Shelby American: The Carroll Shelby Story (2019) Movie Script

Perseverance is the most important thing in life.
Believe in your dream and make it happen,
and dont let anyone take you to the sidings.
LE MANSIN 24 HOUR DRIVING
JUNE 1959
The 1959 Le Mans race has been run for a lap.
Moss is ahead of the Ferraris with his Aston.
Shelby drives again.
A tall Texas man is behind the wheel.
They drive through the sound of the night in a lonely
and fast world,
which is interrupted
only by refueling stops.
24 hours is a long time.
It takes a lot of luck.
As soon as the pain hit my chest
I knew something was wrong.
This is Le Mans, the largest on the planet -
and the most exhausting race.
And Shelby had an illness,
which he also hid from his team,
which is why he could die
at any time.
The manager returns to the race.
I had to drive
with the power of nitropillers.
When it touched my chest, I took one -
and I drove slower a couple of laps.
As the 24-hour race progresses -
Shelby's heart problems worsened.
If the dangers of the race didnt kill him,
his own heart might.
January 1923
I was raised as a
Southern Baptist.
I wasnt allowed to drink Coca-Cola.
VOICE OF Carroll Shelby
I only got to drink water
and milk on Sundays.
My father was a pretty fast-paced
rural postman.
I remember being three years old
when I said to him, "Gas to the bottom."
He did so when I said,
"Let's go faster, Dad."
Racing has always interested me.
When I was little, my dad took me to
all the races he was interested in.
The only car races
were a half-mile of sandy trails.
It was a time of recession.
His childhood encouraged it.
He always said he liked speed.
He liked to walk fast.
It was dangerous,
and he liked it.
I got my drivers license when I was 14 years old.
My first job was to take my father to the 1934 Dodge.
I was wounded by police for
speeding 136 kilometers.
Shelby grew up during the Great Depression,
so he was used to a hard life.
When he came to his teens,
the world faced its
greatest challenge ever.
Congress Declares War
World War II began.
He enlisted after graduating from
Woodrow Wilson High School in Dallas.
Young and fearless,
he wanted to fight the Nazis.
As for World War II,
he was in the Army Air Force.
He trained other pilots.
Whether he was in a car
or a plane, he loved speed.
He loved flying
and racing just as much.
He loved speed from birth.
The military also found
that he was a pretty good leader.
The military recognized Shelbys best abilities
and used both.
After the war, Carroll founded a family with his
high school lover Jeanne.
It changed lives in many ways.
For the first time in his life,
Carroll Shelby drove a car.
I had a high school buddy named
Ed Wilkins.
We made a
Microcar powered by the engine of a Maytag washing machine,
when we were in middle school.
My first race car I drove
in a race I organized was his MG.
We were in Okmanoma Norman
with a small MG TC.
May 1952
I won that race. From there I went to another
race in Oklahoma where I drove a Jaguar.
August 1952
I won that too. My friend had an Allard
Cadillac engine,
and I started driving his car
, winning three or four races.
He realized there was something in it.
He didnt earn then as
he did in races today.
It was not very
lucrative in terms of salary.
But he was good at it.
I dont think my dad has ever had a
real job.
He has always been a serial entrepreneur.
Son of Carroll Shelbyn
He also took up the earthmoving business.
Lastly, he had an educational channel.
Shelby's Breeding Channel
I vaccinated my chickens when my wife called,
You should be in Fort Worth.
The race starts in an hour and a half.
I jumped in the car.
I didn't have time to change clothes.
I got to Fort Worth just in time to
compete.
I won it dressed in overalls
and they took pictures of me -
To the front page of the Forth Worth Press.
I thought, "This is pretty good."
The overalls were a good bet. And he realized
that they created a brand for him.
He continued on that basis.
It strengthened his image.
It took about a year for a couple of rich people
who had cars to call, saying:
"We want you to drive our car."
He progressed astonishingly fast.
It was because of his aggression.
He got to sell anything.
He also sold his racing to money makers.
Carroll Shelby to drive Gordie Guibersonin
four and a half-liter Ferrari.
Shelby did
just as well in her cannabis business.
The first batch of chicken
brought him nearly $ 5,000.
That was a big sum then.
He thought he was getting rich.
I inserted a needle into chickens to prevent
the spread of Newcastle disease.
All the chickens died
and I went bankrupt.
Shelby lost 20,000 birds in
two days.
He was immediately bankrupt.
Probably a couple of survivors
peeked into the hen house, -
but they were not enough for business.
Everyone was dead.
Because I grew up in East Texas -
in very poor conditions -
and the recession chefs,
realizes
that the world is turning upside down -
every day to someone
who just did well.
He didn't know what to do.
Especially the end of the cannabis business -
was a big change for him. He had
trouble finding other things to do.
I think he had already learned
not going to work for another.
It didn't suit him. Had to find something
he could do alone.
I always dreamed of a racing profession.
I was 29 when I said
"Hell, I'm going to try it."
Shelby was an innate racer.
In 1953, he competed nine times.
He won five times
and came in second twice.
Look at car number 20 as it enters the
inner corner, leaving the others behind.
Hes Carroll Shelby,
and that took him to the lead.
My dad didnt earn much by
competing.
He knew that would be it.
It was a lean time.
No one then considered themselves poor.
There was just no money that week.
Once he brought home a truck
full of beans.
We lived with them for a long time.
After starting to compete,
he found himself good.
Thats when he decided to make a name for himself
and use his reputation to develop other things.
Shelby wanted to turn his track record into a
productive business outside of it.
By 1954, it was producing results.
The worlds biggest actors
began to take an interest in him.
In 1954, he went to
Europe for the first time -
competing at the Aston Martinin in
Le Mans.
Arrangements for LE Mansin Ajoanne
He started to win
and make a name for himself.
Motorsports The
Yankees Are Coming
The question was not, "Could he win?",
But rather:
"If he didn't win, I
guess the car broke down."
When they said,
"You can go to Argentina,"
he did not leave a stone unturned
to get plane tickets there.
So he returned and went to Mexico.
I raced in Mexico in 1954
at Austin-Healey.
Panamericana was probably the most
awesome rally race of all time .
I started from the Guatemalan border,
and ended up in Juarez.
The distance was a couple of thousand miles,
and no one could learn the route completely.
The prize money was over 117,000 bucks,
a large part of which went to the winner.
Shelby knew
that a profit would support the family for years.
Carrera Panamericana had
to offer a large profit,
because it was one of the most
dangerous races in the world .
Nine drivers died last year.
The trip went pretty well.
I kept up with the Ferrari and Lincolns on a
four-cylinder Austin-Healey.
Then I went to school.
The car crashed.
Two Americans Died
Two Injured
Cars didn't last -
a sudden stop.
There were deaths.
There were no
seat belts then, so he flew out of the car.
I hit the handle so hard
that my elbow broke -
and I got a little bumps.
Racing was then the
most dangerous sport in the world.
Shelby knew its dangers.
He had already lost friends,
but the race was in his blood.
The race killed many drivers -
for too many years.
It had to be accepted annually,
that one in four drivers
would be involved in an accident -
and that part would die.
Half of that years U.S. star drivers
would probably die in the Grand Prix.
It was not uncommon for us to lose four
or five drivers a year -
In the 50's.
Fire is the worst enemy of racing,
but the driving must continue.
Charioteer
I hope that does not happen to you.
The only group of people
who accepted it as part of the work
were the drivers themselves.
-Didn't you be scared of it?
-I do not. I won next in Riverside.
After
breaking his hand, he drove his hand in plaster, taping his hand to the steering wheel.
He was so determined
that continued to drive even with a broken hand.
The sender opens the checkered flag
and cools over the paint -
Carroll Shelby, Torrey Pines winner.
February 1956
Carroll Shelby pushes his Ferrari
to show the way.
Winner
10 laps left.
Drivers increase the speed to the
limits of human and machine endurance.
Winner
Sebring's 12 Hour DRIVING
He was driving a big 4.9-liter Ferrari,
giant 5.7-liter Maserat
and Birdcages.
He constantly won.
Winner
Winner
He wore overalls and was a showman.
A London newspaper read,
that the man in the giant hat
came to challenge the stars.
He was a big man in a Stetson hat ...
master driver
... who seemed to be coming from
chasing bad guys.
Everyone was impressed with
his driving skills.
To win,
mental readiness must be maintained.
If you are not mentally ready for the race,
not beat it with any car.
Between 1955 and 1957,
Shelby drove 81 races.
He won more than half of the races.
Easy win
Shelby Wins
61,978 Proved Victory
Shelbyn Maserati Escapes
He won the Sports Illustrated
Driver of the Year award twice.
He was considered the best
racer ever.
He is the underrated winning driver -
fans in
both Europe and America.
He is the most undervalued driver.
Shelby competed around the world
and won everywhere.
But in Europe, competition meant
something else. He examined cars.
In Europe,
I wanted to learn because
how Ferrari, Maserati
and Aston Martin built their cars -
and ran small car companies.
Carroll Shelby visited Ferrari -
twice in the mid-1950s -
above all as a customer.
Shelby founded the company with
his partner -
to import the most successful
European sports cars of the time.
Of course, they wanted to join Ferrari,
who had dominated the race for a decade.
Both times -
Enzo Ferrari treated Shelby like filth.
Carroll
seems to be watching Enzo Ferrari quite closely,
I think he learned a lot from it.
In particular
, he did not get along with Enzo.
Dad was never a
very big Ferrari fan.
