Shelby
(1964 - 1999)
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In 1959, Carroll Shelby won Le Mans as a driver. Two years later, he had to give up racing. He plunged straight into a new adventure and built a sports car that is a legend today and was a feared opponent on the racetrack from the very beginning. Shelby obtained the engine from Ford after Chevrolet showed no interest. And AC supplied the bodywork after the end of Bristol meant that "fast" engines were no longer available. The very first prototype ran at 240 km/h on the Hangar Straight at Silverstone and the Cobra's racing career soon began. However, it was the Cobra Daytona Coupé that brought the aerodynamic possibilities that ultimately led to the Le Mans victory against the Ferrari Coupés. Shelby soon turned his attention to the GT-40 project, but many more road cars left the factory until the lights went out around 1968.
The Shelby Mustang GT 350 and its bigger brother GT 500 were greatly improved versions of the normal Ford Mustang. Intended for mass sports, they also found their way into the film world, not least with the car movie Gone in 60 Seconds starring Nicolas Cage. Ford also followed suit and launched the Ford Mustang GT 390. This in turn served as Steve McQueen's movie car in Bullitt. The Shelby Mustangs were very successful on the racetracks, but also in sales, and are still popular and sought-after today.
For many, the Ford Mustang was not a real sports car. But with the arrival of the GT 350 developed by Carroll Shelby, this perception changed, especially as the resourceful American launched a road and a racing version at the same time. With around 300 hp and an unladen weight of 1.2 tons, the Shelby Mustang could certainly compete with many European sports cars. This report reproduces the original wording of a short test of the racing version by Scuderia Filipinetti from 1965 and shows both versions in historical photos.
The recipe used by former Le Mans winner Carroll Shelby almost 50 years ago was as simple as it was effective: he took a lightweight, two-seater roadster of the old English school and fitted it with a powerful V8 engine instead of the traditional six-cylinder engine. The result was breathtaking in the truest sense of the word. The Cobra 289 and 427 are among the fastest sports cars ever and the 1000 or so original examples are considered sought-after rarities. Even today, the acceleration capacity is still impressive.
425 or even 485 hp on just over 1.1 tons, this resulted in a power-to-weight ratio that even newer sports cars from Ferrari to Lamborghini did not achieve even years after the Shelby Cobra 427 was launched. The performance was simply unrivaled, yet the sports car was not a bestseller. Today, the few genuine vehicles are sought after and correspondingly expensive. This report looks back to the 1960s, when an almost unbeatable super sports car was created in the USA that nobody wanted to buy.
It was the modifications that Carroll Shelby made to the Ford Mustang that turned the pony car into a serious competitor on the racetrack. The Shelby Mustang GT 350 and even more so the GT 350R were the cars to beat on America's racetracks. A few examples found their way to Europe, one of which was bought by the famous Swiss racing driver Herbert Müller, who drove it to the race track, but also used it in hill climb and circuit racing. This article describes the special R models and Herbert Müller's car, supplemented by memories of his son and illustrated with current and historical photos.
In the summer of 1966, car rental company Hertz offered a 306 hp Ford Mustang with manual transmission and racing brakes to America's automatic gearboxes, power steering and power amplifiers for a bargain price. Who could have guessed that the stunt would end in a fiasco? This article tells the story of the Shelby GT 350-H and shows one of the black and gold racers in many photos.
As if the Shelby Cobra 289 wasn't fast enough, Carroll Shelby went one better in 1964 and introduced the Cobra 427 with a seven-liter V8 and over 400 hp. This sports car was actually supposed to dominate the racetracks, but the number of units required for homologation was missed, so most of the cars were sold as "softer" road versions. However, "gentle" was not to be taken too literally, as a test drive with an original Cobra 427 shows.
With the AC Cobra, Carroll Shelby presented a sports car in 1962 that offered outstanding performance for comparatively little money thanks to the power of a large V8 engine. Racing success soon followed, but not all race tracks allowed the new sports car star to shine equally brightly. On the road and in club racing, however, the Cobra performed magnificently. To this day, it remains one of the most appealing sports cars of all time. This driving report tells the story of the 289 Cobra and portrays the replica of a famous racing Cobra in many pictures, supplemented by video and audio material.
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All 6 Shelby models
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