Shelby American: The Renegades Who Built the Cars, Won the Races, and Lived the Legend

by Preston Lerner

Celebrate 60 years of iconic automotive designer and manufacturer Shelby American and watch the saga unfold from the men and women who lived it with the new book Shelby The Renegades Who Built the Cars, Won the Races, and Lived the Legend . The legendary shop didn’t last long, but it was a flame that burned incandescently before being extinguished by corporate politics. In less than a decade, it created a legacy that will be revered as long as cars still roar around racetracks. Finally, you can go behind the scenes to hear long untold and misunderstood stories—the cheat embedded in the turbine Indy car, the oiling woes that sunk the tunnel-port Trans-Am Mustang, even details about the build of the first Cobra in Dean Moon's cramped garage in Santa Fe Springs! This entertaining book delves into the personalities and hijinks that made Shelby American such a vibrant place to work, whether transforming humdrum Mustangs into race-ready GT350 or fighting shop wars with cherry bombs and M-80s! Although Shelby was the focal point of the publicity his company generated, Shelby American was staffed by a who’s who of racing legends, from Phil Remington and Ken Miles to Peter Brock and Carroll Smith. And while the shop is often depicted as a menagerie of SoCal hot rodders, it also embraced mechanics and fabricators from Canada, England, Switzerland, Australia, and New Zealand. Like the Cobra itself, the company magically came together as a whole that was greater than its constituent parts. Always standing above it all was Carroll Shelby himself. Dynamic, charismatic, mercurial, mercenary and a little bit dangerous, he had to fight Ford bean counters as fiercely as he dueled with Enzo Ferrari. But for a few magical years, Shelby managed to beat both of them at their own games.

320 pages, Hardcover

Published August 16, 2022

Reviews

[David Nichols · Rating 5 out of 5]

Relive the glory years.

Easily one of the most readable and revealing of the many books on the legend that was Shelby American. Highly recommended.

[G Scott · Rating 5 out of 5]

what can I say? if you're into the mythology of all that is, was and what became of Shelby American, this is for you.