Carroll Shelby Put a Ford V8 in a British Roadster — Ferrari Never Recovered.

Behind a speed shop in Santa Fe Springs, California, in February 1962, two men lowered a Ford V8 built for family sedans into an English roadster that had no engine at all. One of them was 39, bankrupt, and carrying nitroglycerin tablets for a bad heart. Three and a half years later, a car descended from that one took a world championship away from Enzo Ferrari. We follow Carroll Shelby from the failed chicken houses of East Texas to Independence Day 1965 at Reims, France. The letter to Charles Hurlock at AC Cars. The single car, CSX2000, repainted over and over so magazines believed production was rolling. Road and Track's 0 to 60 in 4.2 seconds and 153 mph. And Peter Brock's drawing with the tail cut off flat, which nearly everyone in the shop called ugly, and which ran 196 mph at Le Mans. Who built the greatest American car ever, a Texan in a rented shed with a borrowed engine, or somebody in Detroit with a badge and a boardroom? If you ever stood close enough to a Cobra to feel it go by, tell us where. #ShelbyCobra #CarrollShelby #FordVsFerrari #ClassicCars #DetroitIron