Carroll Shelby dead at 89.
May 12, 2012
Carroll Shelby, the charismatic Texan who parlayed a short-lived racing career into a specialized business building high-performance, street-legal cars, died Thursday. He was 89.
Shelby died at Baylor Hospital in Dallas, according to an announcement by his company, Carroll Shelby Licensing. A cause was not disclosed.
He led a colorful, outsized life that touched virtually every corner of the automotive world, said Leslie Kendall, curator of the Petersen Automotive Museum in Los Angeles.
"He was the only individual to influence the designs of all three major American automakers. Everything he touched became legendary," Kendall said. "Even recently he was working on an experimental engine."
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Thanks, Mr Shelby.
That meeting led to Cosby agreeing to buy a Shelby Cobra Super Snake CSX 3303, a super rare — only two were built — twin-supercharger, 900-hp version of the Cobra with a Ford C-6 automatic.
Shelby said it could go 200 mph, but Cosby only apparently drove it once — if that. He was so terrified that he gave it back, and wrote a comedy routine about it. He performed the bit at Harrah's casino in Lake Tahoe, the recording of which ended up on his 1968 album called, fittingly, 200 MPH.
http://jalopnik.com/5909694/listen-to-bill-cosby-tell-a-great-carroll-shelby-story
Yet I never heard of the Super Snake. 
That wasn't a car, that was a big bullet with a couple of seats in it.
The main reason there are so few original 427 Cobras left is that so many would up wrapped around trees by people who had no idea that the cars were barely-civilized live grenades on four wheels.
We went to a classic race there and the featured car that year was the Cobra. We watched at the bottom of the corkscrew, and when three or four of those things punched it coming out it was the most amazing sound. Rattle the fillings in your teeth. 
RIP Mr. Shelby, and thank you for some extraordinary cars. 
in the history of the automobile and lived one hell of a life. Also, he could have been my late Uncle Cliff's twin brother.
