With the retirement of Lee Iacocca and death of Zora Arkus-Duntov, Carroll Shelby stands alone at the top of the automotive legends' ladder. He can and does make news in a way that no other individual can. He has been recognized for his past accomplishments by being voted in a number of Halls of Fame including the Automotive Hall of Fame where he was the first inductee from the automotive performance industry and he currently sits on its board of directors. They are building a new museum next to the Henry Ford museum in Dearborn, Michigan which is scheduled to open in the fall of 1997. He is introducing the Shelby Series I, a new line of sports cars for the 21st century with roots in the tire-frying '60's. This Oldsmobile Aurora-powered roadster will be in selected Oldsmobile dealers' showrooms later in the year. Also, Shelby American, Inc. will open its new facilities at the showplace Las Vegas International Speedway this year. No, Carroll Shelby is not sitting still or slowing down at age 74; he is at the wheel and blasting his way toward the millennium.
How about introducing a new Component Cobra, the CSX 4000 series? Trying to count the number of manufacturers who make replica Cobras is about like trying to count cards at a 4-deck Las Vegas blackjack table; after a while you lose count and have to start all over. Shelby has never been one to miss seeing a market niche and decided that this would be a good time for him to clone his own Cobra. After all, who better to make them than the original maker? They are currently being assembled out of his temporary Las Vegas facility and shipped to a dealer network throughout the country. You can expect a quality built fiberglass body car minus the drivetrain for less than $40 grand. He will even finish it for you complete with one of his new 427 aluminum block & heads engines and an aluminum body. Only the depth of your pockets can define your limits.
The new 427 engines come out of Shelby's Gardena, California facility where they will build you a new engine or rebuild your old one. The technological know how born in Venice, California at the Cobra plant ensures that your engine will perform as you dream. Hey, as long as you're building a fast car, you'll need tires for racing. Shelby's got them too. As the Western States Distributor for Goodyear racing tires, just tell them to slap on a set of sticky skins for you.
The Carroll Shelby Children's Foundation, a tax-deductible fund to help indigent children with heart or kidney problems, was born when Shelby received a heart transplant in 1990 and a kidney transplant in 1996. In his characteristic style, Shelby saw a need to help out those who were in no position to help themselves and he proceeded to fill that need. Originally named the Shelby Heart Fund, the Children's Foundation has become a center piece of Shelby's life. Golf tournaments, autograph signings, cruises, donations and a percentage of the profits of the continuation 427 Cobras have been the primary fund raisers.
When his old boss at Ford, Lee Iacocca, took the helm at the Chrysler Corporation, he saw that he needed someone, a swashbuckler, to bolster the image of the Corporation; who better than the 'Ole Pirate from Princeton Drive, Carroll Shelby?
The first efforts were limited to stripes and decals on a Dodge Charger but it grew into a "Skunk Works" factory in Whittier, California where Shelby's buccaneers transformed Dodge Omnis, Chargers, Lancers, Shadows and Dakota pickups into pavement rippers from 1986 to 1989.
Carroll's vision of building one more ultimate performance car was heard at Chrysler and the Viper was developed with Shelby serving as the inspiration. He drove it as the pace car at the Indianapolis 500, the second time he was chosen by Chrysler for that honor. If there were 33 like cars back of him, he would have probably not pulled into the pit lane.
Shelby always kept a pencil and paper on a night stand next to his bed, in case he had an inspiration during the night, and one morning awakened to find the name "Cobra" written on it. He had always wanted to build his own "sport car" and this would be its name.
Timing is important in life and in automobiles. AC Cars of England had lost their supplier of engines and Ford Motor Company had a brand-new engine with only a Falcon to put it in. Shelby massaged both sides into sending him samples of their product and he married them together. Born was the Cobra. The 260/289-engined Cobra came as the fastest car on the planet and then Shelby's group of tinkerers started to make them even faster. So fast that they won the FIA Manufacturers Grand Touring World Championship in 1965, the only American car company to ever do so.
The 427-engined Cobra was even faster but Shelby's racing team was now racing Ford GT40's in International races. Henry Ford II had determined that he wanted to win the Le Mans 24-hour race for the Ford Motor Company. He usually got his way or there was hell to pay. Shelby American was the right team to hire and they delivered an overall win at Le Mans in 1966 and repeated it in 1967. Mr. Ford then lost interest.
