Carroll Shelby dead...breaking news

[PatricksDad]

You may be right, but it's sad that people feel one person death is more important than another's, speaking of poor taste..............

IMO Shelby is an overrated marketing ploy, sure he raced some cars and used Peterson to Promote his name and was more of a business man than mechanic. In my eyes he's a Bob to guys like Smokey Yunick, you know guys that actually worked on cars, not just drove them.........

Are you really serious or just trolling? I don't dispute that in his later years Shelby marketed the shit out of his name, but his name was built on staggering success, not just marketing savvy.

[TC]

Are you really serious or just trolling? I don't dispute that in his later years Shelby marketed the shit out of his name, but his name was built on staggering success, not just marketing savvy.

Just my opinion PD, just my opinion......... Shelby has never been someone great in my eyes.........More like the office type that dreamed stuff up and then had his employees make his dreams come true........... I know he's every ford guys mentor, but for a hardcore chevy guy like myself, he's no Smokey Yunick........ Hell his biggest claim to fame were the Cobra and winning the 1959 24hrs at Le Mans.......... So he won a race and help design a car...........Big woopidy do.............

[PatricksDad]

Just my opinion PD, just my opinion......... Shelby has never been someone great in my eyes.........More like the office type that dreamed stuff up and then had his employees make his dreams come true........... I know he's every ford guys mentor, but for a hardcore chevy guy like myself, he's no Smokey Yunick........ Hell his biggest claim to fame were the Cobra and winning the 1959 24hrs at Le Mans.......... So he won a race and help design a car...........Big woopidy do.............

Actually, in my opinion, that's fairly high up on the whoopty-do scale, but he was actually a doer, not just a suit.

No knocking Smokey, for sure, just recognizing that advancements aren't always made by the one actually turning the wrenches, but that someone has to create the environment where the visionaries and the mechanics can succeed. We all owe a debt to Earl, Piggins, Ford II, Iacocca, Penske, etc.

[Barry Donovan]

for TC to be boldly this opinionated is not unfounded.

when one life goes beyond comprehension..its called a legend.

I have a relative in six million miles trucking (for real)...
I could not believe some of the younger drivers deeds to get in some rank ahead of time.

loud mouths.

it happens to the best of them.

[Manifestospeed]

The Measure of a Life

Originally Posted by TC
You may be right, but it's sad that people feel one person death is more important than another's, speaking of poor taste..............

IMO Shelby is an overrated marketing ploy, sure he raced some cars and used Peterson to Promote his name and was more of a business man than mechanic. In my eyes he's a Bob to guys like Smokey Yunick, you know guys that actually worked on cars, not just drove them.........

Without getting too philosophical, there are a lot of ways to measure a life. Certainly, when well-known people die, it tends to generate more "buzz" than the deaths of more obscure or "private" individuals.

Love him or hate him, Carroll Shelby meant a lot to many. Did he cure cancer? Win the Indy 500? Invent the automobile? Revolutionize the world? NO!

But Shelby did accomplish many things -- most often in leadership and cooperation with others -- that are historic milestones in our hobby/sport.

One can be the greatest mechanic in the world, but if he fails to help, lead, and inspire others to achieve great things of lasting renown, the measure of his life in the final analysis (after death) will inevitably come up short.

On the other hand, most of us would rather dwell in obscurity if it means that we've been the best father, brother, son, friend, and husband that we can be.

How we're remembered strongly depends on how many lives we affected -- for good and for harm -- in our brief span on this mortal coil.

Shelby, of course, was far from perfect. He made lots of mistakes and more than a few enemies. But he deserves due respect in death.

I'm sorry that TC (most likely in an attempt to be provocative) doesn't see it that way.

[Manifestospeed]

One other thing . . .

Many of us today have watched the video of how Martin Short fielded the questions from Kathie Lee Gifford. (If you haven't, Google it).

The grace with which Mr. Short spoke of his departed wife and how he preserved Ms. Gifford's dignity "on air" is a powerful example about how we ought to remember our dead and how we ought deal with insensitivity, whether from intentional motives or plain ignorance.

Whether or not we loved or respected Mr. Shelby in life, we ought to be considerate enough to respect the feelings of those who loved him and miss him now in death.

[chevy3100truck]

I have to say I respect the man's many accomplishments in life, I'm not really fond of some of things he did later on (this is not the time or place to discuss however).

Bottom line - the automotive world lost a true legend and someone who did more for the automotive performance world than 99.99999% of people could ever accomplish.

RIP Carol Shelby

[Brian Lohnes]

The high road has been taken and I shall follow the lead you guys laid down.

[skullbucket]

This thread popped up to the top and I thought Shelby died again!

[Barry Donovan]

This thread popped up to the top and I thought Shelby died again!

some online documentary type stuff shows today, I revived it.

facts being known is a good thing. I wonder how long a show it would take to get all facts, good bad and ugly.
most likely impossible.

I like he called the 289 "thin walled."
nice way of saying junk.
I'll stop there.


if I am not mistaken, he did not like the tin can mustang..had to do alot of work for big speed.

here is a vid, cobra not looking for glory, just drive around. this is the good stuff to me.

so many wild stabs at a good name and events. mustang II, the tin can 80s...and you though the 60s stuff needed alot.

still out there right now..playing with 200mph. a name does something.

[Manifestospeed]

Shelby, the Mustang and the 289.

Shelby was initially reluctant to take on the Mustang project because he was a racer at heart and the Falcon underpinnings of the original Mustang really needed a lot of work (tiny drum brakes, integrated head Falcon six, smallish radiator, no sway bars, etc.).

On the other hand, Shelby was smart enough to know that he needed to keep his sponsors at Ford (Don Frey, Lee Iacocca) happy. There's a good write-up of this in one of Randy Leffingwell's books.

As for the 289 being "thin-walled" . . . that's one of the things that made it attractive from a power-to-weight standpoint. It weighed almost as light as more expensive and smaller aluminum V8s. The fact that Shelby won a World Championship with 289s suggests that he didn't believe they were "junk."