DALLAS — Carroll Shelby — racecar driver, team owner, car builder, entrepreneur and a man whose name has been virtually synonymous with performance for nearly five decades — has died at age 89.
Shelby died Thursday night at Baylor Hospital in Dallas, according to Carroll Shelby International Inc. The cause of death was not disclosed.
Shelby's name has been associated since the early 1960s with fast street and racing cars, most notably the Shelby Cobras of the early 1960s and more recently with a string of limited-edition, high-output Ford Mustangs.
Later this year, Ford will introduce its most powerful Mustang, the 662-horsepower 2013 Mustang Shelby GT 500. Shelby's own company, Shelby American, last month unveiled the 1,100-horsepower Shelby 1000 S/C.
During a lengthy automotive career that stretched back to the mid-1950s, Shelby was also associated at one time or another with Austin-Healey, Maserati, Aston Martin, Dodge and Oldsmobile.
The son of a rural mail carrier, Shelby was born on January 11, 1923 in Leesburg, Texas, and suffered heart problems from early childhood. He was a flight instructor and test pilot in World War II and later worked as a truck driver and chicken farmer while competing in amateur races on weekends. In the '50s, Shelby set a number of land speed records at Bonneville and won three national sports-car championships. He was named Sports Illustrated's Driver of the Year in 1956 and 1957.
Eventually, his heart condition would cut short a racing career that included a brief stint in Formula 1, where his best finish was a 4th place with Masten Gregory and Maserati in the 1958 Italian Grand Prix, as well as a victory co-driving an Aston Martin DBR1/300 with Roy Salvadori in the 1959 24 Hours of Le Mans.
Shelby's long association with Ford began in 1962 with an engine supply deal for Cobra and progressed to a development partnership on the Ford GT40 that included a 1-2-3 sweep of Le Mans in 1966. Shelby American also launched the first of its specially modified Mustangs, the GT350, in 1965.
Shelby's name appeared on a long string of Chrysler products — all under the Dodge brand — from 1983-'93. Shelby American's own Series 1 roadster, powered by an Oldsmobile V8, debuted in 1999. By 2003, Shelby was back in the fold with Ford, with the Shelby and Cobra badges used on a variety of high-performance Mustangs since 2007.
Shelby was inducted into the International Motorsports Hall of Fame in 1991 and the Motorsports Hall of Fame in 1992.
He received a heart transplant in 1992 and later a kidney transplant.
Shelby is survived by children Patrick, Michael and Sharon; a sister, Anne Shelby Ellison, and his wife Cleo.