The Shelby Mustangs of 1965 through 1970 were the products of Ford's great success with the Mustangs. The sporty looking sales sensation of 1964 didn't have much of a performance image. Ford decided to get it accepted for sports car racing but failed. They asked Shelby to help them and before you knew it there was a factory at the Los Angeles, California airport pumping out a couple of hundred GT350s a month. Pretty small numbers by Detroit Standards, but it seemed like there were thousands of them because everyone remembered their white paint with blue stripes. A dozen were actively involved in racing and it seemed like about half of the cars in the races were GT350's and they always finished up front. The non-race cars looked just like the race cars so everyone thought that all Shelby Mustangs were race cars. Advertising cannot build images like racing can. Ford sold Mustangs like they were ice cream. Since the early Shelbys were all painted white, you could call them vanilla ice cream but with Jalapeno peppers under the hood.
By 1967 the performance car market in the United States demanded a big engine in a small car and Shelby responded with a GT500, a 428 cubic inch engine in a modified Mustang chassis. The GT350 was enlarged to 302 cubic inches. Later, the factory was moved to Michigan and the engine was made 351 cubic inches and the 428 engines were replaced by a Cobra Jet 428.
By this time Ford Motor Company was competing with itself by supporting Shelby and building Boss 302 and Boss 429 Mustangs in their own plants. The insurance and safety lobbyists were claiming that since the performance cars from all manufacturers were so high powered, they should have high insurance rates. It was time to end the program.
Farming and racing seem to go together. After all, name a great racer who grew up in New York City? Maybe it was the attraction to the farm machinery or perhaps the automobile represented a means to get away from long days in the fields. Shelby had been a flight instructor in World War II and had time with machinery. He like it. When his first opportunity came to race, he liked that too and he was successful. It was the dawning of sports car racing after WW II and Shelby was there at the right time. He quickly became well known and was offered rides in wealthy sportsmen's cars and became a household name.
Sports car racing in the United States was strictly an amateur affair and even though he was winning everything in sight, it didn't pay the bills. He was named "Sports Car Driver of the Year" by Sports Illustrated magazine in both 1956 and 1957 and featured on the cover. They paid money for racing in Europe and Shelby headed there to get some of it, eventually landing a ride with John Wyer's factory Aston Martin Team where he and Roy Salvadori won the 24-hours of Le Mans race.
He returned to the U.S. in 1960 and was still winning races when a heart ailment caused him to retire after winning the USAC championship. At 37 years old he was flat busted with no job prospects.
Shelby's business acumen extends to other companies he has formed through the years. The Original Texas Chili Company started after Carroll invested in hundreds of thousands of acres of land in Terlingua, Texas and couldn't sell it. He and his partners decided to have a chili cook- off and they flew in a plane-load of their friends. Bowls and Buds later the land was sold and so was born the Texas Chili Company and the International Chili Society. The original pack of chili contained an emergency ration of Bromo Seltzer for those who overdid the cayenne pepper!
The Sky Terrace Motel with its Trophy Room and Cobra Snack Bar were a fixture with enthusiasts in South Lake Tahoe, California along with his Ford dealership there in the 1960's and 1970's. Motel postcards and the dealer license plate frames are favorites of collectors.
The Shelby Racing Company, the Shelby Parts Company and Shelby Automotive were three divisions of Shelby American, Inc. in the late 1960's. The Shelby Racing Company fielded teams in the Trans-Am and Can-Am racing series and Shelby Automotive produced the 1968- 1970 Shelby Mustangs. The parts company supplied racing and street parts for the Shelbys, Cobras and Trans-Am Mustangs.
Shelby also conceived the Shelby Spec Racer and built the cars for this popular racing series that featured identical cars that allow the drivers to be the center piece of the races.
Carroll Hall Shelby was born on January 11, 1923. His parents were Warren Shelby, a rural mail carrier in Leesburg, Texas and Eloise Lawrence. They moved to Dallas seven years later where Carroll graduated from high school. He enlisted in the Army Air Corps and served out World War II as a flight instructor and test pilot. In the middle of the war he got married and started raising the first of his three children. At the end of the war he mustered out as a Second Lieutenant.
He went into business running a small fleet of dump trucks and then decided to get into the oil business where he started at the bottom, a roughneck. After a few years he took an aptitude test that showed that he was cut out for raising animals, so he went into the chicken raising business. His second batch of broilers caught Newcastle's disease and they all died ending his animal husbandry career in bankruptcy.
