Carroll Shelby, Auto-Design Legend, Honored With Centennial Celebration in North Texas

Carroll Shelby, entrepreneur, and automotive designer best known for his help in developing the AC Cobra and Mustang for Ford Motor Company was posthumously honored in Plano Wednesday with a tribute fit for car royalty.

Shelby would have turned 100 on Jan. 11 and to commemorate the milestone, the Shelby family, Shelby Clubs and Shelby American hosted an event in his honor. While the events of this year are to honor Shelby’s life and legacy, Jeff Sol, President of the association, said it's about helping the next generation.

“[This club] was created 32 years ago by a group of local Shelby enthusiasts and has grown to 100 members to date. Our mission is to continue the legacy of Carroll Shelby and Shelby cars, sustain his legacy of charitable giving and most importantly, to have fun,” Sol said.

The Carroll Shelby Automotive Program at the Northeast Texas Community College in Mt. Pleasant received a grant from the organization.

“Our club has provided a scholarship of $500 to a deserving student for the past six years and, to date, we have donated over $10,000 to the program. Other charities we have donated to are the Children’s Organ Transplant Association, Children’s Hospital, American Heart Association, Prostrate Cancer Society and the Good Samaritans of Garland to name a few,” Sol said.

Shelby was born in Leesburg but spent much of his life in North Texas. He graduated from Woodrow Wilson High School and lived a great deal of his adult life in Dallas before passing away in 2012.

Part of Shelby’s illustrious career in racing and auto design even made for the plot of the 2019 blockbuster movie “Ford v. Ferrari.” It’s the story of Shelby’s battle with the corporate world, auto design among other things, to revolutionize the way many saw ‘fast cars’. That innovation led to a revolutionary design with Ford Motor Co.  

Shelby’s grandson, Aaron Shelby, is a Carroll Shelby International Board Member and for him, keeping his grandfather’s innovative spirit alive is the number one priority.

“He was cutting edge and loved technology and loved the innovation of it,” Aaron Shelby said. “He was fortunate to catch lighting in a bottle a couple of times, but he failed a lot more than he succeeded. He wasn’t afraid to push the envelope and if someone had a good idea, he wanted to back it. He was always up for what happened next."

That innovation meant his ideas were ahead of his time. Something Aaron said has helped the Shelby name continue to remain relevant.

“We continue to evolve as we always did. Carroll was an innovator and he always looked to the next best thing and we try to do that as a company today. We have the Shelby line of trucks. We are in the EV (electric vehicle) space right now with Ford and seeing how that is going to work. We actually have a video of Carroll back in 2011 talking about EV and where he thought that industry was going even way back then,” Aaron said.

He agreed that his grandfather would have wanted them to continue to invest in the future. Especially those students who may not choose a four-year degree as their next step out of college.

“Through the Carroll Shelby Foundation, we have financed scholarships for a number of the auto tech schools and we have also helped with the North Texas New Car Dealers Association auto tech program. There is always a path to be successful. Don’t be afraid to try. You may not always succeed, but that would have been his [my grandfather’s] message."

When it’s all said and done, he said he wants the Shelby name to stand for innovation and a love for people. Both were very important in his grandfather’s life.

"The name isn’t going out of style. That drives back to him as a person. He was really a people person. I have gotten so many notes about how someone had met my grandfather back in the day and then saw them again and he remembered me [them]. He could just relate to people. We have tried to continue with that. We know the cars matter to people but it’s also the family and the people with all of it that really makes this a success, and we see that continuing. Every event is like getting together with old friends," Shelby said.

For more information on scholarship opportunities and other centennial events happening, visit Shelby.com.