Carroll Shelby, legendary car builder and racing champion, dies at age 89

Hey, small world. My husband got into special paint cars when we found the orange Shelby at the SAAC convention in Charlotte,NC about 20 years ago. At the time we had a red KR, which I think was supposed to be green from the factory. Anyway we sold the red KR, got the orange car and it needed a total restoration. Took him 16 years to restore it. But it’s won 3 major titles so it was worth the effort. We have not taken it for a spin. Trailer Queen. The other one we have was bought in driver condition and gets taken to the hardware store or grocery store. It’s less of a beacon for attention, which is nice. The old red one we had was like having a car show everywhere we went. I loved driving that one around. The manual shift was a blast.

The husband liked Mustangs his entire life,and we had a 66 coupe when were were in college. We had a nice 72 gold Mustang Grande that I loved. Then after we were married he said he wanted a Shelby and I had no idea what it was. 25 years later, he’s learned so much that he gets calls from all over for info, and to restore cars. The Shelby Registry has his contributions in it, in the 1968 section. He’s friends with the president of SAAC and the other 68 specialists. We’ve met many wonderful people over the years through this hobby. We have Mr.Shelby to thank for that.

When he gets time, we need to restore the black one. The paint is showing it’s age. We have a great paint man, he did the paint on the orange one. It’s a beautiful paint job.
He’s another of the close friends we’ve made in this hobby.

The Shelby forums are full of comments about the passing of Shelby.

Yesterday afternoon a friend in New York called and told us the news. He was really sad. He took his Shelby out for a spin in honor of Carroll.

Cool picture!

The first SAAC convention we went to around 1988 was in Dearborn and we stayed at the Hyatt, if I remember correctly we could see the Ford plant sign from there or it was on the way to the Hyatt.

I still have a cousin who works at the Crete,IL Ford Plant. He’s been there for 40 years.

I will show Mr.ConservativeParty that picture. It’s probably not one he’s ever seen before.

Well we did it the old fashioned way.
Bought our first one unfinished, and it took Mr.ConservativeParty about 5 years to do the work. Then we found another unfinished one (orange one) with the wrong engine (a 427). The owner agreed to take out the expensive but wrong engine and sell us the rest. Took 16 years to restore that one. Meanwhile sold the first one (red). Bought a black daily driver (well not daily, but in driver condition). Mr.ConservativeParty saved a ton of money doing all but paint himself. Along the way, over 25 years, he learned a lot and won the big national shows and now he has more restoration customers than you can shake a stick at. He does have a “real job” but the Shelby hobby is very important to him. Not a bad investment either, as it turned out.

Cheers!

PS- back in 1988 our first Shelby was purchased for 11,000 dollars. How about that. Those were the good old days. Second one was a mere 16,000 in it’s unrestored state. That was bought about 20 years ago. Best investments we ever made. They just get more rare as the years go by and a few more get wrecked or rust away, especially the factory orange car which is one of about 6 made that year. Met a whole lotta nice folks over the years too. That is priceless.

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