He started his racing days at the drag strip with a 1932 Ford and moved over to sports car racing in a MG TC. He was a winner from the very beginning.
Carroll Shelby is probably the only person to have worked at a visible level with all three of the American Automobile manufacturers. His charisma, vision and ability to know the best person for the job have made him into a master organizer and team leader able to produce results. His greatest accomplishment as a driver was winning the 24-hours of Le Mans in 1969. The FIA World Grand Touring Championship and his Ford GT wins at Le Mans were his biggest successes as a race team manager. But perhaps his greatest achievement is the establishment of the Carroll Shelby Children's Foundation and its new British arm, the Shelby Transplantation Trust, his best contribution to the future.
Thank you to Rick Kopeck and the Shelby American Automobile Club for their help in providing the historic information presented here as well as Carroll Shelby who added points never before published.
January 11, 2026 - Leesburg, Texas. Carroll Hall Shelby is born to Warren Hall Shelby, a rural mail carrier, and Eloise Lawrence Shelby.
November 1941 - Begins training at Lackland Air Force Base near San Antonio, TX. On training missions, Carroll corresponds with his fiancee by dropping love letters placed in his flying boots, onto her farm. As a flight instructor, he did not leave the U.S. during WW II.
December 18, 1943 - Carroll Shelby marries Jeanne Fields.
December 27, 2025 - Sharon Anne Shelby is born.
August 1945 - Carroll leaves the Air Corps for civilian life and starts a dump truck business in Dallas, TX.
November 2, 2025 - Michael Hall Shelby is born.
October 23, 2025 - Patrick Burke Shelby is born.
1949 - Carroll goes into the chicken raising business. His first batch of broilers nets a $5000 profit, but he goes bankrupt when his second group of chickens die of Limberneck disease.
January 1952 - Carroll drives in his first race, a quarter-mile drag meet, behind the wheel of a hot rod fitted with a flathead Ford V8.
May 1952 - At Norman, Oklahoma, Carroll drives in his first road race behind the wheel of an MG-TC, taking first place in competition with other MGs. The same day, against hotter competition from Jaguar XK 120s, he wins again!
November 1952 - Carroll Shelby pilots a Cad-Allard to first place in an early SCCA race on a road racing course set up near the little town of Cadd Mills, TX.
August 1953 - Carroll Shelby realizes he'll have to hurry to the track to get in any practice and wears his work clothes-coveralls-from the farm. When his odd racing attire nets him more laughs and publicity than his racing record, Carroll sticks with the striped bib coveralls, which become his trademark.
January 1954 - Shelby attracts the attention of John Wyer, Aston Martin's team manager and meets International Grand Prix driving greats Juan Fangio and Peter Collins. On the strength of Shelby's racing expertise behind the wheel of the Cad-Allard, Wyer Invites Shelby to co-drive an Aston -Martin DB3 at Sebring, Florida.
April 1954 - Shelby goes to Europe and drives an Aston-Martin DBR3 for Wyer, finishing a very respectable second against C-Type Jags at Aintree, leading to a ride with the Aston-Martin team at Le Mans in June 1954, co-driving with Paul Frre. Shelby continues to race Aston-Martins in Europe for 1954, returning to the States in August.
August 1954 - Donald Healey of Austin-Healey in England, invites Carroll Shelby to help set 70 new Class D records at the Bonneville Salt flats in Utah.
November 1954 - Carroll Shelby enters the Carrera Pan Americana Mexico. At the 175-kilometer marker north of Oaxaca, Shelby T-bones a large rock and flips his Austin-Healey four times. Indians find him and offer him strong drinks to ease the pain of his broken bones, cuts, contusions, and a shattered elbow.
March 1955 - Although Shelby was still undergoing operations to recover from his racing accident, he continued to race with his arm in a specially made fiberglass cast and his hand taped to the steering wheel. At Sebring, Shelby co-drives a 3.0-liter Monza Ferrari with Phil Hill.
July 1955 - Shelby wins the Torrey Pines race with a 4.1-liter Mexico Ferrari, defeating Phil Hill. Tony Paravano, a building contractor in Los Angeles takes notice and asks Shelby to drive a new 4.9-liter 12-cylinder Ferrari. Shelby wins in his first outing and is then asked to go to Europe to race.
