeager of the road. Beating Ferrari at their own game was once as seemingly an insurmountable feat as breaking the sound barrier.
Mr. Shelby, you ran a good race. Somewhere, a checkered flag is waving as you cross the final finish line. Godspeed, sir.....
The last of a total of 90 J2 Allards built, J2179 was ordered on August 15, 1951 with special instructions for Black paint, Red leather upholstery and a “bulge in the bonnet to take Cadillac.” It was then shipped to Texas and fitted with a 331 cubic-inch Cadillac V-8, after which it was purchased by its original owner Charles Brown of Monroe, Louisiana. Records show that J2179 was twice driven by Fred Cook, and then raced at least three times in SCCA competition by Carroll Shelby to three wins.
Next came fitting the AC sports car with a Ford V-8. The rest is history.
RIP.
RIP Mr. Shelby. Perfecting a very fine model and becoming world renown for it is very “Special” indeed!
RIP, Mr Shelby.
My brother’s best friend bought one of those first Shelby Mustangs when he was just out of high school. The kid had worked at a garage since he was 14 and bought his own garage when he graduated from high school and year or two later bought himself a Shelby Mustang and went to the Shelby racing school to learn to drive it, had the car brought out to CA for the racing school on a car carrier and drove out in another vehicle, which he left behind after the racing school was over.
Master at going faster. Ol’ Shel’s Chili was pretty hot too!
Freepmail "Lazlo in PA" to be added or removed.
From a Bill Cosby album that was popular with the guys in Vietnam about Bill’s meeting and having a car built by Carroll Shelby;
http://jalopnik.com/5909694/listen-to-bill-cosby-tell-a-great-carroll-shelby-story
From the article a nomination for comment of the year;
“Ironic that a lifelong car man would die in a motorboating accident.”