Enzo didn't even want to hear about him.
He didn't seem to like a cowboy hat,
overalls and the like.
Enzo didn't understand it.
So Carroll Shelby told Ferrari that
he was rocking him -
some day.
Shelby didnt have to wait long for a
race against Ferrari.
At Le Mans in 1959, running 24 hours,
in the worlds biggest race,
Shelby drove an Aston Martin.
He fought for the lead with
Ferrari.
During the night, the father
systematically began to rise to the top.
He really wasnt the fastest on the track.
It was like a fairy tale turtle and hare.
Shelby drives a fifth Aston from the S-bend.
With eight hours left,
Ferrari number 14 leads the
fifth Aston in three laps.
Shelby fought Ferraria -
against the worlds largest
24-hour race.
He was getting
the biggest win of his life.
In praising Aston Martin on the
13.6 km track -
his heart began to fail.
The pain was unbearable.
I knew about my hereditary ailments.
My father died at it at the age of 46.
So I thought
there was nothing that could be done about it.
The pain grew so great
that Shelby went into double the pain.
The only relief was temporary
and came in the form of nitropillers,
which he took while driving.
That way, he was somehow able to keep
racing for hours.
Shelby and Salvador put pressure on Ferrari.
As the race continued, the
generally reliable Ferrari began to disintegrate.
And Aston Martin approached.
Mulsanne Straight -
Shelby gets to the same
lap as Ferrari.
Now the Ferrari race is over.
Gendebien brings
his broken car to the depot.
The winner comes to the finish
and is covered under a bubbling mass,
who praises the profit excitedly.
Earned profit
because it has been long awaited.
What Shelby did -
with his team of two while competing for
24 hours with heart failure -
winning the world's largest
racing event ...
It will never be repeated.
It was probably the pinnacle of his career.
Finally, the doctor said,
"You can't continue. It will kill you."
Shelby tried to continue the race
in 1960,
but realized he had to stop.
Carroll Shelby Ends a Great Racing Career
Racing was not
very lucrative at the time,
and I had no livelihood.
I experienced a very unfortunate divorce,
and I had to start from the beginning poor.
A racer who retires with heart problems
is quickly forgotten.
Worker
At the end of his racing career, Shelby
was already planning his new project.
OPI Racing
After the
finish , he didn't know for sure
what should be done.
But he thought of setting up a
school for racing drivers.
I was the
first employee of his driving school .
Racing lovers will often find
that the more you learn from it,
the more fascinating the species becomes.
There is just no more qualified basics
teacher than our own Pete Brock.
Carroll asked me
to run a driving school in Riverside.
During idle time I started -
to work for
Carroll in another business as well.
In 1960, a doctor said I had
maybe five years to live.
I thought, What then?
-Then I can even try to
build a car, which I have dreamed of. "
I just had a dream -
creating a sports car
that more could own.
And second, they could compete in
U.S. colors -
sohis a bit at the same time
well-established characters.
The Corvettes won everything.
I said, "Carroll, it's not going to happen."
He said, "It's happening."
The Corvette was the
dominant race car at the time.
And Shelby really
wanted to win the Corvette.
He knew that in order to be named a
car manufacturer -
had to build a Corvette killer.
Carroll was basically an entrepreneur.
He did what he wanted
and was full of ideas in the mornings.
He had always dreamed of it
even when he was in Europe for the first time.
He wanted a European light body
with a light American V8.
Ray Brock of Peterson Publication said:
"Ford has a new sub-block V8.
You could develop something with him."
I also knew that AC had lost a
contract with Bristol Engine.
Carroll told AC, a
great salesman when he was:
Ford is my support
and we are going to build sports cars.
Would you supply us with a couple of frames for free? "
He was a great person.
master driver
He was not overwhelmed by honesty.
One of his nicknames was
Billie Sol Estes.
My father called him Billie
Sol after Billie Sol Estes.
Billie was a man
who sold a lot of non-existent stuff.
Billie Sol Estes was also Texas.
He managed to sell -
fertilizer tanks that do not exist for the state.
He earned a lot with it.
Carroll Shelby meni
Ford Motor Companyyn,
knocked on the door and got an appointment -
With Lee Iacocca,
who led sales and marketing.
I said to Lee Iacocca,
"If you borrow $ 25,000,
Im building a car that will beat the Corvette.
It doesn't cost more. "
He said:
I produced AC Cobra hulls from England.
I want to put a Ford engine in them
and race around the world. "
I had no money, but
neither Ford nor AC Cars knew it.
He knew how to connect with people,
and he took advantage of it.
After cheating both -
I got myself a chassis
and four or five Ford engines.
He was still talking
as they pushed him into the yard.
Finally, Iacocca said,
"Get rid of him,
give me a couple of engines and money.
Let's see what he can do. "
I wanted to build my own car.
The only people in America
who could do it back then
were tuners.
It all started here in California.
Shelby did smartly
when moving to California -
and utilizing tuners,
mechanical engineers,
mechanics, welders, painters.
Everyone had a race car
or hot rod in their garage.
The car had to be unique.
He wanted to edit it. The wheels were replaced
or an extra carburetor was installed.
People tuned their cars across the country -
in terms of speed or appearance.
Young people literally marched in their
cities demanding acceleration tracks.
He's heavily involved
up to the speedometer -
at a hard speed of 274 kilometers per hour.
The center of events was in
Southern California.
Lance Reventlow had gathered
a group of people in California,
who had built a
car that looked capable of success .
It was the first car from the US
to compete with Ferraris -
and against European cars.
So I decided to come here.
Southern California
February 1962
I transmitted a couple of engines -
Dean Moon's workshop in Los Angeles,
and we started working on them.
The AC body had also
arrived in Southern California.
Carroll's PR Manager ...
Photographer
... asked me to come to Dean
Moon's workshop in Santa Fe Springs -
to take pictures of
a car under construction.
When I arrived at the workshop, I asked
"What the hell is that?"
No one knew if it would work or not.
Dean Moons engine
manager built the engine and got it running.
We started experimenting with carburetors
and manifolds,
and we got the engine to
produce up to 265 horsepower.
Carroll rode it -
and asked, "Where are the Corvettes?"
I liked to drive a Cobra Roadster.
It broke all the rules.
It was still light, it had good brakes -
and the engine torque was wide.
They had a lot of fun driving.
Meanwhile, Lance Reventlow
and his Scarab racing team -
moved in the opposite direction.
Although the car was competitive,
Revetlow had had enough of the
cost of racing.
Looking at the
core of the Shelby American team,
had they come from Lance Reventlows
Scarab project.
Carroll took it over
when Reventlow gave up the race.
Part of the population then stayed with the building.
As a result, the
best guy ever came along , Phil Remington.
I dont think anyone has been able to do
what Phil was capable of.
Remington is one of the few legends -
in racing
that is not a driver or teacher.
He was a
self-taught genius in mechanical engineering .
When something broke down,
he knew how to build, weld, machine,
or manufacture it in place.
He was awesome.
He was full of ideas
and only needed one,
but they were all good.
He also taught the younger ones
to do it all,
such as parts building and more.
Those who worked under
him praise him.
We all appreciated Remington.
They all learn from him. Jukolauta.
He's awesome.
To improve his companys finances,
Carroll wanted to create the impression
that Shelby American was
bigger than it really was .
There was a small problem with that.
Shelby had only one Cobra.
Carroll was a salesman.
He could bend the truth
to get the necessary done.
All that time -
he built relationships with MotorTrend,
Car and Driver and Road and Track,
so when the car was completed,
they were all coming to test it.
That there seemed to be more of them,
Shelby painted the car with a new color -
whenever a press representative
was coming to test.
One drove in yellow, the
other in blue -
and the third in a red car, exclaiming,
"Lord! We got an exclusivity case!"
So every magazine thought
they had something special.
Shelby was in the right place at the
right time.
He had a
young tuner in his ranks ,
who knew how to tune cars
and work metal.
And he had Phil Remington, a
technical genius.
From all this, a great company was born.
It was an interesting time.
There was a good spirit.
We were a very small group.
There were eight of us. We had
one Frenchman, a Swiss,
Japanese, New Zealand
and Australian as well.
They all work together
incredibly well.
Everyone was some kind of racer
and tuner.
It was a good workshop to work with.
Like a big family,
who teased each other.
We had a lot of nicknames.
We hired a foreman
named Carroll Smith.
- "Shotgun Shit" was his nickname.
-Which Miles did we say "Hawk."
Some called him "Side Bite,"
as he spoke from the side of his mouth.
Have a good day for Ford.
I'm happy for them.
I'm really sorry for Dan.
He was only understood
if he focused properly.
Gordon Chance was "Ricky Nelson"
because they looked like each other.
"Ricky Nelson," "Teen Tuner."
They thought it was fun.
Remington jerked constantly.
Hn oli "STP", "Super Twitch Phil".
That name followed him.
We were a bunch of crazy,
a little reckless, guys.
They had a kind of aquarium
with a living cobra.
The right beaver snake.
Charlie always had fireworks.
He threw them from time to time.
They lit them in an
engine workshop behind the backs of engineers.
There echoed loudly.
Ferrari was contentious.
He punched people against each other.
It was not a happy job.
At Shelby American,
Carroll Shelby was a team leader ...
communications Consultant
... and a team builder.
It was a happy job.
For Shelby, working at the beginning was then -
like tinkering in an amateur workshop.
While it was hard work,
it was the kind of work you wanted to do.
