When Carroll Shelby hung up his racing helmet, in 1959, for health reasons, he had to come up with a way to keep himself occupied, so he started a high-performance driving school. He also wanted to build his own sports car.
He zeroed in on the AC Bristol as a likely candidate. He wanted to put an American engine in the British firm’s lightweight roadster. AC agreed, as long as Shelby provided a proper engine. Shelby first went knocking on Chevrolet’s door. Not wanting to have something compete with their own Corvette, the answer was no. Ford, however, was happy to have a car to compete with the Corvette! Ford even had a new engine, the 260 HiPo V8, and it generously handed over not one, but two, of the new creations to Shelby.
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