Car Legend Carrol Shelby Dies

This guy was such an inspiration! The legendary Carroll Shelby has left us at the age of 89, passing away yesterday at Baylor Hospital in Dallas. The cause of death was not disclosed. Shelby’s story was quintessentially American. He was a rural Texan, a World War II pilot and flight instructor, an oil-field laborer, and a chicken farmer in bib overalls whom some say turned to racing when all his chickens died. Whatever the catalyst, Shelby demonstrated a natural knack for road racing from the moment he took the wheel of a wheezy MG TC in 1952, seeking the adrenaline rush of speed he’d become addicted to while flying in the war. He managed to outperform many more powerful cars in that teetering MG, and soon matriculated to a “real” race car — a Cadillac-powered Allard J2 — and won an SCCA event in Caddo Mills, Texas. From that moment on, he was hooked on the big Yankee V-8/lithe British chassis formula.

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