When
he came to the workshop, Carroll said some compliment.
"Fine welding."
The feeling was appreciated.
It made me work harder
and increased my motivation.
I could go with the boys for the evening shift -
in my own spare time.
I just came back to watch.
He knew how to connect with
all kinds of people.
It
didnt really matter the background or the profession.
If he liked someone,
he couldnt do wrong.
If he did his job,
he couldnt do wrong.
If he didnt like someone, he was worth watching
.
In less than ten months,
Shelby realized his vision.
A car that everyone would envy -
and who could potentially win on the track.
But Shelby knew
that in order to sell cars -
he had to win the Corvette.
The Corvette had to win.
That was Cobras main challenge.
This Corvette was developed by
Chevrolet engineers,
led by Zora Arkus-Duntov,
an internationally renowned designer
and racer.
The first race was held at Riverside.
All the West Coast Corvette drivers
were there -
including Bob Bondurant,
Dick Guldstrand, and Dave MacDonald.
Billy Krause came on the
first Cobra.
Billy Krause was
one of the best racers of the time.
He was very skilled.
There
was no competitive value for the Corvettes at the time.
Until the Cobras came.
Riverside Racecourse
October 1962
When we came to Riverside with Cobra,
no one knew what to think.
After a few rounds,
it survived pretty quickly.
I drove in front with MacDonald.
I knew I had to beat him,
so I wanted to test Cobra
knowing his ability with the Corvette.
I didnt have to guess,
but I knew he was trying to be full.
Krause immediately took the lead.
It showed that the car was much
more sophisticated than the Corvette.
Right in his first race at Riverside -
Cobra dominated
and made the Corvette look bad.
I was even surprised at
how easy the Corvette was to win.
I was half a lap ahead.
As
I entered the sloping bend, I heard a bang, and the ring passed me.
I said, "This is a bad thing."
Cobra led the competition effortlessly,
when the shoulder shaft broke.
Stingray won that race.
But everyone knew
Cobra would rule after that.
They charge Haaste
Other drivers
avoided me after that.
They were jealous. That's what it was.
My father was impressed with Cobra.
It was really fast and light.
Son of Dave Macdonald
Much lighter than the Stingray.
He knew what that competition meant.
Shelby didnt win, but he testified
that Cobra would go ahead of the Corvette.
It was a recognition that Carroll
and Ford had found something special.
We were the first competitor in the
racing car industry in a long time.
And like driver Carroll Shelby,
Shelby Cobra also started to win.
Pacific Coast Championship
LA Times GT Race
Winner
First, Second and Third Place
We drive up to 40 hours without
servicing them.
Its phenomenal,
even better than Ferraris performance.
They have been considered reliable cars,
and I think we defeated them in it.
So Im not worried about 800 miles.
I even hope it would be 1,600.
Carroll Shelby wins the
Cobralla Manufacturers Championship.
Cobra creator Carroll Shelby
has accomplished his goals.
We won the driver
's championship , the manufacturers' championship -
and of course the Usrrc Championship.
He did whatever he wanted.
Won Ferraris, Corvettet,
Porschet and everyone else.
When we were able to compete
and beat them,
it was a huge achievement.
It meant a lot to Shelby -
yes Ford Motor Companylle.
Henry Ford II, Chairman of Ford,
knew the value of race wins.
But he wanted to
win at the highest level.
It meant
winning the worlds biggest, the 24-hour run of Le Mans.
The magnitude of Le Mans' victory during that time
must be understood.
It made the winning drivers
and manufacturers celebrities.
Large manufacturers take part in
long-distance driving,
because its a heavy race
that enhances the brand.
master driver
If Ford can win
reliably at Le Mans,
it says something about technology.
Every car company had a marketing department,
for whom racing was an obsessive
technique for selling cars.
They said,
"Win on Sunday, sell on Monday."
Our brand didnt have
the performance image that
-which customers wanted.
-Ford had a Galaxie.
and Thunderbird,
but a credible racing car -
Ford didn't.
Henry saw Ferrari win in
race times.
He said to it,
"We need those red cars."
His solution to Le Mans victory
was to buy a Ferrari.
After Shelby defeated
Aston Martin in 1959 -
Ferrari dominated, winning
every 24-hour race ever since.
In speed and durability -
It was unparalleled for Ferrari.
A
lot of effort was put into reaching an agreement.
We try to fulfill your wishes
as well as possible.
My father thought the deal would be clear.
MEMBER OF THE BOARD
Ford would get
an amazing brand.
I said, "I don't want to sell it."
Enzo Ferrari pulled Henry Ford II to
get a better deal from Fiat,
which he eventually entered into.
My father was very disappointed.
That's when he decided, "We'll
beat you in your own game in your own backyard."
Ford began building a race car with
no budget constraints.
The GT40 was designed for two purposes.
To win Le Mans -
and the humiliation of Ferrari.
Shelby had not forgotten his resentment towards
Enzo Ferrari,
and he wanted to challenge this in Le Mans.
But the car lacked it.
Although it was good in short races,
it was not a suitable car for Europe.
Its top speed just wasnt enough.
We wanted to take part in
an international competition,
but old 289 Cobra -
was as aerodynamic
as the shoe box.
The lines of this country could not run
more than 250 kilometers per hour anyway.
So our car didnt go that harder.
As if trying to thank the brick.
Shelby knew
Cobra's aerodynamics couldn't -
praise 320 kilometers per hour on the
Mulsanne line at Le Mans.
We knew something had to be done about
the design of the body.
There was a young
man named Pete Brock in my bread ,
I asked him, "Could we
build a more streamlined Cobra?"
I said, "We can design a
whole new body -
on the platform of the current Cobra, and I think we
will make them run faster.
But it may
never look like anything youve ever seen.
He said, "I don't care about its appearance.
Does it go fast?"
I said, "I think so."
The idea for the new body shape
was actually -
developed in Germany in the late 1930s -
Reinhard von Koenig-Fachsenfeldin
toimesta.
That idea -
had never been tried before in
modern competition.
By increasing the length and breaking the stern,
the air flowing behind the car behaved -
as if it were flowing so far.
I warned it to be so different
that it would be opposed.
I knew it because I knew its history.
At the time, manufacturers, including BMW,
conducted target group tests.
The cars looked so strange
that they were repulsed.
So the idea was not implemented.
World War II began.
The factories were bombed.
All that information disappeared.
But when
I was at General Motors, I found their library -
A publication of their research.
It showed how aerodynamics improved.
I didn't know German,
but I understood air resistance -
coefficients describing improvement.
Those ideas could be applied to Cobra.
I presented the idea to the crew,
because they had to build that car.
My enthusiasm came to an end,
because I showed them what that strange-
looking broken car would look like.
Phil Remington was most opposed to
who was our chief engineer -
and idol.
He was the best
racing car maker in the world.
I thought, "If Phil gets involved,
this will be a success."
He thought it looked stupid
and wouldnt work.
Of course everyone else pees at him
, saying:
"We don't want to do that either."
He was barked, saying
it wouldn't work -
and so on.
Especially the decision-makers.
When I looked at Pete Brock's coupe,
I thought it weighed something like 90 -
or 140 pounds more -
and that it freezes the engine.
I didnt think it would work very well.
But Shelby was on his side.
The rest didn't really matter.
I knew little about aerodynamics.
It looked good to me.
Aeronutronics,
Ford's defense company,
there was a knowledgeable crowd
who understood aerodynamics.
They said, "That's not going to work."
They said extending the stern a
meter more would work better.
The teardrop shape was generally considered -
as the most aerodynamic form of car.
But the efficiency was pretty poor.
It caused turbulence along the basket.
Fortunately, our top driver, Ken Miles,
had seen what the Germans were doing.
He knew they had come up with something.
He assured Carroll
that the project should be implemented.
He said, "Ok, do it."
I said, "Ok, what's our budget?"
He said, We dont have money,
so you get Skip Hudsons
old crash car. "
The body was damaged,
but the platform was still in good condition.
Brock got his chance, but no time.
Shelby American didnt just compete.
It produced Cobria for street use,
and demand was strong.
Shelby gave Brock
a strict time limit to produce the car.
We had a 90-day window to
build a car from the first draft -
as a ready-made car for the Daytona Games.
I cut the shape with a pattern saw -
and I assembled the car into a pile.
We made a basket mold to see
it in full size.
As it began to take shape,
the people began to believe it.
When the car began to be completed,
everyone participated to make it.
Phil Remington, Ken Miles,
John Olson ja Donn Allen -
assembled the platform,
and we built the first basket.
It looked weird with a break,
and not everyone thought it would work.
We got the car ready.
Then we took it to Riverside.
Riverside, California
February 1964
Pete Brock defied everyone with his creation.
It was time to see how it would work,
because the stopwatch is not lying.
It was 40 km / h faster on the
back of the Riverside -
like an ordinary cobra.
Right out of the box -
it was three and a half seconds
faster than any other we drove.
Ken was amazed at its speed as he
thanked Riverside.
It went pretty well.
It traveled 270 km / h on a straight line -
-350 horsepower.
-Paint on the surface and stripe on.
Namely, Pete had created
an incredible model.
Carroll said, "Let's take it to the workshop.
Prepare it for Daytona."
Shelby named the car after
The Daytona Continental.
Since then, it has always been
Cobra Daytona.
When we came to Daytona,
Carroll had ordered Bob Holbert
and Dave MacDonald to drive the car.
The main resistance against Cobra was the
Ferrari 250 GTO.
