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11 May 12 - 08:34 PM (#3349768) Subject: Obit: Carroll Shelby... Sniff... From: Bobert Okay, some folks don't know who Carroll Shelby was but I do... He was a balls-to-the-wall race car driver and later designed and built the infamous AC Cobra.... It was 1964 and my dad was working for Ford Motor Company and he got a hold of one of these Cobras... I was 17 and had already done quite a bit of drag racing so I needled and needled and next thing ya' know I spent the spring & summer drag racing that AC Cobra thru out the mid-Atlantic and had a ball... So I have a special place in my heart for Carroll Shelby... R.I.P., Carroll... You were/are da' man!!! B~ |
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11 May 12 - 09:31 PM (#3349791) Subject: RE: Obit: Carroll Shelby... Sniff... From: catspaw49 I made a posting on FaceBook........ Carroll Shelby finished his race yesterday. One of the greatest innovators and inventors in racing. Also a pretty fair Chili maker. The Cobra and the Shelby Mustangs are only slightly less iconic than the man himself. Ford racing owes a great debt to the partnership they had with Shelby. Very few like him have come before and I doubt many will come along again. I'd say RIP ...... but that was never his style. Thanks Shel for making it more exciting. Also, his driving career was cut short by his heart but his engineering skill was always the thing. Too often forgotten also was the GT40 program which succeeded in cleaning Ferrari's clock. What a car that one was............ Spaw |
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11 May 12 - 09:41 PM (#3349792) Subject: RE: Obit: Carroll Shelby... Sniff... From: Bobert Heard that Carroll was driving a race and pumping Nitro-glycerin because he was fearful of having a heart attack while racing... He went with smaller, lighter cars with HP and killed the good 'ol' boys... BTW, the Cobra I raced ran B/SP and I was going up against 350/350 Corvettes and killed them all... It was obscene... The Cobra would run low 12s and the Vettes??? High 12s and low 13s... It wasn't even fair... B~ |
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11 May 12 - 11:13 PM (#3349808) Subject: RE: Obit: Carroll Shelby... Sniff... From: catspaw49 And before Richard shows up singing the Brit tune, the AC Ace was indeed the base (rhyming here) but it underwent more than just a little modification. The frame wass reworked and triangulated and a somewhat diffwerent rear end design went in. Mods to front end and the entire suspension system with nylon bushings etc., produced a much better handler to go with the Ford power. The racing Cobras came into their own when Shelby, who knew talent when he saw it, hired Peter Brock to streamline the car and develop the coupe version. On the tracks, this was the real killer version of the Cobra. On the street the 427 roadster was a serious ground pounder but the extra weight of the big block Ford took away its lightness and what little nimble handling it had. But that fucker would light your eyeballs up. The same was true of the Vette's of the era. The small blocks when properly set up were fairly good road racers but the big rat motor versions were straight line only but they too made you gasp for breath. Dropping the hammer on any of the muscle cars from that time was something and never forgotten for those of us with gasoline for blood. There are new cars far quicker but the beauty of that rumbling roar, the rattling from the vibration, and the pull of the engine torque..............yeah.......Wish I still had one to play with if just for awhile................. Spaw |
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11 May 12 - 11:29 PM (#3349811) Subject: RE: Obit: Carroll Shelby... Sniff... From: GUEST,.gargoyle Cobra Shelby Vets Vipors run in my internal gears... However...this is a thread of: B......S......B......S......S....S....B...S...B...S...B..S..B..S.MB.S.S.S.S.S.BBBSSS x |
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12 May 12 - 12:32 AM (#3349820) Subject: RE: Obit: Carroll Shelby... Sniff... From: Joe Offer Moved to bs as requested, but no need to tell us - we do that automatically for non -music obits. my dad worked in the racing industry in the 1950s, so Shelby was a well - known name in our house. May he rest in peace. -Joe - |
