The Shelby takes its name from Carroll Shelby, a famous racing driver and businessman. Racing for Aston Martin, he won the iconic 24 Hours of Le Mans in 1959 before being forced to retire from racing due to a heart condition. During his racing career he came to admire expensive European sports cars for their speed and beauty, but not for their complex engines. Shelby came up with the idea to use reliable American V8 power in a small sports car from Europe and, so the legend goes, the name Cobra came to him in a dream. With AC Cars supplying cars from England, and Ford providing V8 engines, Shelby was in business and the Shelby Cobra was born.
An American legend
Shelby would go on to have a major impact on the Ford Motor Company, especially within its racing division. In 1965 he was called in to give the recently-introduced Ford Mustang race-winning credentials, ensuring the lightweight Mustang GT350 would dominate sports car racing. 1965 also saw Shelby assume control of Ford's unsuccessful GT program which aimed to beat Ferrari at Le Mans. After a couple of false starts, Shelby and his partners delivered the dominant Ford GT40 and beat Ferrari by finishing first, second, and third.
Shelby cars at Kijiji Autos
Shelby has produced cars by itself and also delivered performance-tuned versions of other manufacturers' cars, like Ford. The brand's history of producing special edition Ford Mustangs is a long one; meaning there's very likely the perfect Shelby vehicle out there for you. Kijiji Autos has a range of Shelby cars for sale across Canada as well as search filters that let you sort by engine size, body colour, kilometers and more. Start your search today.
