Mr. Carroll Shelby has died

[dtharmon633]

link forthcoming

 

I lifted his family up in prayer.

[blackonblack]

+1

[dtharmon633]

DALLAS – Carroll Shelby, the legendary auto racer and car designer who built the fabled Shelby Cobra sports car and injected testosterone into Ford's Mustang and Chrysler's Viper, has died. He was 89.

Shelby's company, Carroll Shelby International, said Friday that Shelby died a day earlier at a Dallas hospital. He had received a heart transplant in 1990 and a kidney transplant in 1996.

He was one of the nation's longest-living heart transplant recipients, having received a heart on June 7, 1990, from a 34-year-old man who died of an aneurism. Shelby also received a kidney transplant in 1996 from his son, Michael.

The 1992 inductee into the Automobile Hall of Fame had homes in Los Angeles and his native east Texas.

The one-time chicken farmer had more than a half-dozen successful careers during his long life. Among them: champion race car driver, racing team owner, automobile manufacturer, automotive consultant, safari tour operator, raconteur, chili entrepreneur and philanthropist.

"He's an icon in the medical world and an icon in the automotive world," his longtime friend, Dick Messer, executive director of Los Angeles' Petersen Automotive Museum, once said of Shelby.

"His legacy is the diversity of his life," Messer said. "He's incredibly innovative. His life has always been the reinvention of Carroll Shelby."

Shelby first made his name behind the wheel of a car, winning France's grueling 24 Hours of Le Mans sports car race with teammate Ray Salvadori in 1959. He already was suffering serious heart problems and ran the race "with nitroglycerin pills under his tongue," Messer once noted.

He had turned to the race-car circuit in the 1950s after his chicken ranch failed. He won dozens of races in various classes throughout the 1950s and was twice named Sports Illustrated's Driver of the Year.

Soon after his win at Le Mans, he gave up racing and turned his attention to designing high-powered "muscle cars" that eventually became the Shelby Cobra and the Mustang Shelby GT500.

The Cobra, which used Ford engines and a British sport car chassis, was the fastest production model ever made when it was displayed at the New York Auto Show in 1962.

A year later, Cobras were winning races over Corvettes, and in 1964 the Rip Chords had a Top 5 hit on the Billboard pop chart with "Hey, Little Cobra." ("Spring, little Cobra, getting ready to strike, spring, little Cobra, with all of your might. Hey, little Cobra, don't you know you're gonna shut 'em down?")

In 2007, an 800-horsepower model of the Cobra made in 1966, once Shelby's personal car, sold for $5.5 million at auction, a record for an American car.

"It's a special car. It would do just over three seconds to 60 (mph), 40 years ago," Shelby told the crowd before the sale, held in Scottsdale, Ariz.

It was Lee Iacocca, then head of Ford Motor Co., who had assigned Shelby the task of designing a fastback model of Ford's Mustang that could compete against the Corvette for young male buyers.

Turning a vehicle he had once dismissed as "a secretary car" into a rumbling, high-performance model was "the hardest thing I've done in my life," Shelby recalled in a 2000 interview with The Associated Press.

That car and the Shelby Cobra made his name a household word in the 1960s.

When the energy crisis of the 1970s limited the market for gas-guzzling high-performance cars, Shelby weathered the downturn by heading to Africa, where he operated a safari company for a dozen years.

By the time he had returned to the United States, Iacocca was running Chrysler Motors and he hired him to design the supercharged Viper sports car.

In the meantime, Shelby had also inaugurated the World Chili Cookoff competition and he began marketing Carroll Shelby Original Texas Chili.

In recent years, Shelby worked as a technical adviser on the Ford GT project and designed the Shelby Series 1 two-seat muscle car, a 21st century clone of his 1965 Cobra.

"I just wanted to see if I could do it one more time after a heart transplant and a kidney transplant," he once told the AP.

In 1990 he had marketed the Can-Am Spec Racer, an affordable racing car for entry-level drivers.

He created the Carroll Shelby Children's Foundation in 1991 to provide assistance for children and young people needing acute coronary and kidney care. According to its Web site, the foundation has helped numerous children received needed surgery, as well as provided money for research.

Carroll Hall Shelby was born Jan. 11, 1923, in Leesburg, Texas.

During World War II he was an Army Air Corps flight instructor who corresponded with his fiancee by dropping love letters stuck into his flying boots onto her farm.

After leaving the military in 1945, he started a dump truck business, then decided to raise chickens. The poultry business initially flourished, with Shelby earning a $5,000 profit on the first batch of broilers he delivered. He went broke, however, when his second flock died of disease.

A friend then invited him to become an amateur racer and his success led to his joining the Aston-Martin team and competing in races all over the world.

 

 

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/leisure/2012/05/11/shelby-cobra-designer-legendary-race-car-driver-carroll-shelby-dies-at-8/#ixzz1ubNvMU54

[Icebourg]

Rest in Peace Mr Shelby.......you will be missed. God Bless you and your family.

[AsphaltDanceFloor]

First Mustang that had an impression on me was I believe a 67 Shelby when I was just a kid. It was on display at some country fair out in the boonies. My 3 buddies and I sat in it for hours. Never owned one though and am very much looking forward to the '13 I now have on order. Feels good to be connected to something that has roots going all the way back to his heyday. RIP Mr Shelby. You've done great works.

