Quotes by Carroll Shelby

About Carroll Shelby:

Carroll Hall Shelby was an American automotive designer, racing driver and entrepreneur. He was best known for his involvement with the AC Cobra and later the Mustang-based performance cars for Ford Motor Company known as Shelby Mustangs which he had done since 1965. His company, Shelby American Inc., founded in 1962, currently sells modified Ford vehicles, as well as performance parts.
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

I'm not going to take this defeatist attitude and listen to all this crap any more from all these people who have nothing except doomsday to predict.

Carroll Shelby

It's a massive motor in a tiny, lightweight car.

Carroll Shelby

Driving race cars was an avenue for me to learn how to build my own car, and that was my ambition all along.

Carroll Shelby

I've always been asked, 'What is my favorite car?' and I've always said 'The next one.'

Carroll Shelby

In 1964, when Lee Iacocca said, 'Shelby, I want you to make a sports car out of the Mustang,' the first thing I said was, 'Lee, you can't make a race horse out of a mule. I don't want to do it.' He said, 'I didn't ask you to make it; you work for me....

Carroll Shelby

The reason I moved to California the first time was to build the Cobra. I thought it was stupid to have a 1918 taxicab engine in what Europeans like to call a performance car when a little American V-8 could do the job better.

Carroll Shelby

The Cobra is my personal favorite car. The original 289 Cobra is the car I respect the most. I like to drive the 289 better than the 427.

Carroll Shelby

I don't design cars. I'm not a designer. I know what I desire to be built, I know what the end result is, the horsepower, the competition we'll be working against - but I leave it to the people who work with me to put it all together. I don't do anyt...

Carroll Shelby

I didn't have time for my children much. I wasn't a very good parent; I had a pretty unhappy home life.

Carroll Shelby

I've had a good run. I've built a lot of things that work and a lot of things that didn't work.

Carroll Shelby

The first time I walked by a crap table, I felt kind of funny.

Carroll Shelby

I had a lot of fun driving race cars, but it wasn't my No. 1 priority.

Carroll Shelby

I don't think I'm a celebrity. I'm just a guy from east Texas who loves cars and airplanes.

Carroll Shelby

I never had ambitions to see how rich I could get. I got a lot of contemporaries that that's their ambition, and I don't know very many of them that are happy.

Carroll Shelby

I never made a damn dime until I started doing what I wanted.

Carroll Shelby

What I wanted to do was build an automobile.

Carroll Shelby

Porsche and BMW drivers are arrogant.

Carroll Shelby

Racing has reached the point where it is pricing the young driver, no matter his talent, out of the game.

Carroll Shelby

I've got cattle on 4,000 acres about 100 miles east of Dallas, but I've also got another 65-acre ranch where I raise American miniature horses.

Carroll Shelby

My proudest moments are beating Ferrari for the World Championship in 1965, and working with Ford to win Le Mans in 1966 and 1967.

Carroll Shelby

Author Bio

  • NameCarroll Shelby
  • Descriptionracecar driver
  • BornJanuary 11, 1923
  • DiedMay 10, 2012
  • CountryUnited States Of America
  • ProfessionFormula One Driver; Automotive Designer; Racing Driver