So Shelby took the basic chassis and had the young, ex-Corvette designer Pete Brock design a new super-slick coupe body, and the result proved damn near supernatural - the Cobra Daytona Coupe. ![]() The Shelby Cobra with its small-block Ford V8 had been a success in American sports car racing from the first, but its roadster bodywork was almost willfully anti-aerodynamic and kept the car from being successful on fast European racetracks against the Ferrari 250 GTO. When Ford took on Ferrari as part of Lee Iacocca's plan to corner the world market on performance, Carroll Shelby was the right person to step in when the Detroit engineers found that they couldn't do the job with technology alone. They are the substance of Carroll Shelby's life, the things that tell us most about him.Ĭarroll Shelby was nothing if not audacious. We've chosen these vehicles because they were (and are) great in themselves, because the legends surrounding them are - more or less - true, and because their mere existence has inspired other great cars.Īctually these are more than just great cars. ![]() So here is our list of the top 10 Shelby cars of all time, even though we're sure that someone will say we missed a few. Of course the Mustang GT350 should be on the list, but should the Mustang GT350R racer and GT350H rent-a-racer be counted as separate cars? And while Shelby's name might not have been on the fender, neither the Ford Mark IV nor the Dodge Viper would have been successes without him. There are at least 10 variations of the Cobra alone that deserve a spot. Paring the automotive output of Carroll Shelby's life to just the 10 greatest cars is no easy task.
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