Carroll Shelby is back working his magic with Ford!

Detroit News and Free Press ^ | 01/04/04 | Bill Vlasic

[taildragger]

"Thirty-five years after Carroll Shelby and Ford Motor Co. parted ways, Shelby, 80, is back in the fold and shepherding a new era of Shelby Cobras, the first of which will be revealed to the media tonight at the auto show."

[taildragger]

Folks also check out: http://www.detnews.com/2004/autosinsider/0401/04/a08-25597.htm

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[Enterprise]

As long as someone helps Ford succeed it must be ok to belong to that "sea of white faces."

[isthisnickcool]

Cool. Can't wait to see it. I want one:)

[speedy]

I was in a one-on-one business meeting in Sherman Oaks a few years back -- nothing to do with cars -- when out of the blue this guy bursts in, backslapping, talking loudly, every other word an expletive, complaining good-naturedly about not being able to find a #%@* parking space -- it was Carroll Shelby. The guy I was meeting was an old friend of his. He gave me the old "How the bleeping bleep are you" when I was introduced to him. A real piece of work who does not disappoint in person -- some legends seem bigger when you meet them. More power to him. As the Rip Chords once told us, "Hey Little Cobra don't you know you're gonna shut 'em down."

[the invisib1e hand]

Carrol Shelby rocks.

[Howie66]

Evidently, Shelby has not learned that you can rub and rub and rub, but you still cannot polish a turd.

FORD = Fix Or Repair Daily....or....Found On Road Dead.

[keithtoo]

Yeah, he did such a wonderful job with Chrysler in the 80's. Dodge Shelby's are getting great prices on Ebay.....NOT!!!!

[the invisib1e hand]

he did such a wonderful job with Chrysler in the 80's

you poor thing. you can't help, I suppose, that you grew up in the generation of the x car, the k car. it was a horrible time in history, a decade launched by Jimmy Carter, Iran hostages, 18% interest rates...

But long ago, there was a time when men were men, they had vision, they had balls, they got their hands dirty, and they put the shine on the Big American Life, set the pace for an awestruck world. If you observe the relics of history, you might be lifted from your morose and perhaps, you too, will get vision for a better tomorrow.

[Ben Hecks]

I went to a SCCA race in Kansas in the early 60s - Shelby showed up with 3 Cobras along with Bob Bondurant and Ken Miles. One of the Cobras had an oil cooler which the tech inspector said would reclassify it from production to modified. Shelby removed the oil cooler and the Cobras took 1-2-3 in the A/B production race. They then reinstalled the oil cooler, had the car reclassified and won the modified event. As they said, "Pretty good for an old chicken farmer from Texas".

[Skooz]

You can blame the bean counters for that.

If management will get out of this guy's way, he could create another legend.

[Eric in the Ozarks]

Shelby's single greatest feat of magic was putting a 260 cubin inch Ford motor in a flimsy English AC sports car. Lots of power vs. little weight = goes fast.
Who would've thought of that ?

[Southack]

Charles V. Tines / The Detroit News

"This is what I have been looking forward to for a long, long time," Carroll Shelby, right, said Dec. 15 when he and Ford design chief J Mays looked over the new Cobra.

[dalereed]

Carroll Shelbys facility was also known as Disneyland West!

He's a salesman, not an engine builder!

We built a Cobra for Dennis Wilson to go drag racing with and had a friend on the inside that worked at Disneyland West that would tell us which track they be going to each Sunday and we blew him off EVERY SUNDAY!

I will say that Dennis did a good job of driving but with the stupid swing axel rear end we couldn't get over 129 in the quarter with the slicks up on the corners blazing.

We wanted to put a champ rear end in it but Dennis got off on drugs and traded the car in at Hollywood Sport Car for a motercycle and of course eventually killed himself on drugs.

Shelby went to Hollywood Sport Car and rented the Cobra from Chick to try and find out what we did to the 429 engine that made us beat him so bad every week. I'll guarntee you he or anyone that worked for him wasn't smart enough to figure it out!

[Southack]

"Shelby went to Hollywood Sport Car and rented the Cobra from Chick to try and find out what we did to the 429 engine that made us beat him so bad every week. I'll guarntee you he or anyone that worked for him wasn't smart enough to figure it out!"

So 35 years later, what was your secret back then?!

[Eric in the Ozarks]

Maybe a Shelby historian can tell me where the Sunbeam Tiger (another English sportcar with a 260 inch Ford, but with Chrysler parentage) came in ? These were popular in 1966 and 1967 or so.

[dalereed]

Two of the biggest ones were that we had Russ Garnett grind the cam the same as a Chevy Duntoff 097 and got a blank set of head castings from Ford and Doan Spencer machined them for us and changed the spark plug angle from factory tht gave us and additional 110 HP and boosted the top of the torque curve to 7800 rpm.

[liberallarry]

That's the kind of thing one used to say about FIAT. I didn't know things have gotten so bad at Ford. Hope it won't apply to the new GT, which looks far more interesting than anything Shelby is likely to turn out.

[Southack]

How did you get enough air into the intake to move the top of the torque curve to 7800 RPM?

[the invisib1e hand]

we blew him off EVERY SUNDAY

Yeah, I know.

Eddie Van Halen stole my guitar technique, too. Oh, and Bill Gates owes it all to Apple Computer...