Shelbyfest Coming To Hermann

Publised by Jimmy Oldsun, NDRIRSPWRAFTC & Editor

Shelbyfest is coming to Hermann this weekend!  Cool Shelby Mustangs of every color!  Beautiful paint jobs and shiny chrome wheels!  Throaty exhaust noise!  I can't wait!

The shiny Mustangs and Shelby Mustangs will begin rolling into Hermann on Thursday.  The event begins Friday, April 23 and ends on Sunday, April 25.  This is the Fourth Annual Shelbyfest in Hermann and the organizers are anticipating as many as 350 to 400 vehicles this year.
But what's a Shelby?  Or more to the point, who is this man named Shelby?

The following information is taken from Wikipedia:

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Carroll Hall Shelby, (born January 11, 1923 in Leesburg, Texas) is a retired American racing and veteran automotive designer and racing driver.

Personal life

Carroll Shelby was born on January 11, 1923 to Warren Hall Shelby, a rural mail carrier, and his wife Eloise Lawrence Shelby.  Shelby suffered heart valve leakage problems by age 7 and spent most of his childhood in bed. By age 14, Shelby's health improved and he was subsequently declared to have "outgrown" his health problems.  Shelby's first wife was Jeanne Fields; they married on December 18, 1943. Their daughter Sharon Anne Shelby was born a year later on December 27, 1944. They had two more children; sons named Michael Hall (born November 2, 1946) and Patrick Burke (born October 23, 1947). Shelby and Fields later separated and divorced in February 1960. Shelby later married his current wife Cleo Patricia Marguerita Shelby on September 3, 1997.

Automotive Executive of the Year Award - 2008 Honoree

Carroll Shelby was been named as the 2008 Automotive Executive of the Year and received a lifetime achievement award, honoring a career of excellence in the automotive industry. The award, sponsored by DNV Certification and the Automotive Industry Action Group (AIAG), has been designated by a nominating body, representing automotive journalists, supplier community representatives and automotive industry analysts. Since 1964, the Automotive Executive of the Year Award has recognized excellence in automotive leadership. Past winners include Jim Press, Bill Ford, Dieter Zetsche and Lee Iacocca. The list of past winners illustrates the rich history and honor surrounding this prestigious award.

Life before racing

After graduating from Woodrow Wilson High School in Dallas, Texas, Shelby enlisted in the United States Army Air Corps, serving in World War II as a flight instructor and test pilot.

Driving career

Carroll Shelby has had an impressive impact on automotive racing and design over the last 50 years. Starting out amateur, he soon became a driver for the Cad-Allard, Aston Martin, and Maserati teams during the 1950s. Driving for Donald Healey, in a streamlined and supercharged, specially-modified, Austin-Healey 100S, he set 16 US and international speed records. Teamed with Roy Salvadori, and driving for Aston Martin, he won the 1959 24 Hours of Le Mans.

He drove in the Mount Washington Hillclimb Auto Race in a specially prepared Ferrari roadster, to a record run of 10:21.8 seconds on his way to victory in 1956.

He was Sports Illustrated's driver of the year in 1956 and 1957.

He competed in Formula One from 1958 to 1959, participating in a total of eight World Championship races and several non-championship races.

Shelby the constructor

After retiring from driving in October 1959 for health reasons, he opened a high performance driving school and the Shelby-American company. He obtained a license to import a successful British Sports racing car manufactured by AC Motors of England, installing an American Ford engine rather than its original British Bristol engine, and introduced the car to the American public as an AC Cobra, Later to be known as a Shelby or Shelby Cobra. Shelby did not design or manufacture this car, but he did establish an appreciation for it on the North American Continent. Shelby continued on to be influential with Ford manufactured cars including the GT40, the Mustang-based Shelby GT350 and Shelby GT500, and of course the 427 Shelby Cobra. Parting with Ford, Shelby moved on to help develop performance cars with divisions of the two other Big 3 American companies, Dodge, and Oldsmobile. The most memorable of these cars was the Dodge Viper.

He was inducted into the International Motorsports Hall of Fame in 1991, and the Motorsports Hall of Fame of America in 1992.

In the intervening years Shelby had an interesting series of ventures start and stop (and be stopped) relating to production of 'completion' Cobras (Cobras which were allegedly built using 'left over' parts and frames). In the 1960s, the FIA required entrants (Shelby, Ford, Ferrari, etc.) to produce at least 100 cars for homologated classes of racing. Shelby simply built an insufficient number of cars and skipped a large block of VIN numbers, to create the illusion the company had produced large numbers of cars. Decades later in the 1990s, Carroll alleged that he had found the 'left over' frames, and began selling cars which were supposedly finally 'completed.' After it was discovered the cars were built from scratch in collaboration with McCluskey, Ltd., they were re-termed 'continuation' Cobras. The cars are still built to this day, known as the current CSX4000 series of Cobras.

In 2003, Ford Motor Co. and Carroll Shelby mended ties again. Carroll Shelby became technical advisor to the Ford GT project. In that same year, he formed Carroll Shelby International Inc. based in Nevada.

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So, get out and take a close look at these wonderful Shelby Mustang cars this weekend.  They will once again fill up Fourth and Schiller Streets.  Be sure to be there at 12 o'clock noon on Saturday when they rev up their engines!  One of the coolest things I've ever experienced!  And while you're out enjoying the Shelbyfest this weekend, remember Carroll Shelby, the man who started it all!

Jimmy Oldsun
NDRIRSPWRAFTC & Editor
http://www.hemannhearsay.blogspot.com/

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