[COBRA32]

Thanks Mr Shelby for all the fun and great cars you made through the years. You were a master at your craft of making fast and fun cars. You will be missed greatly and I'm sure God has a Cobra you can work on to make it faster and the best one in Heaven. GOD Bless your Family. Here's hoping the Legend of Shelby will last for ever.

[SMOKE]

Thank you Mr. Shelby and your family.

You built something and left an indelible mark on a hobby and sport that continues to bring joy to the world!! Thank you. God bless you and your family for they will be in our prayers.

[Shelby65_mustang]

Carroll will be missed greatly! Our condolences to Cleo, his children, sister, close friends and co-workers! He can race again with those that have passed on ahead of him, and he will give them one Heck of a RACE!!! You will Live on Forever Carroll!!

[Helix]

If I can find the recipe, Carroll Shelby original chili will be my dinner tonight. R.I.P.

[bergenfelter]

If I can find the recipe, Carroll Shelby original chili will be my dinner tonight. R.I.P.

 

 

Post it up! Sounds good to me.

[dtharmon633]

If I can find the recipe, Carroll Shelby original chili will be my dinner tonight. R.I.P.

 

 

I would like a copy too. Please post it.

 

I'm thankful for the opportunity to have driven such a well-crafted machine designed by one of the best car designers/racecar drivers/builders/chicken farmers/philanthropist known to man. I'm glad God desires a relationship with us and that he wil never forget us. Thank you Mr. Shelby and thanks to your supportive family! God's peace be with you all.

[Shelby65_mustang]

I will post recipe elsewhere.

[Helix]

Yield: 4 Servings Ingredients 1/2 lb Suet or 1/2 c Oil, cooking 1 lb Beef round, coarse grind 1 lb Beef chuck, coarse grind 1 cn Tomato sauce (8 oz ea) 1 cn Beer (12 oz ea) 1/4 c Red chili, hot, ground 2 Garlic cloves, finely chopped 1 Onion, small, finely chopped 1 1/4 ts Oregano, dried, pref. Mexican 1/2 ts Paprika 1 1/2 ts Cumin, ground 1 1/4 ts Salt Cayenne pepper 3/4 lb Monterey Jack cheese, grated

 

 

 

Instructions 1. Melt the suet or heat the oil in a heavy 3-quart (or larger) pot over medium-high heat. Remove the unrendered suet and add the meat to the pot. Break up any lumps with a fork and cook, stirring occasionally, until the meat is evenly browned.

2. Add the tomato sauce, beer, ground chili, garlic, onion, oregano, paprika, 1 teaspoon of the cumin, and the salt. Stir to blend. Bring to a boil, then lower the heat and simmer, uncovered, for 1 hour. Stir occasionally.

3. Taste and adjust seasonings, adding the cayenne pepper. Simmer, uncovered, 1 hour longer.

4. Stir in the cheese and the remaining 1/2 teaspoon of the cumin. Simmer 1/2 hour longer, stirring often to keep the cheese from burning.

[Helix]

Another one I found for it: same ingredients, slightly more detailed instructions. I've looked through fairly thoroughly and these (as the first sites listed on the search too, I looked through pages) seem to be the most accurate.

• 1/4 lb suet or 1/4 cup cooking oil
  
• 1 lb beef round steak, coarse chili grind
  
• 1 lb beef chuck, coarse chili grind
  
• 8 ounces can tomato sauce
  
• 12 ounces beer
  
• 2 tablespoons crushed red chili peppers
  
• 2 medium garlic cloves, minced
  
• 1 small onion, finely chopped
  
• 1 1/4 teaspoons dried oregano (preferably Mexican)
  
• 1/2 teaspoon paprika
  
• 1 1/2 teaspoons ground cumin
  
• 1 1/4 teaspoons salt
  
• 1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper
  
• 3/4 lb monterey jack cheese, grated
  

Directions:

• 
   
  

  1

  
  Melt suet or heat the oil in a heavy 3-quart (or larger) pot over medium-high heat.
  

• 
   
  

  2

  
  Remove the unrendered suet and crumble meat into the pot. Break up any lumps with a fork and cook, stirring occasionally. until meat is evenly browned.
  

• 
   
  

  3

  
  Add tomato sauce, beer, crushed red chile, garlic, onion, oregano, paprika, 1 teaspoons of the cumin, and salt. Stir to blend and bring to a boil.
  

• 
   
  

  4

  
  Lower heat and simmer uncovered, stirring occasionally, for 1 hour.
  

• 
   
  

  5

  
  Taste and adjust seasonings, adding cayenne pepper.
  

• 
   
  

  6

  
  Simmer uncovered 1 hour longer.
  

• 
   
  

  7

  
  Stir in the cheese and the remaining 1/2 teaspoons cumin.
  

• 
   
  

  8

  
  Simmer 1/2 hour longer, stirring often to keep cheese from burning.
  

• 
   
  

  9

  
  I serve the chili with sour cream and shredded cheddar cheese to garnish, and warm cornbread on the side.
  

• 
   
  

  10

  
  The cookbook actually called for 1/4 cup of crushed red chile pepper, but unless you have a taste for fire, use less! I use half that amount, and I really like hot food.
   
   
  http://www.amazon.com/Carroll-Shelbys-Original-Texas-4-Ounce/dp/B000H23Z1C
  

[devious_stang]

Good night My. Shelby, you will be missed. words cant express the influence you had on the american muscle car. cant wait to get my '13 and be part of history in one way or another...