Carroll Shelby sitting on a 1968 GT500 KR during the celebration of the 40th Anniversary of the Ford Mustang 15 April 2004 at the Nashville Super Speedway in Lebanon, TN. Shelby was the greatest single influence on America's racing posture in the post-1945 period with help in the engine design and racing operations of the Mustang.JEFF HAYNES/AFP / Getty Images
Texan Carroll Shelby turned up for one of his first race meets wearing his chicken farmer bib overalls but went on to become one of the most enduring legends of North American motorsport. The cars he drove and created along the way will be a focal point of this year's Canadian International Auto Show.
Shelby's lifetime - he's now 87 - of involvement in racing was honoured in the lead-up to the show's opening with a reception at which he was inducted into the Canadian Motorsports Hall of Fame. His career will also be celebrated at the show with an exhibit of the cars with which he's been associated.
This task was given to classic auto expert Richard Pickering, who has assembled 45 superb automobiles, which will be displayed on the 700 level of the Metro Convention Centre's South Building.
From an example of the tiny MG he raced in his first events to the Cobras that have given him lasting fame, each marks a key milestone in the career of the iconic American racer, team manager and creator of one of the most recognized sports cars of the 1960s, the Shelby Cobra. "What we ended up with was an eclectic collection of racing cars with the common element being Carroll Shelby," says Pickering.
A stock MG TC will stand in for the first car Shelby drove to success against more potent competition in one of his first events in Oklahoma in the early 1950s. Among those competitors was a Jaguar XK120, a car he also later raced and an example of which will be part of the display.
The car that really boosted Shelby's career is the beautifully restored Cad Allard J2X he drove in road races in Texas, wearing the striped bib overalls that became his trademark, and which brought him to the attention of Aston-Martin team manager John Wyer. This resulted in a drive at Sebring and the launch of his international career.
The J2X is a mix of Cadillac V-8 power in a lightweight British chassis with a notoriously tricky split I-beam front suspension, and may have provided the inspiration for Shelby's stuffing a Ford V-8 into a British AC that lead to the creation the Cobra.
Shelby had also come to the attention of British car builder Donald Healey, then putting together his special Austin-Healey 100S, and helped set records with the car on the Bonneville salt flats. He then raced one in the Mexican Carrera Panamericana road race, destroying it after hitting a rock at high speed. A 100S in Carrera Panamericana livery is included in the display.
In 1960 Shelby was afflicted with heart problems, but continued to race with nitro-glycerin tablets dissolving under his tongue, winning the Los Angeles Times/Mirror Grand Prix for sports cars in a Maserati Birdcage and the USAC championship before hanging up his helmet.
He then operated a Goodyear tire shop, but was soon talking to AC Cars of Britain about installing Ford's new 260-cubic-inch V-8 in one of their sports cars. The name Cobra appeared to him in a dream, and part two of the Shelby legend was born.
Pickering has snagged a number of rare Cobras for the show, including chassis number CSX002, the first production Cobra and the first Cobra racer, driven by Bill Kraus in West Coast events and later sold to Canadian Chuck Rathgeb's Comstock Racing Team.
Pickering recalls actually seeing it and a second car race in the Canadian Grand Prix for Sports Cars in 1963 where they "dusted" the competition in the production sports car event. And later in the main event, they won the GT class and ran strongly against world-class purpose-built racers.
Other Cobras on display include a USRRC racer, an early FIA Cobra that first took the name to Europe, the Flip-Top Cobra, a 390-cubic-inch-engined experimental car put together to counter the challenge of Corvette's Gran Sport and driven by Ken Miles, and the Essex Wire 427-cubic-inch-engined racer, the most successful racing Cobra of all time.
Another racing car that came under Shelby's influence (as team manager) was Ford's GT40, which won the Le Mans 24-hour race four times in a row in the late 1960s, putting an end to a feud between Henry Ford II and Enzo Ferrari. The GT40 was also raced by the Comstock team, and the car driven by Eppie Wietzes and Craig Fisher in the 1966 Sebring 12-hour race is part of the display. Another example on view is the GT40 Mk4 J-car, one of only 10 built. This one was crashed by Mario Andretti on the Mulsanne straight at Le Mans at about 230 mph.
Yet another fabulous Shelby racer is the Cobra Daytona Coupe, one of six examples built of this highly aerodynamic, 190-mph-plus car that won the World Manufacturers Championship in 1965.
The Shelby name has also been long associated with Mustangs and close to every example made will be included in the car show display. They range from a pair of Shelby GT350R racing cars from the mid-'60s, to one driven by Mark Donohue, to current-day cars and a prototype 2011 GT500.
There's also a 2000 Shelby Mk1 Roadster, and a couple of interesting Vipers representing Shelby's Dodge connection.
"This is undoubtedly the most comprehensive salute to Carroll Shelby and his cars ever put together in Canada," says Pickering.