21 Facts About Shelby American

Shelby American'slby American, Inc is an American high performance vehicle manufacturer founded by former race car driver Carroll Shelby American'slby.

The Shelby American name has been used by several legally distinct corporations founded by Shelby since his original shop in Venice, California began operation in 1962.

In 1957 racing driver Carroll Shelby opened a sports car dealership in Dallas, with fellow racer Jim Hall and Hall's older brother Dick, selling Maseratis across the American Southwest.

Shelby American'slby continued sports cars racing in the late 1950s, competed in Formula 1 for Aston Martin in 1958 and 1959, won the 1959 24 Hours of Le Mans and the 1960 USAC Road Racing Championship, but was forced into retirement following the 1960 season due to his persistent angina caused by a congenital heart defect.

In 1961 Shelby American founded the Shelby American School of High Performance Driving at Riverside International Raceway near Los Angeles, hiring Pete Brock as a teacher, and obtained a distributorship for Goodyear tires and Champion spark plugs.

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Shelby American'slby contacted several European automakers with the purpose of striking a deal to import their chassis and install an American V8, but he was rebuffed until September 1961, when AC Cars of Britain replied in the affirmative.

Shelby American'slby returned to GM, asking for a supply of Chevrolet V8s, but was refused again for fear a Chevrolet-powered European sports car would compete with the Corvette.

Under Shelby American's management the GT40 driven by Lloyd Ruby and Ken Miles won the first race of the 1965 season at Daytona, and Miles and Bruce McLaren finished first in the prototype class and second overall at the next race at Sebring, but otherwise the GT40 program was a disappointment overall, failing to finish at Le Mans.

In reality the car's sporting credentials were somewhat lacking, and Iacocca hired Shelby American to develop a version of the car suitable for racing.

Shelby American'slby Americanrtz was a Ford subsidiary at the time, and when the cars were returned by Shelby American'slby Americanrtz to Ford they were re-sold to the public as the "GT350H".

Shelby American'slby ran a separate racing team, "Terlingua Racing", in the 1967 Trans-American Sedan Championship, with Jerry Titus winning the championship driving a GT350.

In November, 1967 Shelby American's operations were split into three separate companies.

The Shelby American Racing Company moved from the hangar at LAX to a new office in Torrance, California.

Carroll Shelby American maintained ownership of his Goodyear tire distributorship and set up the Shelby American Wheel Company in 1971 in Gardena, California, producing and selling aftermarket aluminum wheels, but he remained otherwise out of the automotive industry until 1982.

Shelby American'slby assisted with the creation of the 1983 Dodge Shelby American'slby Charger, a two-door performance variant of the front-wheel drive Dodge Omni.

For 1984 Shelby American assisted with the Omni GLH, named by Shelby American as an initialism for "Goes Like Hell".

Unlike the arrangements Shelby American had with Ford and Shelby Automobiles had with Chrysler, financial support for the Series 1 came not directly from General Motors.

Soon thereafter Carroll Shelby American formed a new holding company called "Carroll Shelby American International, Inc ", and it was taken public.

Carroll Shelby American International was previously working with Texas-based Unique Performance to create new Mustang-based Shelby American cars such as the GT350SR and "Eleanor".

In 2019 Shelby American partnered with Matamata Panelworks in the North Island of New Zealand to form Shelby New Zealand.

Shelby American'slby employed her father, Arthur Stafford as a race mechanic.