Ashley Sutherland Portfolio Essay 3

How Carroll Shelby Became an American Icon

First off, for those of you who arent aware who Carroll Shelby is let me tell you about him. Carroll Shelby was well known for his racing back in the 1950s. He won many races and later after his career took off in the 1960s Carroll began designing cars. He also opened a school for performance driving. But how did Carroll Shelby become an American Icon? Carroll Shelby was born on January 11th, 1923 and grew up in Texas. At the age of 18, Carroll joined the Air Force and learned to fly planes. Carroll was lucky during WWII: he never had to leave the U.S because he had become a flight instructor for the Air Force. Four years later Carroll left the Air Force to pursue a civilian life and began a dump trucking business. But when that didnt work out after a few years Carroll turned to chicken raising. The first batch of chickens Carroll raised brought in $5000 dollars for him. But yet his second batch of chickens forced him to go bankrupt when they all died. It wasnt until January of 1952 when Carroll Shelby had his first race, a quarter mile drag race. A few months later in May Carroll competed in his first road race. He won the race driving a MG-TC which was a British sports car. The following year Carroll was still attempting farming while racing on the side. One day while rushing to the race track Carroll arrived in his farming coveralls, which gained publicity. He then began wearing the striped coveralls to all of his races. It became Carroll Shelbys signature trademark. In January of 1954, Carroll Shelby was beginning to draw a lot of attention, John Wyer the Aston Martin team manager was one of those people. He began driving for Aston Martin and won second

place in his first race. By August 1954, Carroll Shelby was invited by British sports car designer AustinHealey to help him set 70 new class-d records. Carroll was off to a rough start in 1955. In his first race of the year he crashed and suffered minor injuries, but Carroll never gave up. Carroll requested his cast on his arm be made out of fiberglass and would tape it to the steering wheel during the races. Over the years Carroll continued racing and won numerous titles and driving different makes and models of cars. Carroll Shelby was even named Driver of the Year by Sports illustrated not only in 1956, but in 1957 as well. In December 1960 Carroll won the USAC driving championship. This was Carrolls last race. After Carrolls last race he opened the Carroll Shelby School of High Performance Driving. Carroll then spent 1961 to 1964 working on designing cars. In these years he designed the Cobra. His design of the Cobra became a success and won first and second place in its first race. After the success of the Cobra, Carroll Shelby was asked by Ford to create a car. He created the Mustang fastback. Carroll Shelby then created the Mustang GT-350, he created both a racing model and a street model. Between 1965 and 1973 these were the Ford years for Carroll. Carroll then created the GT-40 for Ford and it won its first race. By 1967 Carroll had designed the Shelby Convertible. He then began his Dodge years in 1982 to 1989. Carroll began designing the Shelby Dodge Chargers, and the dodge Omni GLH which stands for goes like hell. Carroll then began working on a prototype for a Dodge sports car, which later would become the Dodge Viper. After his work with Dodge Carroll underwent a heart transplant in 1990. It was after Carrolls heart transplant that he created the Carroll Shelby Heart Foundation for Kids and had focused on that for the next fourteen years. Carroll Shelby spent his remaining years from 2005 till 2012 teaming back up with Ford. His first 2007 Ford Shelby GT 500 was auctioned off in 2006. The cars auction had raised $600,000 for the Carroll Shelby Heart Foundation for Kids. By 2007 Carroll had created the Shelby Super Snake. The Shelby Super Snake sold for $5 million dollars at auction which broke a world record. In 2011 Carrolls

hard work paid off and he was given the Lifetime Achievement Award. Later that year, Carroll is also honored by the World Childrens Transplant Fund for all his hard work and generosity throughout the years. May 10th, 2012 Carroll Shelby died at the age of 89. His racing and car designs changed the auto industry. Without Carroll Shelby some of the best racing cars wouldnt exist today. Not only did he change the auto industry, he also gave back and helped millions of children who need transplant and created a foundation to help them. This is why Carroll Shelby is an American Icon.