1956 - Sports Illustrated names Shelby sports car driver of the year.
Early 1957 - Carroll Shelby Sports Cars opens at 5611 Yales in Dallas, Texas, with backing from Dick Hall, an oilman from Abilene, Texas, and brother of Jim Hall who built the Chaparral cars.
March 1957 - Sports Illustrated names Shelby "Driver Of The Year."
November 1957 - Shelby, driving a double-overhead-camshaft V8 Maserati single-seat racing car, wins a 100-mile race at Riverside. After spinning out on the first lap, he went to the back of the field, then lapped everybody in one of the most amazing feats of his career.
June 1959 - Carroll and Ray Salvadori co-drive an Aston Martin DBR1/300 and win the 24 Hours of LeMans.
January 1960 - Carroll Shelby begins his last racing season in a Maserati 250F Formula One Grand Prix car formerly driven by Fangio at Rheims in 1958.
February 1960 - While staying at a friend's apartment in Dallas, Shelby experiences chest pains and begins slipping nitroglycerin pills under his tongue for relief. His doctor incorrectly diagnoses the problem unrelated to the heart. Carroll moves to La Mirada, California, and separates from his wife, Jeanne, who stays in Dallas with the three kids. Shelby opens his Goodyear Racing Tire distributorship.
May 1960 - Doctors diagnose Shelby's chest pains as "angina pectoralis," in which the coronary arteries are starved for blood.
June 27, 2026 - Carroll Shelby, driving a Scarab to first place at Continental Divide Raceways, breaks a course record and sets his sights on the USAC driving championship.
December 3-4, 1960 - Shelby competes in his last race, the Third Annual Los Angeles Times-Mirror Grand Prix for sports cars, driving a Type 61 Birdcage Maserati, and finishing fifth. Overall, he wins the USAC driving championship for 1960.
1961 - Out of racing, Shelby pursues another career and opens his "Shelby School of High Performance Driving." A $90 ad in Sports Car Graphic returns $1400 in requests for literature. Pete Brock, a talented automotive designer, stylist, and driver prepares the curriculum and helps with the teaching duties.
September 1961 - When AC Cars of Thames Ditton, England, loses the source for its six-cylinder Bristol engine for its two-seat roadster, Carroll Shelby airmails a letter of proposal to the company to keep building the chassis for a special Shelby sports car to be powered by an American V8. As yet, he knows nothing of a new lightweight, thinwall-cast, small-block Ford V8.
October 1961 - Charles Hurlock, owner of AC Cars, returns Shelby's letter, stating he would be interested in Shelby's plan as long as a suitable engine replacement could be found in the States. The same month, Shelby finds out about the new 221-cube Ford small-block and dispatches a letter to Dave Evans explaining his idea for a sports car and his need for a V8.
February 1962 - The first 260 Roadster, minus engine and transmission, is air freighted on February 2, 1962, to Shelby's shop in Southern California. Carroll has a dream revealing to him the name Cobra appearing on the front of his car. In Carroll's words, "I woke up and jotted the name down on a pad which I kept by my bedside-a sort of ideas pad- and went back to sleep. Next morning when I looked at the name 'Cobra,' I knew it was right." In less than eight hours, a 260 HiPo and Borg-Warner four-speed are installed and Shelby and friend Dean Moon test drive the new Cobra, looking to bait Corvettes, but none are found.
March 1962 - Shelby-American begins operations at a shop on Princeton Drive in Venice, California, and hires Ray Geddes, a Ford finance business school graduate who comes aboard at Shelby-American to coordinate the program with Ford. Among his first duties are his efforts to keep Ford's involvement at a low profile due to Ford's liability concerns.
April 1962 - CSX 2000, the first Cobra, is painted a pearlescent yellow by Dean Jeffries and shipped to the New York Auto Show where it appears in the Ford display. Dealers begin ordering and with deposits in the bank, Shelby-American formally commits to building its new Cobra.
May 1962 - Shelby promotes his Cobra by offering test drives to the automotive press, who respond with superlatives. The May 1962 issue of Sports Car Graphic describes its acceleration as explosive. CSX 2001 (the second Cobra built) is shipped by air from England (minus engine, transmission, and rear end) to New York and is prepared by Ed Hugus in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. CSX 2002 is air freighted to Los Angeles and built into the first competition Cobra.