It was unusual for a U.S. car to
challenge them.
It did not please the
European racing elite.
Enzo Ferrari and his team did not
know about the strange shape -
a lot from the car.
But it soon became familiar.
When the race began, Daytona Coupe and Ferrari
and fought for the lead.
When Holbert went to
race against the Ferraris -
and returned after a couple of rounds:
"I can easily escape these guys."
After 110 laps, the Daytona Coupe
had a ten-minute lead.
Ferraris were increasingly lagging behind.
We also tested fuels.
The car was 25% more efficient than roadsters.
In the endurance race, fuel consumption
was even more important.
If you could get three laps longer every time
Ferrari refueled, you would win the race.
The Daytona Coupe was much faster than the others.
It was unbelievable.
Nothing came close.
slow down
By the seventh hour of the race,
we were so far ahead,
that the competition had been won.
When they came to the depot
and the car started refueling,
it erupted from the other side,
flowed down and caught fire.
At one point, the car seemed to explode.
One of our New Zealanders
was on fire.
We tried to shut down Olson.
Meanwhile, he shouted
that he had dropped his wallet.
We then picked it up for him.
Carroll was angry about the situation
and said:
"That was it."
The mechanics said, Carroll,
we can fix the wiring.
This does not hurt. We lose rounds,
but the car is so fast
that we can still win the race. "
Shelby stayed tight
and took the car out of the race.
The race was not won,
but we set a lap time record.
Then we went to Sebring.
Shelbyn Cobrat, led by
Daytona Coupe number 10,
caused confusion at the checkpoint.
The reaction after Daytona
was quite confusing,
because clearly we were fast,
but the car had
also proved vulnerable.
Dominated by Ferraris.
They dominate the prototype class with their four-
and three-liter cars.
They had been world champions
since 62,
and by then it was already the beginning of the year 64.
They won everything during 1963.
So they were confident.
The Ferrari factory team
had dominated the races almost always.
When you think of Ferraris, you would think
that the founder of its company would be rich.
He wasnt, because all the money
was spent on racing.
Carroll Shelby had already decided
what he thought of Enzo Ferrari.
I have always done to a driver with,
which is responsible for the car beneath him.
That would be good for motorsports,
if the Americans beat Ferrari.
Sebringin 12 Hour DRIVING
They already left at five.
Its an earlier misstep
than ever before.
Penske escapes in front of Holbert.
The competition began,
and we went our way.
Ferraris and Porsches were left behind.
And not just GT cars
but also prototypes.
The people understood pretty quickly,
that the car would be really fast.
An incredible group from California, California,
beat those top manufacturers.
As desired, Carroll Shelby
beat the Ferrari GTOs -
taking the
lead in the manufacturers championship .
Holbert
and MacDonald led the winners ...
When Holbert and Davy won in Sebring,
Ferrari was certainly already worried.
We ruled.
That's when we decided to go to Europe,
when we saw we could beat the GTO in a
12-hour race.
This, too, began to be
very personal for Ferrari -
and Shelby.
All Americans wanted
to leave for India.
That was their goal.
Carrolls goal was
to beat Ferrari.
because Enzo Ferrari insulted him once.
He wanted to go back to show
what the Americans are capable of.
He held a press conference -
where he told reporters:
"I'll beat Ferrari."
We knew our car would beat Ferrari.
So we made a little money with
Castrol's help,
and we also
earned a bit from Cobra sales .
So we arranged a trip -
with a sizeable budget
and we went to Europe.
JUNE 1964
Of all the races in the world,
Le Mans was the biggest.
If Le Mans won, it was the best.
Since its inception in 1908
, it has been the most prestigious race.
For car manufacturers, that race
proves the durability of cars.
better than any other competition.
It is
the most important competition in the world for the car manufacturer commercially .
The
whole planet hears about the winner of Le Mans .
It became a huge publicity
that Ford participated in the Le Mans race.
It took almost 14 months,
but the Ford GT40 was ready for Le Mans -
and to end Ferrari's dominant position.
Millions of dollars were spent on that project .
It gained tremendous publicity as a result of
Fords PR campaign.
DOES Ford Ferrari take LE Mans?
The style of the GT40 represented ...
Vice chairman
... a big change in motorsports.
That car surprised my dad.
Im not sure if people had seen
such a low car.
It was very dynamically formulated.
Although Shelby used a Ford engine,
the relationship ended there.
Ford cared nothing more
than his race car, the GT40.
No one was watching Cobra,
and we had two Daytones in the GT class.
There has always been a class structure in racing.
At the top of the totem pile
is a prototype class. Everything happened,
and they were allowed to build
as many as they wanted.
If you only built one,
it was a prototype.
The next category was
typically GT,
and it is a production-based class.
The GT class has a lot of value for the manufacturer,
because it is based on cars for sale.
Everything was ready for the speed war.
Ferrari P-Series against Ford GT40.
Shelby American Daytona Coupe -
against Ferrari 250 GTO.
Each manufacturer
had put everything into their cars.
Le Mans always had hundreds of thousands of
spectators, but then it was full.
Fords debut at Le Mans
attracted millions around the world.
Le Mans' 24-hour drive begins,
and there are
three flashing Ford GTs.
At 4pm the sender drops the ticket
and runs to safety.
In the opening rounds, the GT40
was furiously fast.
It was followed by a camera helicopter.
Its top speed was amazing.
The cars were fast.
Richie Ginther was especially -
fast challenging Ferraris.
That was his job,
because he was a lead car.
Richie Ginthers blue-striped Ford
took the lead in the second round.
American colors lead in Le Mans.
Do you have anything on your sleeve
that you could visit the depot more?
I can get in for 15 seconds anytime,
but we try to drive 24 hours.
So you can't come to the
depot for 15 seconds?
In the GT class, both Cobras
were faster than the GTO -
and kept pace with even the prototypes.
Shelby Americans debut
went well,
until incorrect start of empty battery -
led to the rejection of the six-car.
Only one
Cobra driven by Dan Gurney and Bob Bondurant remained.
The loss of one coupe was
a serious blow to Shelby and the team -
hampering their ability to win the race.
Fords first victim is Richard
Attwood from Britain.
We had driven for maybe two
or three hours,
when I saw the flames begin to rise from the
engine compartment.
It burned pretty hard when I got out.
There was a flare under the hood.
This is the Sustainability Grand Prix ...
-Yes.
-... and its essence is this.
It measures
the durability of the driver and the car.
This is a combination that I think -
exhausts many drivers and cars.
I'm afraid that's the case now.
We started with 55 cars.
I dont think more than 15
or 20 will reach the finish line.
At the last minute, Ford is in trouble.
Richie Ginthers GT40 is pulled from the race.
At 13 p.m., Phil Hill also retires.
By the morning,
when all the GT40s had broken down,
was Ford
drivers forced to pay attention to the Daytona Coupe.
It was winning the
race in both classes.
Daytona had a real chance
to beat Ferrari.
On long straights, we left the
Ferraris behind. It was a clear game.
I don't believe in the European racing world -
expected a challenge from America.
They thought they had
an established right -
To
manage a valuable event in Le Mans .
Then the leading car withdrew from the race.
There
were a lot of problems in this car of John Surtees and Lorenzo Bandin at night.
From the depot visit back to the track.
That's where he goes.
I thought, "Will we win the whole race?"
We led the whole race for a while,
and nothing could go before us.
They competed against one leading Ferrari
-
defeating them.
Kvi had gotten through the oil cooler,
and it had a small hole
that sprayed oil everywhere.
So it had to be run very carefully.
Stay in front of Ferrari. We use the brakes -
instead of a higher speed.
-Alright.
It ran for the last four
or five hours at a temperature of 150 degrees -
without stitching at all.
What do you say to that? Great.
The oil spill prevented
Le Mans from being completely defeated ,
but Shelby and
his team still won the GT class and Ferrari.
For the first time in history, the
American car won at Le Mans.
Winner
GT-Class
Carroll was, of course, very pleased.
On the other hand, he pursued his goal,
which was the victory of the championship.
Before reaching the goal,
he didnt plan to celebrate early.
At first, the cars did not reach the finish line.
For many mechanical reasons, the GT40s
were not strong enough.
Ferrari Won Again
Ferrari defeated Le Mans again in 1964,
taking a triple victory.
Proud Ferrari Won Again
Henry Ford II was not pleased.
He wanted someone
who had shown his ability to win.
Ford knew all along, as did the entire underworld,
that Shelby could do it.
Shelby had won
Le Mans as a driver -
and later manufactured by
Daytona Coupella.
So after 1964,
he hired Shelby -
to help develop cars.
Here, too, we are excited.
About this new Ford GT.
It was built by Ford engineers -
as a laboratory on wheels
to test new ideas -
and to prove Fords
abilities in open competition.
Our job is to test
and compete with it internationally.
Their biggest concern
was sustainability.
These 12 and 24 hour races
are insanely demanding.
Carroll Shelby knew the challenges of his job.
I remember when those two GT40s
came to our workshop.
They still had surface wheels
and they overheated.
So Phil started working on the problems.
Phil Remington was responsible for our
success there.
Despite his
reluctance to build Daytona -
he was still the most important type of team.
When Shelby got those cars, we
first put Halibrands magnesium wheels in them .
Larger tires
increased the strain on the car.
There were problems with the suspension
even before the bigger tires and wheels.
They changed the geometry of the suspension
and replaced the engine.
Much of the subsystems
were redesigned.