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12 May 12 - 12:41 AM (#3349822) Subject: RE: Obit: Carroll Shelby... Sniff... From: EBarnacle His logo lives on more than 50 years after he worked it out as a sub brand with Ford. That's recognition. |
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12 May 12 - 12:42 AM (#3349823) Subject: RE: Obit: Carroll Shelby... Sniff... From: GUEST,Guest from Sanity Well Bobert, we might just have something else in common.....during the '60's I had two GT 350's and for a short while, a 500....LOVED 'em!!! Carroll Shelby was a legend!!!..he lived a couple miles from us, in Playa Del Rey, California. He had unbelievable great cars sittin' in his driveway! Made two matching 427 Cobras, one for himself, and one for Bill Cosby.. blue with white racing stripes, Both had TWO Paxton superchargers on them, and developed over 850 HP.....maybe more about him, later... Gotta go, need to get back to my reading.. GfS |
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12 May 12 - 12:43 AM (#3349824) Subject: RE: Obit: Carroll Shelby... Sniff... From: GUEST,Guest from Sanity Jeez, the font got big! Scratches head.... GfS |
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12 May 12 - 01:16 AM (#3349827) Subject: RE: Obit: Carroll Shelby... Sniff... From: Don Firth In the late 1960s and early 1970s I worked for the Boeing Airplane Company, commercial airplane division. One of the planes I did production illustrations for was the brand new 747 jumbo jet, which was being assembled at Boeing's Everett plant across from Paine Field. A friend, Randy Remmon, and I used to car pool to and from the job. About 25 miles up Interstate 5 from Seattle. Randy's old turtleback Volvo 544 cough up a lung and died. The small garage where he had his repair work done sometimes had cars for sale, and they offered to sell Randy a very nice looking 1966 Mustang Fastback (silver-gray). For a mere $900. Randy jumped on it! It was not long before we realized that this was a most unusual automobile. The little bit of chrome on the front fenders that indicated that it was powered by a 289 cc V-8 engine was belied by the fact the when the car was idling, the rumble registered about 3.5 on the Richter Scale. And if Randy put his foot to the firewall, it took off like a shot and we felt like a couple of astronauts mashed into our acceleration couches! On one occasion, we were late, and we made our way up I-5 at about 90 mph, and Randy (who, incidentally, had once worked for the King County Sheriff's Department and had driven prowlers at speed on a number of occasions.) said there was plenty more to go! For a 289 Ford Mustang, this was one helluva car! Randy went back to the garage that sold him the car and asked them to give him the skinny on it. They told him that the California Highway Patrol wanted five "Q-ships:" cars that could overtake anything on the road, but looked innocuous. Sneakers. For nailing speeders who would stay within the limit if there was a Highway Patrol car in sight, but who floored it when they felt they could get away with it. They commissioned Carroll Shelby to do his thing on five Mustang fastbacks, which he did. But shortly after they took delivery of the cars, someone put the kibosh on the plan—claiming "entrapment" or some such thing—and insisted that they get rid of them. So they had to sell them quietly, outside of California. Randy's repair man managed to acquire one, and Randy lucked out! One most impressive automobile!! Don Firth |
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12 May 12 - 04:30 AM (#3349856) Subject: RE: Obit: Carroll Shelby... Sniff... From: GUEST,Guest from Sanity The CHP (California Highway Patrol had those..I remember. Don't remember their stats, but the GT 350, had no power brakes, but racing metallic brake pad linings, no power steering tightened ratio for racing, Koni racing shocks(very stiff) anti-sway stabilizer bar, 7 qt. oil capacity, with a finned pan, for cooling, solid lifters, and 306 hp. oil cooler, and could just about handle better than any American made car on the road...also side scoops to cool the rear brake pads, a scoop on the hood, racing hood pins,..and all stock...well, 'stock' for a Shelby GT 350. the '67 GT 500, was a little more comfy inside, 428 cid, two Holly 650 cfm quads, and could accelerate so fast, you and the passenger would be pressed back into your seat...you could not even touch the dash, when it was 'taking off'...from being pressed back in the seat!! Had some other goodies, too..but I'm tired, (as I mentioned in the other thread), so I'll keep it short. Good Night! GfS |