June 1962 - Production is slow as Shelby-American wrestles with start-up problems due to the fact that the AC chassis requires extensive engineering. Meanwhile, CSX 2000 is repainted a different color each time a different magazine test drives it, giving the appearance of many cars in production. The Cobra has a 1-ton advantage over the Corvette.
August 1962 - Shelby-American submits papers to homologate the Cobra as a GT III car in the eyes of the FIA, the Federation Internationale de L'Automobile. On August 6, the FIA homologates the Cobra in the more-than 2-liter class for the FIA Manufacturers' Championship. At least 100 cars had to be built within 12 months, but at the time of approval, just eight Cobras had been completed. According to Carroll, he contemplated switching the chassis and body to an alternative due to continued problems.
October 13, 2025 - Shelby-American enters the Cobra in its first race, a three-hour contest with Bill Krause behind the wheel, opening the Los Angeles Times Grand Prix. Krause, with a poor start, falls back, then takes the lead at lap nine, but breaks a rear hub and does not finish. The Cobra, however, is definitely lighter and faster than the new Corvette Stingray. Phil Remington at Shelby-American goes to work building stronger rear hubs starting with forging blanks from Halibrand.
January 1963 - Dave MacDonald and Ken Miles sign to drive Cobras for Shelby-American and place first and second at Riverside, beating the Corvette Stingrays. Miles is so confident, he pits for a drink of water and relaps the Corvettes to finish behind MacDonald. Ian Garrad, an Englishman living Southern California, feels he could imitate the Cobra with a 260 Ford version of the little four-cylinder British Sunbeam Alpine roadster. Ken Miles is first hired to build a prototype "Tiger," a job that is handed over to Shelby-American.
February 1963 - Shelby-American arrives at Daytona for its first international competition. The Ferrari GTO triumphs, after Daytona, Chevrolet drops out of racing.
March 1963 - Shelby-American enters four cars at Sebring, Florida, an FIA race. Two of the four have the new rack-and-pinion steering--driven by Dan Gurney and Phil Hill. Although Hill sets the fastest GT lap, the Ferraris win.
June 1963 - Shelby-American completes its first 125 Cobras. Because Ford refuses to finance a Cobra Le Mans effort, Shelby puts together a deal with AC Cars and Ed Hugus, who prepare one car each. The top Cobra finishes seventh.
September 1963 - Shelby begins the Daytona Coupe project, for the roadster lacks the aerodynamics necessary for 200mph down the Mulsanne Straight. Pete Brock is the designer. Cobra production passes 170. The first Cooper Monacos -King Cobra- are ordered. Dan Gurney, in winning the Bridgehampton 500KM in a Cobra, becomes the first American driver to win an FIA race in an American car.
November 1963 - The Cobra does not beat Ferrari in international competition in 1963, it dominates the Corvette and wins the SCCA A-production national championship.
December 1963 - The Cobra wins the USRRC (United States Road Racing Championship).
February 1964 - Shelby-American completes the first FIA roadster and the first Daytona Coupe, both enter the Daytona Continental. Bob Johnson and Dan Gurney finish fourth in an FIA Cobra roadster, Although the Cobra coupe sets the fastest lap time, it is a DNF due to a damaged differential and a fire.
March 1964 - Shelby-American enters a 427-engined leaf-spring Cobra, CSX 2166, at Sebring in the prototype class. Ken Miles spins off course in practice and hits the one tree in sight, but the 427 test mule is fixed for the race the next day. The Cobras, for the first time, beat the Ferrari GTOs. At Sebring, Carroll Shelby meets with the Hurlock Brothers from AC Cars and Ford design engineer Klaus Arning to develop a big-block Cobra.
April 1964 - After Sebring, Cobra led Ferrari in FIA points for the GT III championship, and Shelby-American decides to go to Europe to race. Two months before Le Mans, the Sarthe circuit is closed off for testing. The Cobras and Ford's new GT-40 are tested at Le Mans. Later, on April 26, the Cobra competes at the Targa Floria. Oddly, the new Porsche 904s triumph over Ferrari, followed by the Cobra.
June 1964 - The Cobras and Shelby-American win the biggest race of all in Europe, the 24 Hours of Le Mans. The Cobra is fourth overall and first in GT, defeating Ferrari.