In addition to redesigning the failed GT40, Ford gave Shelby -
another product
that needed Shelbys attention.
After Carroll's success with Cobra,
Ford asked him -
to do something for the
just released Mustang.
That was the beginning of the GT350.
When the Mustang was created -
By Lee Iacocca, other Fordists
and my grandfather,
it was just a way
to get young people into showrooms.
It was almost a housewives car in 64.
Beautiful day. Mustang-day.
Ford Mustang. Practical enough for
this family of five -
and beautiful enough
to win a Tiffany Gold Medal -
as a promoter of American design.
-Then came Carroll Shelby.
The Mustang was very popular,
but it was a secretaries car.
Instead of its small six-cylinder, the
V8 was wanted,
and it was intended to be more sporty to
attract a larger audience,
especially those who value performance.
I thought, "No mule can be
won by a racehorse."
The Mustangs were a real change.
Then the workshop became
completely crowded.
Then they realized
that a larger workshop had to be acquired.
They moved from the
workshop on Princeton Street to the airport.
I don't know how Shelby slept.
He ran the tire department,
racing workshop and assembly line.
The spare parts department supplied parts
around the world.
250 people worked there.
It just grew to grow.
The types of assembly line were
17, 18, and 19 years old.
The spare part had
18-, 19- and 20-year-olds.
At the race workshop, half
were in their twenties.
The oldest there was Shelby.
He was 40 years old.
Shelby didn't think
he could do anything wrong.
He had turned Cobra into a
Daytona Coupe -
and became the leader of the GT40 program.
His rise from a poor ex-racer to a CEO of the
automotive industry was staggering.
And Shelby knew how to make sure
everyone knew about it.
Carroll Shelby was a marketing difference.
He made himself available to the world in
every way.
We were amused
that the photographer always followed him.
Carroll Shelby's photo
had to always be placed on the front page of every magazine,
where he was written about.
The Builder of Their Fast Cobrien
Carroll Shelby THANK YOU to the Top in
Pohatta Overalls
Fast Cars ARE FAST IN PARIS
Shelbyn Company to New LA Factory
He had to do something remarkable,
and his agent had to get it in the papers,
that Shelbys legend would continue.
If another mechanic -
got his picture in a magazine without Carroll,
that mechanic could get fired.
He had to promote Shelby.
Few realized in the midst of it all
that Ford had taken over Shelby American.
These stylish racing cars
represent Ford in California.
They are Shelby American,
world champion Ford Cobran -
and the
builders of the Mustang GT350 sports car builders.
It became a division of Ford.
The other side of the issue was
that he was a factory team.
He was theirs. They owned him.
I had to build the Mustangs,
Cobrat -
and try -
to fix the Ford GT program.
It was too much for me.
The whole atmosphere changed.
It changed from a heady workshop -
company.
It became more sterile when we
moved to the airport,
because there were more rules.
It was a different environment. It was big.
We moved from 900 square meters -
something like 3,700 square feet.
As the activity spread,
the outfit was not as close
as before.
Shelby American experienced growing pains.
It was no longer a workshop full of
car enthusiasts and tuners.
It was a professional operation.
The quality of the work was still unparalleled -
starting with the
redesign of the Ford Mustang .
This GT350 is a racing version of the
Ford Mustang 2 + 2.
We prepared them for the race by installing
special components, among other things.
We turned the Mustang hatchback into a
race car.
The baskets came from the factory -
but lighter skirts
and plexiglass windows lightened them.
We modified the engine
and also welded the drawbars,
to strengthen the suspension.
The GT350s were built on the assembly line
,
which were roadworthy.
We sold them to customers for $ 5,900.
In the second hall, R-models were built
for the race track.
Mustangs werent a big deal
until they started racing.
It brought the Mustang to the world map.
They sent more rally
and race cars -
European Games in 64.
They won
first and second place in the Tour de France .
September 1964
It was an important victory -
To the Mustangs because they hadnt
won anything in America.
The victory showed Fords management
that the former secretarys car, the Mustang,
could be fast and win races.
But Shelby made it clear
that he had other goals.
I dont care about the Tour de France anyway.
It means a lot to many out there,
but it was not
as important to me as Daytona,
Sebring....
ja Le Mans.
At the end of 1964, Carroll Shelby
wanted only one thing,
to win the Ferrari
Manufacturers World Championship.
In the last race of the season in Monza -
Daytona would win the
manufacturers' championship -
and Ferrari, as Shelby had promised.
Ferrari only had a couple of points
more than us.
It was all up to
Monzas final race.
By then, we had four cars.
So we went to Monza with
four Daytona Coupes.
We knew we were crushing Ferrari.
Enzo Ferrari saw what was to come.
He was not going to allow it.
Ferrari objected to
he was not allowed to use
the cars he wanted.
Eventually, the competition was then canceled.
No points could be awarded
and Cobra could not win.
Ferrari won again.
Ferrari won in 1964 by politicizing,
not the fastest car.
For Shelby, the 1965 season
seemed to be the most stressful.
Cobra and GT40 -
competed
in the same endurance competitions .
Ford executives put pressure on Shelby -
focus on the GT40.
Two months before Daytona, the
car was nowhere near complete.
Testing 1965
Ken Miles was the test driver for the statement.
He tested and developed most of the cars.
He was an engineer before Shelby
and founding his own company.
Ken Miles drove it first.
He didn't like it.
I jumped in the car, drove it,
and it wasnt good to drive.
It was not as
aerodynamic as it should have been.
Remington made a new basket for it.
They adjusted the ride height and suspension,
replaced the shock absorbers
and stiffened them.
Then we put in a more powerful engine to
make it run faster.
Every time it was machined,
it got better and better.
We expect a lot from our cars
this year.
We hope that with Ford
we can make this an American year.
Soon we will compete with the
best opponents in the world.
After last years test season, the
Ford GT -
start its first race season -
making his American debut at
Daytona Continental.
43 cars,
29 from Europe and 14 from America,
starts the 2,000-mile
Daytona Continental race.
The GT40s raced in Daytona in 1965.
Shelby had less than two months
to turn them into winners.
The cars follow the safety car
before the moving departure.
Number 77 Ferrari,
the fastest in the qualifiers, is on the indoor track.
The number 72 Ford GT, the
second fastest, is on the outer track.
And the competition begins!
At the beginning of the competition
Bob Bondurant thanked -
On his GT40 past Surtees Ferrari.
Bob Bondurant thanks him for the first bend in his
For GT number 72.
In the second bend, my speed was 320 km / h.
I was 18 cars
ahead of Surtees.
The car felt good. I was in a pinch.
Our work had paid off.
With all the changes made by Remington
, the car had become very fast.
For the first time, the
GT40s reached the finish line.
Last round.
The Americans won!
They defeated the Ferraris.
It was a great victory for Shelby.
It can be said that it -
was more important
than Le Mans driver victory.
This victory took him to the world map.
The GT40s just didnt win,
but Shelby's cars took a fourfold victory.
The Daytona Coupet won the
first two places in the GT class.
Next, the factory team competed in
Sebring.
Sebringin 12 Hour DRIVING
With the GT40 and Ford Cobrie running hard,
Shelby rejoiced in the teams success.
Then came the rains.
This is the
worst downpour seen in Sebring.
If the tire was not held when changing,
it started to float away.
Phil was in the
water when he came to the depot ,
because the Coupea could not be emptied.
When he tried to get out of the car,
Shelby said "Damn it, stay there."
Shelby shoved him off the shoulder.
I fetched a hammer and an ice spike,
with which I punched holes in the floor
to drain the water.
Meanwhile, Phil shouted, thinking
I'd hit him in the balls.
I bustled with my thorns in his crotch.
He shouted:
"Watch out. You're castrating me yet."
He tried to get out, and Shelby pushed him:
"God damn it, Phil, back in the car.
He won't hit you."
It was a fun depot visit.
Suddenly, the 12-hour Sebring Endurance
Grand Prix comes to an end.
The number 11 Ford GT wins the
Grand Touring prototype class.
If we succeeded in Daytona
and Sebring,
we would come with my family in
June to see.
As Ford prepared its cars for
departure in France,
Ferrari was
suddenly described as an underdog.
Ford was expected to win.
We did very well the first couple of times.
The cars were impressive in Daytona
and Sebring.
Now we are preparing
for the big competitions abroad.
Monza, Targa Florion and Le Mans.
In the coming weeks, we hope that our
profits will continue.
This is Fords year of great challenge.
The Americans are threatening the
power of the Italian giants.
The pre-race drama focused on the
challenger from the US -
and their declaration of winning the Ferrari.
In 1965, the
race began to become very serious.
Shelby won the
GT class a year earlier with the Daytona Coupe,
but Ferrari won the prototype class.
Prototypes compete for
Le Mans' overall win,
and
no one other than the total win really cares.
Henry Ford II even traveled to Le Mans
to see the GT40 make history.
The car worked great.
I was the third fastest in the qualifiers.
Ford debuted the GT40 in 1964.
The audience was huge.
But in 1965
there was even more audience.
For the first time in Le Mans, the
American car was the winners favorite.
Chris Amon is the first to leave Ford,
followed by Bob Bondurant,
Bruce McLaren and Surtees.
Seven-liter Ford GTs
move away from Ferraris -
with leading Ford praising the ferocious pace.
Bruce McLaren drove 427 and
Chris Amon another 427.
By the end of the straight,
Ferraris werent even visible anymore.
Ford had good engines,
and someone at Ford decided to
replace them just before Le Mans.
