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Shelby reminisced fondly about his experiences.
He can tell you how he broke land speed records
at Bonneville in 1954 for Austin-Healey and
won the 1959 24-Hours of LeMans with co-driver
Ray Salvadori in their Aston Martin DBR1/300.
He can talk about the time in November 1954
that during the Carrera Pan Americana Mexico
he T-boned a large rock near Oaxaca and flipped
his Austin-Healey four times. Indians found
him and supplied him with strong drinks to ease
the pain of his broken bones, cuts, bruises
and a shattered elbow. And he can tell of the
following March, when he took a break from his
surgeries to repair that damage and teamed with
Phil Hill to co-drive a 3.0-liter Monza Ferrari
at Sebring.
He can chronicle his transition from driver
to designer: "I always wanted to build my own
car. And by studying, by living at Ferrari,
Maserati and Aston Martin and all the little
factories in Europe I decided I wanted to."
He can say how he turned the image of Dodge
around back in 1990 and give you the skinny
on Lee Iacocca: "Most people think Iacocca is
a soap salesman, but he's really a trained engineer.
His strength is finance, so he wouldn't give
us money to go build a sport car. Finally Bob
Lutz and I got together and I said, 'I will
tell Iacocca that it doesn't cost much money
to build it.' And we'll take that V-10 engine
and build 318 and it wasn't worth a hoot. By
the time we were $40-50 million in, it was too
late to cut it off. So that's where the Viper
came from."
He remembers all the details of the Cobra program.
"I never realized that when we started building
those Cobras that they would amount to what
they did. All I was trying to do was hustle
enough money together to build a hundred of
them," Shelby said. "Lee Iacocca gave me that
money, $25,000. I told him if he would get me
$25,000, that I could build a car that would
blow the Corvettes off. And we did that, built
100 of them. Started winning races. I built
1,000 Cobras. I went out of business because
emissions and safety [regulations] were coming
along. Performance went away as far as sports
cars and production cars after the muscle-car
era. After we finished building the Mustang,
I figured it was over. So I went to Africa."
He recalls building the Daytona coupe: "We went
over and beat the Ferraris for the world championship.
Still the only American car that ever did it."
He could chat about the Viper and how he helped
introduce the concept coupe at the 1992 at the
Los Angeles Auto Show.
But Shelby just couldn't bring himself to compare
this racing spectacle with any other or this
era with another, including the future. "It's
kind of like asking me to compare [Juan Manuel]
Fangio and [Michael] Schumacher," he said. "You
have things that happen in every era, like the
muscle cars in the '60s. They say that was the
glory days of American automobiles. But now
the same-sized engines in the 1970s put out
a big V8 -- they put out 100 horsepower -- now
they've got 'em putting out 500-600 horsepower.
That's what electronics have done. That's progression.
The muscle cars today are a hell of a lot better
than the muscle cars were then and we've got
a lot of them. So I think every era is great
-- especially as long as I'm alive to see it.
So I don't compare what was best then or will
the kids today carry on."
"We were hot-rodders in the '30s, '40s, '50s,
'60s. Most of us didn't have an education,"
the longtime pal of NHRA founder Wally Parks
said. "Now you have these trained engineers,
kids who went to school at the university, and
they're 10 times smarter than we were. And just
look what's happening to the automotive world.
They're really doing some great things. I'm
just proud these kids are doing what they're
doing."
Shelby is still making an impact, including
input into the Shelby Series 1 sports car program.
"I don't know . . . just always been around
cars and liked it," he said. "Now I'm back,
working with Ford on a couple of projects. I
still love cars and airplanes. I love going
to work every day."
 He
knows he's a fortunate man. "With a heart transplant
and a kidney transplant, I'm very lucky to be
alive and be able to do all these things," he
said. Shelby never forgot where he came from
and never has hesitated to help others. "When
I was waiting for a heart, a couple of kids
passed away waiting for hearts . . . close to
me there in the hospital. And so I said I'd
try to help them get organs if I got one," he
said. "I got one two weeks about before I was
going to croak. That was 14 years ago."
In October 1991 he created the Carroll Shelby
Children's Foundation(tm), dedicated to providing
financial assistance for acute coronary and
kidney care for indigent children.
"I'm the luckiest guy in the world, to be here,
talking to you all. And I'm just thankful not
only to be here, but every day is Christmas
for me."
Hollywood has treated Shelby well. "There has
been a bunch of movies made about my cars over
the years. I've had 15 people want to make a
movie of my life," he said. "I just keep telling
them it ain't over. Heh-heh-heh - I hope."
The next pair of Top Fuel cars fires up. And
this man who calls every day Christmas Day snaps
his attention to the Christmas tree. Only this
former chicken farmer knows what visions are
bouncing around in his brain. He watches them
go a quarter-mile, parachutes fluttering in
the crosswind.
Carroll Shelby exhales and smiles. 
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