Died yesterday at 89. A true legend in the automotive world. Perhaps the coolest car ever: Also the famous Shelby Cobra:
Just saw this. I remember when they first came out, and you're right, they were hot! While I never owned one, I had a silver gray '65 Mustang fastback with a red interior, an automatic with the 271HP 289 V8, that my Dad bought new within a week of the first ones showing up in Texas, and I ended up with it after he "moved up" to the Mustang model that Steve McQueen drove in Bullitt. Not nearly as cool a car as the '65, but I was happy about it, obviously (Dad wanted more room). You used to see Shelby Mustangs and Cobras around the streets of Houston pretty regularly back then. Sweet, sweet cars. - Rest in one of your creations, Mr. Shelby, and thanks!
Wow, truly a great man and a big influence on builders like myself and others. His work paved the way for so many and began the automotive performance era of our country. You mentioned the 427 Cobra wich many people know, I think his best work and by far my favorite is the Daytona Coupe that dominated overseas. That car is considered by many to be "Americas greatest race car" There was a really good documentary on HD theater about it a while back. The lines and stance of that vehicle are timeless, this is the FFR Type 65 kit we're building for a customer. Back in 65 the Cobras and Daytonas were putting maybe 330-350 Hp to the tires, our put down 530 to the wheels with a curb weight of 2446 pounds. [/URL]
RIP Mr Shelby. My car is a 2010 model re-designed and modified based on the '65. Wanted the 65 since I was a child and saw it in a movie that I still can't identify.
I remember back in middle school in our wood shop class, we'd make CO2 cars and we all modeled our cars like this. Of course we had no choice because the blocks we had to work with were long rectangular blocks.
THE coolest car in the world? http://www.shelbymustang.com/morrison.php or http://www.yenra.com/hydrogen-shelby-cobra/ <iframe width="420" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/opKrzjtp-gI" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
The Shelby Cobra was always my dream car. I remember that you could get one for about 70K in the late 80's. Now you can't touch one for anything less than a half million.
And he was relevant 'til the day he died. The 2013 Shelby Mustang GT500 sets a record for HP out of a production V-8 with a top speed over 200 MPH. I'd love to see Hertz rent THOSE out to weekend racers! In the late '80's, there was a garage on Louetta just past Kuykendahl that had my dream car sitting out front for sale; a red '68 Shelby GT500KR convertible. It didn't run and needed work. The asking price was $15,000; far more than I could afford in college. In retrospect, I should have begged, borrowed and stolen to get it. Only 518 were built and they can sell for a quarter of a million dollars these days. The man knew how to design cars. AND he could cook up a mean bowl of chili! Without any friggin' beans in it! RIP Carroll
FYI. When I opened this page my anti-virus software popped up a warning that one of the links on this page had a virus and the page was blocked.
Sorry that Nicholas Cage had to soil your car's name by starring alongside your car in gone in 60 seconds... Although Cage wasn't 100% suck during that movie, he was pretty close. My condolences
there was an auto show in culver city, ca this past saturday they had 3 really nice shelby cobras there - including a blue one that had a signature of shelby on the glove box
