A V8 Engine For A Heart. Carroll Shelby once said “I've always been asked what my favorite car is and i've always answered with, the next one.” This quote was just an example of how much he wanted to be the best, even tho he admitted that he had built lousy and useless cars before, that had failed, he kept building to get better results, and each time he built another one he built it to be the best car out there. One of those best cars he built, ended up being the one and only, 1967 Shelby Mustang GT500. Carroll Shelby’s goal was always to build a lightweight, fast, powerful, and good looking car. The very first car he built, the AC cobra, was the beginning of the build on the 1967 Shelby Mustang GT500 (Ernst). Shelby contacted AC for a body …show more content…
He set his goal to building a lightweight,agile,fast and tough looking car. Even though he started out as a flight instructor in WWii, it didn't fill the hole he had in his heart, so he started racing.He had a few races that proved he was good enough to move up to race Aston Martins in Europe. Breaking the land speed records and being car driver of the year sadly still didn't fill the hole he had.( cj pony parts )Although heart issues ended his racing career, he wasn't going to walk away from the automotive industry. He then started a racing school but that wasn't good enough, that's when he started his trail of building cars.( cj pony parts)Shelby was kicked down and crushed when his driving years were over, but in the end the mustangs picked him back up and helped him fill his hole in his heart.In 67’ he started building the shelby mustang GT500, when he started reflecting back he said “ this is the first car i'm proud of.” One of the things that made him proud were, it was the first car to have a bona fide roll bar across the top of the cabin.( cj pony parts )One of the most important things that made him proud was, around the back he put a spoiler lip. Although it may have been less functional than the air scoop, it still made it special to him.(cjponyparts) This car made him proud, no matter what it had, not because he designed it, but because it had a race car look, which made it special to him and personal to his past.Shelby went through so much and at one point he even admitted to saying “ I didn't have anytime for my children much. I wasn't a very good parent; i had a pretty unhappy home life .”( Carroll Shelby. ) Building cars was his escape, which created a personal connection to every car he worked on. It wasn't just a