Legendary race driver and auto designer Carroll Shelby will be honored with the first AutoWeek Lifetime Achievement Award at the 13th annual AutoWeek Design Forum Wednesday, Jan. 11. Shelby will accept the award from AutoWeek Editor and Associate Publisher Dutch Mandel during the Design Forum’s 7:30 p.m. dinner program at Cobo Conference/Exhibition Center in Detroit. “Carroll Shelby is, simply, the enthusiast’s enthusiast,” Mandel said of the automotive icon. “He has done more stuff with and to cars to make them go fast and grow in our hearts than any 10 other individuals in the business, with a flair and tenacity that make us all hope he lives for another 83 years.”

Coincidentally, on January 11 Carroll Shelby will celebrate his birthday with the assembled Design Forum crowd.

Shelby’s accomplishments as a race car driver include breaking land speed records at Bonneville in 1954 for Austin Healey and winning the 24-hour Le Mans in 1959. As a team manager, Shelby was a part of the FIA World Grand Touring Championship, as well as Ford GT victories at Le Mans.

When his health caused him to give up racing in 1960, Shelby turned his attention to automotive design, creating perhaps the greatest sports car and one of the fastest road cars ever constructed — the Shelby Cobra. The aluminum-bodied 289 and 427 Cobra models and the subsequent Shelby Mustangs he
developed for Ford, made Carroll Shelby a household name in the 1960s.

In recent years, Shelby has broadened his professional reach into ranching and horse breeding, a safari company, real estate and hotels, food production, aviation, research and development and charity.

Following successful heart transplant surgery in 1991, Shelby created the Carroll Shelby Children’s Foundation, dedicated to providing assistance for acute coronary and kidney care for children in need.

He was inducted into the Automotive Hall of Fame in 1992.

    Print This Post