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12 May 12 - 06:34 AM (#3349881) Subject: RE: Obit: Carroll Shelby... Sniff... From: GUEST,Dharmabum The only Cobra I could ever hope to afford was a 1/24th scale slot car. Here's Bill Cosby's bit about his Cobra. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3-JQksYxgM0&feature=related |
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12 May 12 - 08:49 AM (#3349941) Subject: RE: Obit: Carroll Shelby... Sniff... From: Bobert Yeah, I remember the 350s, as well... My dad brought one home for a couple weeks... The thing I remember about it is that it had a little round medallion looking thing in the middle of brake pedal that read "DISC BRAKES"... But I wasn't a "...Stang'r"... My mom and I shared the 2nd company car that the ol' man was allowed so, seeing as he and Lee Iacocca were buds at Ford, they decided to get us a '65 poppi red Mustang convert... I hated the car and wouldn't drive it... Drove my ol' 55 Fairlane with no grill and an after-market floor shifter... So my dad asked me if there was anything that Ford made that I would drive... Other than the '55 beater... Not sure why he cared???... I said, yeah... Order me a Falcon Futura, maroon, black guts, bench seat, 289 High-Performance (271 HP - same engine as in the AC Cobra), 4 speed top loader... It was a beast!!! It ran low 13s and would kill most Vettes, all GTOs, and 100% of the street lead-sleds like 409 SuperSports, 390/401 Fords... BTW, I recently learned that there were only eleven 289/271 Falcons built... Not sure if mine survived... Never been able to find it on the internet... But if it's out there, the front bench seat is the give away... I'm with Spawzer... I'd still love to launch a 13 second muscle car down a quarter mile track... B~ |
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12 May 12 - 12:20 PM (#3350003) Subject: RE: Obit: Carroll Shelby... Sniff... From: GUEST,Fred Bailey please let's not forget his seminal work on the Sunbeam Tiger -- a most innocent looking little Brit that would eat Corvettes handily. |
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12 May 12 - 01:29 PM (#3350018) Subject: RE: Obit: Carroll Shelby... Sniff... From: Bill D A couple of years ago, a friend called and asked me if I could "drive a floor shift". I said, "Um...sure... I used to have a VW or two." "Well, could you do me a favor and drive this car I'm helping sell over to the mall parking lot?" "Oh, I suppose so." So, I arrive and find this little car hidden behind a fence, and on the side it says something about "Shelbyized". Oh, gee...... So, I get it started and e-a-s-e out of the drive, and I have 2 blocks to figger out how it shifts before turning onto a main street. It has 5 forward gears, and I got thru 3 before we get to the mall. Waiting there are 3 serious looking guys with a dual-cab pickup and a trailer. I park and get out and hang WAY back while they inspect the car and transact business. I later learn that the buyer already had 2 Shelbys. No, I don't know who he was, or whether he was 'happy' with this new purchase, but some serious $$$$ changed hands. (yes, I wish I'd had ONE chance to go thru all 5 gears.) |
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12 May 12 - 01:29 PM (#3350019) Subject: RE: Obit: Carroll Shelby... Sniff... From: Bobert The Tiger had the early small Ford V-8 in it that came out in the 63 1/2 Falcon Futuras... 260 cu. in... The Phase IIs had the 289s... Okay cars but would roll over in the driveway with no one in 'um... lol... Anyone remember the AC Griffith??? The car weighed in at around 1700 pounds... Ran the 289/271... Can't recall if Shelby had his hands in it??? BTW, Carroll Shelby was a heart transplant survivor of 22 or so years at his death... Interesting... B~ |
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12 May 12 - 08:07 PM (#3350168) Subject: RE: Obit: Carroll Shelby... Sniff... From: Sandy Mc Lean RIP Shel from this old car guy and race fan! |
