Carroll Shelby

Carroll Shelby

Nation:	United States
Automobile world championship
First start:	1958 French Grand Prix
Last start:	1959 Italian Grand Prix
Constructors
1958 Scuderia Centro Sud  1959 David Brown Corporation
statistics
World Cup balance:	-
Starts Victories Poles SR 8th - - -
World Cup points :	-
Podiums :	-
Leadership laps :	-

Carroll Shelby (born January 11, 1923 in Leesburg , Texas , † May 10, 2012 in Dallas ) was an American racing driver and designer of sports cars .

Life

Carroll Shelby next to a 2007 Maserati 450S

Carroll Shelby was born the son of the postman Warren Hall Shelby in Leesburg, Texas . His mother's name was Eloise Lawrence Shelby. A congenital heart defect forced him to spend much of his childhood in bed. At the age of 14 the hole in the heart had closed.

He later served in the US Army Air Forces in 1940 as a pilot on twin-engine aircraft in the training of navigators. His flying training meant that he developed a tendency to perfectionism when it came to reliability and technology. His attitude towards speed and precision gave birth to the idea of ​​developing his own car. He contested his first race in 1952 on a borrowed MG . To everyone's surprise, he soon achieved overall victory in this class, and was even able to beat the much higher rated Jaguar XK 120 S in its place.

Like many other Americans of his generation, his interest in sports car races drew him to Europe , where he competed in several races at the Scuderia Centro Sud .

His greatest success as a driver was winning the 1959 Le Mans 24-hour race alongside Roy Salvadori in an Aston Martin DBR1 / 300 .

Shelby AC Cobra 427

Shelby Mustang GT350

Shelby was also one of the drivers of "Felthams Formula 1 Squad". During the Formula 1 season in 1958 , he achieved fourth place in the race in Monza together with Masten Gregory . Both were initially disqualified, but later returned to this position. However, they did not receive any rating points. Later he attended during the Formula 1 season in 1959 at the Grand Prix of Portugal in the city park Monsanto by Lisbon eighth place. After completing his racing career, he turned completely to the construction and conversion of sports cars.

He was remembered by many as the creator of the legendary Shelby AC Cobras , with which he successfully challenged Gran Turismo - Ferrari , the temporary management of the Ford GT40 project , which he helped to win, and the Shelby Mustangs .

To this end, he entered into a partnership with Formula 1 driver Dan Gurney and founded the All-American Racers team , which was also supported by Goodyear . The abbreviation “AAR” was also interpreted as “Anglo-American Racers”, especially since the AC Cobra was based on a British AC chassis and Gurney later also used a British Weslake V12 engine in his F1 racing car “Eagle” .

Carroll Shelby died of a serious heart condition that had affected his life for several decades.

He left behind his wife Cleo, three children, six grandchildren and six great-grandchildren.

In the 2019 film Le Mans 66 - Against Any Chance ( Ford v Ferrari ), Shelby is portrayed by Matt Damon .

statistics

Statistics in the automobile world championship

general overview

season	team	chassis	engine	run	Victories	Second	Third	Poles	nice Race laps	Points	WM-Pos.
1958	Scuderia Centro Sud	Maserati 250F	Maserati 2.5 L6	3	-	-	-	-	-	-	NC
	Temple Buell	Maserati 250F	Maserati 2.5 L6	1	-	-	-	-	-
1959	David Brown Corporation	Aston Martin DBR4 / 250	Aston Martin 2.5 L6	4th	-	-	-	-	-	-	NC
total				8th	-	-	-	-	-	-

Single results

season	1	2	3	4th	5	6th	7th	8th	9	10	11
1958
						DNF	9		9	4th
1959
			DNF		DNF		8th	10

Legend
colour	abbreviation	meaning
gold	-	victory
silver	-	2nd place
bronze	-	3rd place
green	-	Placement in the points
blue	-	Classified outside the point ranks
violet	DNF	Race not finished (did not finish)
	NC	not classified
red	DNQ	did not qualify
	DNPQ	failed in pre-qualification (did not pre-qualify)
black	DSQ	disqualified
White	DNS	not at the start (did not start)
	WD	withdrawn
Light Blue	PO	only participated in the training (practiced only)
	TD	Friday test driver
without	DNP	did not participate in the training (did not practice)
	INJ	injured or sick
	EX	excluded
	DNA	did not arrive
	C.	Race canceled
		no participation in the World Cup
other	P / bold	Pole position
	SR / italic	Fastest race lap
	*	not at the finish, but counted due to the distance covered
	()	Streak results
	underlined	Leader in the overall standings

Le Mans results

year	team	vehicle	Teammate	placement	Failure reason
1954	David Brown	Aston Martin DB3 / S	Paul Brother	failure	suspension
1959	David Brown Racing Dept.	Aston Martin DBR1 / 300	Roy Salvadori	Overall victory

Sebring results

year	team	vehicle	Teammate	placement	Failure reason
1954	Aston Martin Ltd.	Aston Martin DB3S	Charles Wallace	failure	Exhaust
1955	Allen Guiberson	Ferrari 750 Monza Spyder	Phil Hill	Rank 2
1956	David Brown & Sons Ltd.	Aston Martin DB3S	Roy Salvadori	4th place and class win
1957	Maserati Factory	Maserati 250S	Roy Salvadori	Disqualified
1958	David Brown	Aston Martin DBR1 / 300	Roy Salvadori	failure	Power transmission
1959	Aston Martin David Brown	Aston Martin DBR1 / 300	Roy Salvadori	failure	Gear lever broken
1960	Camoradi USA	Maserati Tipo 61	Masts Gregory	failure	Engine failure

Individual results in the sports car world championship

season	team	race car	1	2	3	4th	5	6th	7th
1954	Roy Cherryhomes Aston Martin Donald Healey	Allard J2X Aston Martin DB3S Austin-Healey 100	BUA	SEB	MIM	LEM	RTT	CAP
			10	DNF		DNF		DNF
1955	Allen Guiberson Fritz Huschke from Hanstein Scuderia Ferrari	Ferrari 750 Monza Porsche 550	BUA	SEB	MIM	LEM	RTT	TAR
				2			9	DNF
1956	Aston Martin	Aston Martin DB3S	BUA	SEB	MIM	ONLY	KRI
				4th
1957	Maserati	Maserati 250S	BUA	SEB	MIM	ONLY	LEM	KRI	CAR
				DNF
1958	Aston Martin	Aston Martin DBR1	BUA	SEB	TAR	ONLY	LEM	RTT
				DNF		DNF		3
1959	Aston Martin Wolfgang Seidel	Aston Martin DBR1 Porsche 718 RSK	SEB	TAR	ONLY	LEM	RTT
			DNF		DNF	1	1
1960	Camoradi Racing	Maserati Tipo 61	BUA	SEB	TAR	ONLY	LEM
				DNF

Web links

Commons : Carroll Shelby  - Collection of Pictures, Videos and Audio Files

• Handelsblatt : When the Cobras are in mourning , May 14, 2012

Individual evidence

1. ↑ James R. Healey: Auto legend Carroll Shelby, father of Cobra, dies. In: USA Today , May 11, 2012 (English).