The previous night the
special vehicle unit management -
ordered Shelby to replace the
engines produced by the Ford plant in cars.
They wanted to tell Henry Ford II that they had
won the Le Mans factory engines,
not with Shelby American engines.
McLaren-Miles Ford
has gearbox problems.
Ferrari's grip on the race is already starting to tighten.
They had used new cover screws -
without inspecting them.
All cover screws were stretched.
After a third of the race,
Ferrari crushed
the challenge posed by Ford.
All the cars broke down.
Ford made the decision to order Shelby -
to Replace Ford Engines in Cars |
It became nothing.
It was a catastrophic race.
If I hadnt replaced the engine,
I would have won.
The Ford disintegrated again.
They made simple
technical mistakes.
Ferrari didn't.
Only one Ferrari prototype
reached the finish line.
But that was enough to win.
At the same time, Ferrari won the GT class
and a triple victory in the overall race .
Not even Shelbys Daytona Coupet
made it to the finish line.
The press called
it an Italian murder.
It was another
year of complete disappointment for my grandfather.
He must have questioned in his mind
was this all worth it.
Henry Ford and Edsel were in Le Mans.
They looked at their father and asked,
"Can't we do better -
than that Ford brings 200 people to Le Mans
and crashes like this. "
Ford wasted millions of dollars
again in the pit of the kankula -
the situation started to look bad.
It was humiliating,
and Henry Ford II was angry.
Despite the
catastrophic result of Le Mans 24-hour drive ,
not everything was lost.
Shelby Americanin Cobra Daytona Cups -
it was still possible to win the
World Manufacturers' Championship,
if the car beat the 12-hour drive in Reims.
All of Daytona -
was given to Alan Manns racing team in
England.
My father got a Daytona Cobrat,
because Shelby
had a lot to do then.
The Reims race started in the dark.
The Bondurant and Schlesser team -
got to the top of the race effortlessly.
No one kept up with the pace,
and all the entrepreneurs
noticed their cars being destroyed.
Shelbys technology and Brocks design
brought Ferraris to the bottom.
We wanted my driver pair Jo Schlesser
to win the championship.
We drove hard.
After crossing the finish line, we knew
that we just won the race -
and the manufacturers world championship.
It was the first time for Americans.
It was the last time.
Schlesser
and Bondurant performed Shelby's mission.
They beat Ferrari on
its own ground.
And there were six more races left through.
Shelby smashed Ferrari.
That championship Carroll Shelby -
thirsted the most.
He was really proud to win the
Manufacturers World Championship.
It was a big deal,
since it was in
principle a tuned Cobra,
with a 4.7-liter
passenger car engine.
It was a homemade car,
and they won the world championship.
Carroll Shelby finally filled -
promises to beat Ferrari.
He was excited about it all the time after that.
When we won it in 65,
it was probably the best day of my life
until then.
Winner of the
Manufacturers World Championship
Ferrari took it personally
very heavily,
that Shelby defeated him in Daytona.
Reims is the capital of Champagne,
so we celebrated a lot.
But there was little celebration in Los Angeles.
Disappointment of Henry Ford II in Le Mans -
led to the shaking of Shelby Americans
foundations.
Henry said:
"Put that shit aside
and get ready for these GT40s right away."
It clearly crushed Peter.
The Daytona Coupe was no longer needed,
as well as its perpetrators.
They kicked many away
because many had left when I returned.
There were no more of them.
Those who worked on the Daytona Coupe were kicked out.
Jack Balch said,
"We don't need you anymore."
I thought, You cant do this to me.
Im going to talk directly to Carroll.
He looked at me,
said "sorry" and kept walking.
When I returned from Europe,
there was a
person in my office unknown to me.
I saw that
there would be no future for me.
I was not fired, but it was clear
that I was no longer needed.
Then came another victim
that no one could anticipate.
My father had five Daytona Cobras
at the end of the 1965 season,
and he was not allowed
to return them to Shelby.
Shelby didn't want them saying,
"Immerse them in the North Sea."
After winning the world championship -
we thought it was not
worth bringing them . They were not needed.
Carroll said:
Their charter is too expensive.
Load them in the barge,
bring a customs officer -
and immerse them in the English Channel,
because I am not prepared to pay for
their freight. "
When something was done,
it was history for him.
He was looking for the next thing.
Alan Mann did not dare
to sink them into the English Channel.
My father sent them to
Shelby at his own expense.
The cars were loaded as deck cargo.
Exposed to the weather,
they left for California.
He didnt like it, but was willing to
move on to other things.
Henry Ford II was not
Ford's chairman -
and not the CEO. He was an emperor.
He really wanted to win races,
he didnt like second place.
If he had been told, "We came second,"
he could have skipped the race at the same time.
I was with Don Frye and Leo Beebe
when he called.
He had commissioned nameplates in 65,
which read:
"Ford wins Le Mans in 1966."
"Do you want a job next June?"
Henry Ford had given
him a business card,
to which Henry had written,
"It is best for you to win."
Ford held a big meeting in 1965 on
how they would beat Le Mans.
There it was decided to divide the
teams into different areas of responsibility.
They would prepare and use
cars at events independently.
Ford decided to expand its operations.
In addition to Shelby American,
they hired Holman & Moody,
which already ran their
standard car business,
and Alan Mann Racing,
who won -
GT Championship
Cobra Daytona Coupe.
The clamp tightened around Shelby.
It wasnt just about the job,
but Ford added
two other teams to his command .
So there was competition everywhere.
Not only in the Ford-Ferrari setup,
but also within Ford.
Everyone worked extra-hard
and took extra tests -
to make everything work.
If the engine broke down,
they would lose their jobs.
We knew there was something wrong with the brakes.
For a heavier car, you
have to realize
it doesnt stop as easily,
especially on the Mulsanne line at Le Mans.
It's five miles long,
and the brakes heated to 650 C with
each revolution.
I dont think they had material
that lasted that kind of repetitive cycle.
The kinetic energy
at the end of its five kilometers heated the brakes so that
that they might have lasted -
up to two or three hours.
Phil Remington developed a
quick-change brake system -
For Shelby American GT40 cars.
He replaced the discs, brake calipers
and the entire brake system.
The fact that we were able to change the
brakes in a minute was a key factor.
They rush to the ticket at the
24-hour Daytona Continental.
Ford had five GT40 Mkii,
led by Ken Miles and Lloyd Ruby
and Dan Gurney and Jerry Grant.
Miles takes the lead,
defeating even the last Ferrari.
For the first time, Ford
won a triple victory at Daytona.
This is Sebrings 12 hour drive.
Will the Ford win again?
And will Ferrari make a comeback -
after a rather scary start at
the beginning of the year?
They are level.
Mark, Miles, Gurney -
are almost stuck together in
praise of the Webster bend.
Team Manager Carroll Shelby
monitors the situation -
telling Ken Miles to improve his
lap times.
The GT40s and P-Series Ferraris
were on top of each other throughout the race -
without giving each other space.
After the night descends, the
Ford keeps the top spots.
The Ford GT40s also beat Sebring,
grabbing a triple win.
Le Mans was left.
You will probably see us in Le Mans
well into the future -
as a real threat.
It's been three or four years -
get used to this style of racing that
you wont experience anywhere else in the world.
I was with my brother in the summer of 1966 -
In Europe,
and Dad invited us to Le Mans.
We were not aware
of the pressure on him.
When he lost, he would have been in trouble.
Shelby knew she
had to stay ahead of the other teams.
Then there was Ferrari,
who did his best to win.
I learned
that Enzo Ferrari wanted to meet me.
I went to see him.
Who is it here? Old master.
He asked, "Would you like to drive in our stable?"
I said, "I want to."
Ferrari stole the Shelby
World Cup driver under this nose.
1966 was a good year for the GT40.
We won
triple victories at Daytona and Sebring.
I went to Le Mans in 66.
Dad smiled as we got on the plane.
He was really excited.
He was going to defeat the
Europeans in his own country.
While they may have been winning favorites,
they had in fact
never succeeded in bringing the car to the finish line at Le Mans.
We had a strategy.
We thought
we could beat the Ford ...
master driver
... only if we stayed -
and right from the start of the
race we would drive the race like a Grand Prix.
The Ford drivers were
all racers,
and they would not hold back.
They would try to lead,
and there was little chance
that we could break the Ford.
Ken and Gurney were tempting.
Their job was to break up the Ferraris.
When the race began,
Ken Miles' door didn't close properly.
He got a bad start.
I thought, "This will end right away."
Ken Miles was a real
long distance racer.
He was able to walk very fast.
The race was his thing.
He loved competition.
Son of KEN Miles
The next 20 rounds went great.
Ken walked incredibly fast.
He did not arrest
because he had to break up the Ferraris.
Driven by Ken Miles and Dennis Hulme, Mkii is in the lead.
But this has been a constant
battle between the first, second and third cars,
namely Dan Gurney and Ken Miles -
and between Rodriguez
and Ginther-driven Ferrari.
Dan Gurney's car broke down at
11 o'clock .
Ken continued to thank quickly.
He did a great job.
We were still winning the race.
Ferraris began to fall.
Bruce McLaren ja Chris Amon -
were many laps behind
but still involved.
With more hours in the race,
it looked like the car wouldnt break down.
Ken would win the race easily.
Miles was in the lead,
driving amazing lap times.
He walked faster than he should have.
He defeated Daytona -
and Sebringin. If Ken Miles were to win
Le Mans, he would have a triple crown.
