Shelby VS. Ferrari by Kyle Harvey

             Enzo Ferrari and Carroll Shelby had very different upbringings. Enzo was born 1898 and lived in Modena, Italy and was put into racing when he was young. His father took him and his brother to a race. Carroll Shelby, on the other hand, was born in 1923 and lived in rural Texas, but didn’t experience real speed until he went to flight school in 1941.

            Carroll Shelby went into flight school in 1941 when World War II reached America. While in flight school he became a flight instructor. In August 1945, Shelby left the Army Air Corps and started a dump truck business. After that he became a chicken farmer.  In January 1952, Shelby drove his first race, a quarter mile drag meet, behind the wheel of a hot rod fitted with a flathead Ford.  At Norman, Oklahoma, Shelby drove in his first professional race behind the wheel of a MG-TC, taking first place in a competition with other MGs. This is when Carroll Shelby first got into professional racing.
            As Shelby was winning his first races, Enzo Ferrari was down a different path.  A year before Shelby won his first pro race, Ferrari company won their first Formula 1 World Championship Grand Prix. Ferrari had been making some of the best race cars in the world after the championship race.
            Shelby did not get into building cars until some two-seater race cars in England lost their source for engines. Shelby took advantage of this and sent American v-8 ford engines overseas and after that Carroll Shelby wanted to build cars. The first roadster body is air freighted to Shelby's shop in Southern California. The name “cobra” came to him in a dream he had and after that the first Shelby Cobra was born. After all the auto shows and magazine publicity the cobra finally saw its first race, but sadly the rear hub broke and the Cobra does not finish. The next race was at river side and beat the famed Corvette Stingray.

photo by Erik Dunham
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            In March 1963, Shelby-American entered four cars at Sebring an FIA race. Although driver Phil Hill set the fastest GT lap, Ferrari won. This began the rivalry between Ferrari and Shelby.  In 1963 Shelby began work on the Daytona coupe project to produce a roadster with the aerodynamics able to handle the 200mph racing on the Le Mans Mulsanne Straight. In 1964, the first Shelby Daytona Coupe is completed and ready to race. The closed coupe Ferrari GTO's proved to be tough competition on the tracks of Europe thus the Daytona had to be closed as well.

            The Ferrari 250 Gran Turismo Omologato (GTO) was the most iconic race car of its time. You may hear the entire six-cylinder Ferraris made in this time called "Dinos." This was done in honor of Enzo Ferrari’s son who had died a couple years earlier. They were hard cars to beat. The only real competition they had was the Shelby Daytona.

photo by Gloumouf
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            In 1966, the Shelby team crossed the finish line in first, second, and third. Making them the first American team to win at Le Mans, which is one of the biggest races on the European circuit. From this point on Shelby left a huge mark on not just American automotive history, but also worldwide automotive history.

References:

"Ferrari 250 GTO – Car Profile and Photos." Sports Car Digest. Web. <http://www.sportscardigest.com/ferrari-250-gto-car-profile-photos/>.

"Carroll Shelby- An American Icon." Carroll Shelby, An Amercan Legend. Web. <http://www.carrollshelby.com/#/1923-1951>.