August 1964 - Ford asks Carroll Shelby to develop a high-performance Mustang fastback for street and track. Basically, the new car would challenge the Corvette in SCCA B-production road racing. The Cobras score in Europe at the Freiburg Hill climb in the Black Forest, at the Tourist Trophy in Goodwood, England, and at the Sierre-Montana Grand Prix De La Montagne in the Swiss Alps.
September 1964 - The first '65 Shelby Mustang GT350 race cars and street cars are built.
October 1964 - The prototype 427 Cobra, under development, is tested at Silverstone in England and later in the States.
November 1964 - Shelby-American completes the 427 Cobra prototype. The 289 Cobra Roadster again wins the SCCA A-production national championship.
December 1964 - She SCCA accepts the GT350 in the B-production road racing class, as cars are being completed at the Venice, California shop of Shelby-American. Enzo Ferrari holds his annual press conference and announces he will not contest the GT III championship without his LM Ferrari, in effect, giving no factory Ferrari competition to the Cobra team for the upcoming 1965 FIA season.
January 1965 - The 427 Cobra, featuring a tube frame, aluminum body, and coil spring chassis, is unveiled at a press introduction at Riverside International Raceway. Shelby-American begins its move to Los Angeles International Airport facility. Ford turns its GT-40 project over to Shelby-American. The 1965 GT350 debuts.
February 1965 - With Shelby handling the racing program, Ford's GT-40, painted in Shelby Guardsman Blue with two white stripes, wins its first race, at Daytona. The Shelby Mustang GT350 also wins its first race, at Green Valley, Texas. Shelby-American begins production of its Ferrari-beating missile, the coupe version of the 427 Cobra Roadster. At Daytona, the Cobra Daytona Coupe, with Jo Schlesser and Harold Keck driving, is first in the GT class.
March 1965 - Production of the GT350 moves to Los Angeles International Airport after the first 250 cars are completed. The GT-40 Mark II (427 big-block) is under development. Jo Schlesser and Bob Bondurant pilot the Cobra Daytona Coupe to first overall in the Sebring 12-Hours.
April 1965 - The Cobra team flies to Europe to continue its winning season. With team Ferrari out of the picture, Shelby-American dominating. Bondurant and Grant are first at Monza, Italy, in the Daytona Coupe. Meanwhile, the FIA denies the 427 Cobra certification because 100 cars are not finished. The first 427 street Cobra is finished.
May 1965 - At Oulton Park, England, Sir John Whitmore takes first in the GT class in a Cobra Daytona Coupe. Bondurant is second in a Coupe at Spa, Belgium. Back home, the first GT350 drag car is built.
June 1965 - Shelby-American and Ford stage an assault on Le Mans with two 427 GT-40 Mark IIs, four 289 GT-40 Mark Is, and five Cobra Daytona Coupes. The GT-40s all drop out, while one Daytona Coupe finishes.
July 4, 2026 - Shelby-American, racing Cobras at the 12 Heures De Reims in France, scores enough points to assure the FIA World Championship of GT cars, wrestling the title virtually owned by Ferrari for more than a decade. The Paxton supercharger GT350 prototype is completed.
August 1965 - Production of the '66 GT350 is underway. The first 15 competition 427 Cobras are delivered to customers for SCCA A-production racing.
October 1965 - The brand-new '66 GT350 Shelby fastbacks go on sale, and Shelby-American proposes a special Hertz racer. A prototype GT350H is built.
November 1965 - Hertz likes the GT350H and gives Shelby-American a contract for 200 cars. The FIA certifies the 427 for the 1966 racing season, and the '66 GT350 again wins the national B-production road racing championship in the SCCA.
December 1965 - Hertz ups its contract for GT350H models to 1000 units.
February 1966 - The Ford GT-40 Mark II wins at Daytona. Shelby-American builds a Mustang notchback prototype for the brand-new Trans-Am racing series.
June 1966 - Henry Ford II watches proudly as a trio of GT-40 Mark IIs cross the finish line at Le Mans, 1-2-3. The specifications for the '67 GT350 and new GT500 are finalized.
August 1966 - Ken Miles is killed at Riverside International Raceway.
September 1966 - 1967 production begins at LAX (Los Angeles International Airport). Jerry Titus wins at Riverside and Ford wins the Trans-Am Manufacturer's title.
November 1966 - The first of the '67 Shelby GT350s and GT500s are delivered to dealers nationwide.