No driver had won three
long-distance endurance races a year.
Apparently my grandfather came up with the word,
that he wanted a triple win.
The crowd talked about Miles winning again.
Ford wanted to hear, "Ford wins again."
Henry Ford told Carroll.
"Slow him down."
He leaned against the depot, waiting his turn.
That's when he said,
"I want to slow down."
They told Le Mans officials
that we could come to the finish line at the same time.
So Ken had to slow down,
that Bruce would catch him.
He did.
Ford won a triple victory.
Henry Ford was really happy to
win the Ferrari.
It was a relief to many
because it was a huge effort -
produce it's success.
It was a great feeling to get that triple win.
If the Shelby American people -
would not have developed a way
to change the rotors in 20 seconds,
we would not have won.
We would not have won the Ferraris.
The quick-change brake system
was a huge leap.
It would not have been invented at headquarters.
They would not have allowed it.
It was a shock,
but that's what racing is.
One day it will disappear.
Initially, the finish
was considered simultaneous.
But when Ken left the
depot lanes on the track,
he was told to leave.
We didn't know what it was about.
The International Motorsport Federation
then came to say:
"That you know ..."
If the cars finish at the same time,
is a
car farther from the start line -
traveled a longer distance.
So number two is the winner.
There was no triple win.
Bruce would win.
Winners, 1966 LE Mansin 24 Hour Driving
We made a horrible decision about
Ken Miles -
making sure
they came to the finish line at the same time.
It was politically good for Ford,
so I couldnt resist.
I also worked for Ford,
and I wasnt going to oppose Henry Ford.
The victory was tricked out of Ken's hands.
It broke his heart.
I wish Ken Miles had won
because he deserved the win.
I feel guilty about it,
but history cant be changed.
That is what happened, and we have to live with it.
After the victory, Henry Ford was asked:
"What is happening now?"
Henry Ford said,
"We'll repeat this next year."
At the end of 66 -
Carroll Shelby, Phil Remington
and Shelby experts -
made a faster Mkii-B.
My grandfather had decided to make
it clear to everyone that it was no luck.
Thus, the development of cars continued in 66. The
J-Car was born from it.
It was a prototype using a
honeycomb pattern.
It was taken for testing.
Riverside Racetrack
August, 1966
Ken Miles tested it.
The car broke down.
He drove 290 km / h.
It tossed wildly.
It could not be overcome.
They showed where he lay.
I noticed then
that he was in poor shape.
I started going there,
and they said, "Don't go."
Nothing has hit me
as hard as Kens loss.
He was a friend, but also a good engineer.
He was a good test driver.
There was no better racer than him.
I cant describe the emptiness I felt
when we lost him.
Miles' loss was hard to bear,
but Shelbys loss
would have destroyed the company.
It was the year 1966.
Six years
after doctors said
that he would live no more for five years.
Good Jesus.
In 1960 they gave five years of life,
but every five years,
some form of treatment always appeared .
He knew more
than many of the doctors.
There was a pile of
medical publications next to the bed .
He devoured them looking for something
which could cure his trouble.
The doctor said,
"You had 40 heart attacks."
When the exertion chest pain struck,
I just sat down to rest for a moment.
"You had a heart attack -
all about 40 times. "
I am a walking
storage of chemical substances.
He had
routinely cheated death .
That was good news for Ford
because he was sorely needed.
When the 1967 season began in Daytona,
Ford arrived on the scene with the updated
Mkii.
Ferrari wanted revenge after 1966.
And he brought six cars.
Ferrari told me:
"Mauro, P3 lost.
Can you improve P3? "
If we win,
we misjudge -
determinants of profit.
If we lose,
the reasons are always very clear.
Whenever we lose,
we learn to build new cars.
Ferrari appeared with a brand new car.
Its name was 330 P4.
It was beautiful and looked great.
It had a new one, from
their Formula 1 engine -
derived from an awesome engine.
It's easy to think that the GT40 was -
the most iconic car of its time.
But the
Ferraris competing against them were in their own way -
the most advanced sports cars ever.
It would be a decent race.
Ford had many large block cars.
Then they began to break down the gearboxes.
Only one in six GT40s
drove to the finish line in Daytona in 1967.
Ferrari beat Daytona in 24 hours -
triple profit.
At first, they were not as
resilient as their opponents.
This was the first time
Ford was slower than opponents.
Something had to be done.
And it was not clear how Mkii
could be made much faster -
at short notice.
It was a pile of shit.
One of them killed Ken Miles at
Riverside.
They needed a lot of development.
We took the reins
and did it in three months,
which Ford had ruined in a couple of years.
Shelbys team had to come up with a
solution quickly.
There was no wind tunnel in the LAX workshop,
but there was in Dearborn.
Shelby knew what had to be done.
Phil Remington returned to Dearborn -
with its two main builders,
and they started from the
first J-Car platform.
They took it to the wind tunnel,
and they literally started
cutting the basket -
trying to improve the aerodynamics of the car.
They came up with a shape
which was so different from the J-Car,
that they baptized it into Mkiv.
They tested it,
and it immediately proved to be faster
than the Mkii already in use.
It was decided to race in Sebring,
and if it went well in Sebring,
they carried it to Le Mans.
After Daytona, Enzo Ferraris
P4 was so dominant that
he did not even send them to
Sebring.
So the
old GT40 Mkii-B was raced there -
and the new Mkiv.
Coming into the S-bend, the Fords have
got off to a quick start -
and McLarens Foyt is second.
We drove there seven to ten
seconds faster per lap.
By evening, the redesigned
Mkiv was 12 laps ahead of the Mkii.
We competed for the first time in Sebring
and won.
Mkiv became the subject of jealousy in the race.
It's race week,
and the
arrival of southern French spectators -
the
worlds finest racing cars are also arriving .
It was the first time
Mkiv and P4 had met.
Ferrari has three factory
P4s in the top ten, and they got a triple win -
the only second
24-hour run of the season in Daytona.
Candy-colored Fords are the Fastest,
holding six out of ten starting places.
As the race progressed, the Ford took the lead.
Ferraris were not far away.
Then the aerial view.
Gurney accelerates quickly
to get the lead in the 48th round.
Foyt begins his two-hour driving shift.
It's his first time in Le Mans,
and he has
only driven ten rounds of practice.
AJ Foyt, the novice
everyone cared about,
there are seven rounds above the others.
Fifteen cars have already fallen -
trying to keep up with Ford.
Ford rejoiced at Mkivs performance,
but they watched Shelby closely.
Mr. Ford had his sergeant with him.
They visited the spot
every couple of hours throughout the night as well.
I just made a visit to the depot.
I turned around to drive the car,
when I collided with a man standing in my way.
I said, "Get out of the way!" I told Al Dowd, our
team leader:
Would you drive those dicks away?
I just came across a big guy.
Why is he in the depot?
It was revealed that he was Henry Ford.
I wondered, "Herrais, what have I done?"
I apologized to him. He said,
"Don't worry. I shouldn't have been on the road."
Roger McCluskey
and Jo Schlesser on their Mkii -
complement the
leading five-car Ford team.
At 03.30 in the morning the
nature of the whole race will change,
when Andrett's car spins,
hits the wall -
and stops on the roadway.
Then McCluskey
and Jo Schlesser spin -
dodging Andrett.
No one is injured,
but the cars cant continue.
Ferrari had not given up,
and Ford did everything he could
to help Ferrari stay in the race.
Three cars fell at once.
Only one Ford was left.
It was ours.
Two chasing factory Ferraris -
now hold second and third place.
When the time is less than four hours,
Dan Gurney drives his last turn at
Ford number one,
before
AJ Foyt, who is waiting in the depot, is scheduled to finish the race.
Ferraris tighten the pace in an attempt to
haunt the leading Ford to break up.
Ford was about five miles per hour
faster than Ferrari.
Even though he came in suction,
I escaped him a little straight.
Ferraris were always pretty fast
but not fast enough.
The steam roller hit again. Ford won.
The checkered flag is waving.
And Gurney climbs over Mkiv.
The Americans win.
It was a pan-American effort.
Gurney did a good job of
not showing Foyt
how fast the car would go.
And Foyt did a great job
driving within his own limits -
realizing that 24 hours is a long time -
keep the engine and gearbox in good condition.
Ford won the Le Mans 24-hour drive
again in 1968.
And again in 1969.
Only two brands have won
Le Mans in the 1960s.
Ferrari won the first half
and Ford the second.
In 1968 and 1969, the GT40 defeated
Le Mans without factory support from Ford -
or Carroll Shelby.
By the end of the 1967 season -
Henry Ford II had
achieved his goal.
He ruled Le Mans and Ferrari.
The competition had not had the
desired effect on sales .
It made it easier to quit the race program
and everything related to it.
Shelby closed in August 1967.
When that decision was made,
Ford just stopped working.
It just closed.
By the end of 1967, Dad no longer had
any production cars there.
The Ford partnership ended.
It was almost unreal
because nothing happened in the workshop.
He didn't do much.
Then from seemingly nothing,
a new opportunity came for Shelby.
The American sports car club gained fame.
Teams were set up by major manufacturers.
Porsche,
Triumph,
Datsun and Toyota were all involved.
Unfortunately, Shelby came in late.
He had contact with the
Toyota factory team.
The only problem was that
that Toyota had already entered into an agreement with
Peter Brock.
Peter got to take care of Toyota's GTs.
Shelby took the contract to his pool.
Shelby To lead the Toyota So Shelby became part of
Toyota's 2000 GT team.
I was angry
that he got a Toyota program,
although it was first given to me.
After Datsu's America had abandoned him,
Peter approached Datsu's Japan,
because he wanted to beat Shelby's Toyota.
I ended up racing against Shelby.
The competition was so fierce on the west coast -
Between Triumph, Porsche and our team,
that Shelby couldnt get many points
or win anything on the West Coast.
He tried to sneak into Stuttgart,
Arkansas -
or somewhere else to collect
easy points from a weaker area.
My friends from his workshop called,
"We're going to Stuttgart."
We followed suit to make sure
he didnt get points.
We won almost every race.
Shelby did not make it to the national
championships in her first year.
Toyota stopped competing in shame.
We won
all the championships with the Datsunes.
The racing business had given Shelby a lot,
but now it just took over.
Rejected by Ford,
humiliated by his old employee Pete Brock -
and having achieved everything they want -
Shelby knew what she had always known.
When to move on.
After winning Le Mans -
and the world championship,
I lost my interest.
There were no interesting cars to build.
It all started to be too much.
We were ready to quit.
For the little company had a heart and a soul,
which I have not
seen in other companies in competitive circles .
No one was paid much there,
and no one cared about working hours,
as long as the job was done.
There will never be such a company again.
As Ford had lost interest
and the whole industry -
focused on emissions and safety at
the expense of performance,
Shelby decided to withdraw from the race for the
next decade.
The automotive industry set
all sorts of requirements for safety.
Dad didnt want to drive
Cobra to the wall to see what it would do.
It took him away from him.
Environmental problems, emissions
and more had to be wrestled,
because the environment had to be cleaned.
There was nothing more to do.
Performance disappeared.
The miserable 70s had come.
Shelbys frustration with the governments actions
made him take a break from the competition.
It gave him time to pursue
other goals.
Carroll liked women
and wanted to be married for some reason.
We dont know how many times she was married,
but probably about ten times.
Whenever we went to
California with my brother , there was always someone new to meet me.
Everyone was beautiful.
I was a photographer -
at one of his weddings,
which he did not admit even happened.
He married a girl in Nassau.
Every time I mentioned it,
he said, "I never married her."
I said, "Carroll, do you want to see the pictures?"
She seems to have been married 5 to 7 times.
Probably more often.
At least the women thought they were laughing at him,
if it says something.
He took the woman to his peace
judge friend in San Diego.
He was not a justice of the peace.
But the woman still got a divorce.
No one knows
how many times he was married.
When he
and Ford divorced in the late 60s,
-He just went on to his next project.
-She was an entrepreneur in many fields.
He founded Carroll Shelby Chili
and the International Chili Society.
I had bought 200,000
acres of rocks in West Texas.
The land had to be sold and
I didnt figure out what to do with it.
I asked for help from a friend of mine
who was in the PR industry in Dallas.
He said: "We are
holding the first World Chili Cooking Championships."
It was to be held only once.
And kapas only,
it took over the fire
, growing so large
that chili races are held
throughout the United States.
He had the ability to take an idea,
promote it and make it work.
Shelby had left the car industry,
but the automotive industry had not
forgotten Carroll Shelby.
In 1982, an old friend called.
Iacocca wanted to refresh
Chryslers image.
In the early 80s, Chrysler was
desperately looking for a performance product.
Iacocca called me, saying,
"I need help."
We assembled the car -
and we sold 8,000 of them in the
first year.
Shelby's innovations at Chrysler
under Iacocca -
improved the company's result.
Shelby and Iacocca developed something
which would become
Chryslers most exciting power car ever.
But in the middle of car design -
Shelby's old enemy returned.
His heart began to fail forever.
While at Chrysler,
his health deteriorated rapidly.
According to the doctor, he needed
a new heart if he was going to live.
The situation finally worsened in 86 so
that I had to sleep sitting as my
lungs filled.
I was told I would need -
transplant to survive.
Without a suitable donor,
he had to accept the fact that
that he would probably die.
Then a 34-year-old somewhere in Vegas -
died of an artery bulge.
He was brain dead.
My coordinator said:
"Shelby, we may have found
a heart for you."
Its most beautiful words cannot be heard.
Dad got a 34-year-old heart.
Neither 60- nor 70-year-olds.
The 34-year-old gave him a new heart.
It gave him a new life,
and it allowed him
to succeed in other projects.
We publish an interesting car
called Viper,
which I drove just last week.
I can tell you for sure
that it is a suitable successor to Cobra -
and that its a damn car.
I think the name "Viper" was
Chrysler's version of Cobra, the snake.
Shelby was healthy again,
and she brought Viper -
the same enthusiasm with
which he used to
charmed with
his first car sold in the world .
Chryslers tribute to
Shelby was a hit,
and a suitable ending to a collaboration with
an old friend, Lee Iacocca.
Being himself again, Carroll embarked on
something completely new to himself.
Carroll began dreaming
of building another new car.
He wanted to produce a car,
which had a similar effect -
than Cobra once did.
One that he could say,
"I did this.
It didnt come from another company.
We did this. "
No independent company designed
their own car from the beginning.
He began designing
Series 1 in the early 90s.
We designed a few models.
He made a deal with Oldsmobile,
so the engine came from them.
I built the best sports car
that Las Vegas has become.
It's a beautiful car.
It cost a lot more
than what he earned with it.
That is a good example of
how he put everything into the project,
as I think he always did.
In true Shelby style, Carroll put
everything in the game into Series 1.
As is unfortunately often the case,
when you put everything on one business,
he faced problems
that nearly bankrupted him.
Carroll survived the pursuit of a dream
with a high price.
Happiness was on Carroll's side.
He got to end his career
just like it started.
Returning to Ford.
Edsel Ford was important in that.
They had been familiar since the 60s,
and they were close.
My father put me to work for the summer.
He asked, "Where do you want to work?"
"I want Shelby."
He hired my father as an intern.
because my grandfather probably forced
but my father liked it.
I believe that in many ways -
Carroll was like a father figure to my father.
I said to Carrollilte, "You need to get your
family back."
In 1962, he had to sell
his ideas to them.
All his life he had to come up with
and sell his ideas.
The fact that someone came up to him saying:
"You have a name and expertise,"
really raised his self-esteem.
I never dreamed I was still in the industry -
again working with Ford -
82 years of age.
I couldn't have been happier.
Ford introduced in 05 - 06 -
the new Ford GT, which was again -
retrocat sauce 60-luvun GT40: a.
Carroll was involved in its publication.
Then soon after -
followed
by a new Shelby Mustang manufactured by Ford in 2007 .
Millions of car fans were excited
to see the Shelby logo on Ford again.
He returned,
and I asked him, "Are you happy
and satisfied with your current situation?"
He always said: "Yes.
Here, I've always wanted to be."
Fate dictated that Carroll Shelby -
should always be in touch with
Ford Motor Company. Always.
I was really happy to know
I could have a Ford for the rest of my life.
In his last year of life, he said:
I want to drive to the lake
and the forest once more.
I want to drive. It's important that time. "
This was a
12-acre lake he built .
He drove around the whole lake and plot -
getting to see a 404 acre plot
and a 12 acre lake.
On the way back, he said:
"This is probably the last time I'll drive
to this lake."
Everyone who grew up admiring the cars
lost a giant today,
and for us hard-line carmen,
he was a hero.
His name was Carroll Shelby.
I loved Carroll Shelby.
Indeed. He was a magical man.
He is a great icon -
and a hero to many.
He certainly appreciated the good things
that happened to him,
mutta niit ei annettu hnelle.
Hn teki paljon tit niiden eteen,
ja min ihailin sit paljon.
Hn selviytyi melkein mist tahansa.
Nin hnen tekevn niin yh uudelleen.
Ja jos hnell oli huono kilpailu,
ei se haitannut. Hn unohti koko asian.
"Nyt meni huonosti, muttei se mitn.
Seuraava menee hyvin."
Mielestni kun sanoo: "Shelby",
ajattelee Cobraa.
Se auto oli todella hallitseva.
Lhinn siksi, ett joukko virittelijit
rakensi sen MM-voittajaksi.
Tunnen olevani etuoikeutettu,
ett olin paikalla, kun se alkoi.
Hn antoi kaikille muille kunniaa,
eik hn ole
koskaan yrittnyt ottaa kunniaa.
Kun hn tuli verstaalle,
hn oli is, ystv ja hauska tyyppi.
Innoituksen lhde.
Hn kertoi,
miten asiat voitaisiin hoitaa,
ja Ford sanoi:
"Joo. Luotamme sinuun. Tee se."
Minusta on upeaa,
ett Shelbyn nimi jatkaa eloaan -
etenkin Fordin brndin mukana.
Tiedn, ett Carroll toivoi sit suuresti
ennen kuolemaansa.
He arvostavat sit brndi.
Ja miest itsen sitkin enemmn.
Pikkuisesta Texasin Leesburgista -
tuli maaseudun postimiehen poika,
josta kasvoi valtavan teollisuudenalan
voimanpes.
Siten haluan muistaa
isni tst lhtien.
Haluan olla tunnettu -
henkiln, joka rakasti elmntytn
ja perhettn.
Minusta elmn trkein asia on,
ettei koskaan luovuta.
Eik koskaan saa unohtaa,
miten kiitollinen tulisi olla.
Carroll Shelby TekemSSDonitseja
85-Vuotiaana
Tekstitys: Antti Rinta-Loppi