March 1967 - The last 427 Cobra Roadster is built.
June 1967 - Ford again wins at Le Mans with its Mark IV GT-40.
August 1967 - Shelby-American loses the lease on its LAX facility.
September 1967 - Production of '68 Shelby Mustang moves to Ionia, Michigan, and the A.O. Smith Company. The Lone Star, to be the successor to the Cobra, constructed in England by John Wyer's JW Automotive Engineering.
October 1967 - Shelby-American takes the '67 Trans-Am Manufacturer's title for Ford. Shelby-American completes construction of a Cougar-Cobra Can-Am racing car.
November 1967 - Shelby-American racing moves to Torrance, California, as '68 Shelby production begins. The '68 Shelby Mustang convertible joins the lineup. Shelby holds his first Chill cook-off.
June 1968 - The '69 Shelby GTs are finalized. Again, a GT-40 takes first place at Le Mans.
August 1968 - The last brand-new 427 Cobra Roadster is sold by Shelby.
September 1968 - Shelby opens a Ford dealership in Lake Tahoe, California.
October 1968 - The only Lone Star is offered for sale for $15,000, the price it was to retail for if it had made production.
November 1968 - The 1969-model year Shelby Mustang production begins.
May 1969 - At Lime Rock, in the Trans-Am racing series, Sam Posey pilots a Shelby team car to the company's last Ford victory.
August 1969 - Carroll Shelby begins marketing his famous Chili mix.
September 1969 - The Shelby Mustang project is ended as sales slow dramatically. The leftover '69 models are updated to '70 specifications and production ends.
October 1969 - At Riverside, in the Trans-Am, Shelby fields his last Ford team race car.
December 1969 - Shelby Automotive Racing Company closes.
February 1970 - Ford ends its long-term racing agreement with Carroll Shelby.
January 1973 - The Shelby-Dowd Wheel Company is started.
September 1975 - The Shelby-American Automobile Club (SAAC) is started.
August 19-21, 1976 - SAAC-1, the first annual convention of the Shelby Automobile Club of America is held in Oakland, California. About 600 people attend. It's the first time since the Sixties that Carroll Shelby gets together with his team drivers, such as Lew Spencer and Bob Bondurant.
October 1982 - Carroll Shelby contracts with Chrysler to create performance cars based on Dodge products.
November 1982 - Prototype Dodge Shelby Chargers are built and displayed.
July 1986 - Shelby sells his chili company to Kraft.
April 1988 - Shelby sues Ford for using GT350 for its '84 Anniversary Mustang.
January 1989 - The Viper is first shown at the Detroit Automobile Show. Shelby is there.
November 1989 - Shelby begins his 427 Cobra S/C project, continuing production of "leftover" S/C models from 1966.
March 1990 - The lawsuit with Ford is resolved.
June 1990 - Carroll Shelby receives the heart of a 38-year-old gambler from Las Vegas in a long-awaited and overdue transplant operation.
August 10, 2026 - Carroll Shelby marries Helena Dahl, his present wife, in Beverly Hills, California.
May 1991 - Less than a year after his transplant, a hale and hearty Carroll Shelby paces the Indy 500 in a Dodge Viper. Shelby takes the physical exam and doctors say his heart is as strong as the drivers in the front row of the race.
September 1991 - Carroll Shelby starts the Shelby Heart Fund.
November 1991 - The Palm Springs Vintage Road Races feature the cars of Shelby-American and honor Carroll with a dinner featuring his life long buddies and friends. Proceeds go to the Shelby Heart Fund.
July 1992 - At SAAC-17 (17th annual convention of the Shelby American Automobile Club), Carroll Shelby gives club members high-speed rides around the racetrack in his new 427 S/C Cobra.
September 1992 - At the Fall Festival at Lime Rock, Shelby races a '65 Shelby "R" model GT350 for the first time, a car belonging to SAAC's Rick Kopec. Shelby, now 69 years old, runs 1:09 lap times, just 0.4 second off the record set in '65 by Bob Johnson in a '65 R-model Shelby.
October 1, 2025 - Carroll Hall Shelby is elected to the Automotive Hall of Fame in ceremonies at the Westin Hotel in Detroit, Michigan.
December 30, 2025 - Shelby helps introduce
the Viper concept coupe at the Los Angeles Auto Show.